He was looking at her from behind the smiling that wasn't smiling but was something you were not supposed to see beyond.

Perhaps they were right putting love into books. Perhaps it could not live anywhere else.

Don't be 'a writer'. Be writing.

I do not rewrite unless I am absolutely sure that I can express the material better if I do rewrite it.

Hollywood is a place where a man can get stabbed in the back while climbing a ladder.

One day I was talking to Cora. She prayed for me because she believed I was blind to sin, wanting me to kneel and pray too, because people to whom sin is just a matter of words, to them salvation is just words too.

Be scared. You can't help that. But don't be afraid. Ain't nothing in the woods going to hurt you unless you corner it, or it smells that you are afraid. A bear or a deer, too, has got to be scared of a coward the same as a brave man has got to be.