I'd have wasted a lot of time and trouble before I learned that the best way to take all people, black or white, is to take them for what they think they are, then leave them alone.

Well, Bud," he said, looking at me, "I'll be damned if you don't go to a lot of trouble to have your fun. Kidnapping, then fighting. What do you do on your holidays? Burn houses?

A bus station is where a bus stops. A train station is where a train stops. On my desk, I have a work station….

Let the writer take up surgery or bricklaying if he is interested in technique. There is no mechanical way to get the writing done, no shortcut. The young writer would be a fool to follow a theory. Teach yourself by your own mistakes; people learn only by error. The good artist believes that nobody is good enough to give him advice. He has supreme vanity. No matter how much he admires the old writer, he wants to beat him.

My own experience has been that the tools I need for my trade are paper, tobacco, food, and a little whisky.

When ideas come, I write them; when they don't come, I don't.

It's all now you see: tomorrow began yesterday and yesterday won't be over until tomorrow.