Imagine this guy hits Mike Hammer over the head with a wooden coathanger and knocks him out. You hit Mike Hammer over the head with a wooden coathanger, he'll beat the crap out of you.

The first chapter sells the book; the last chapter sells the next book.

The most important part of a story is the ending. No one reads a book to get to the middle.

I'm actually a softie. Tough guys get killed too early... I've got a full head of hair and don't wear eyeglasses.

Inspiration is an empty bank account.

Mike Hammer drinks beer because I can't spell Cognac.

Nobody reads a book to get to the middle.

If the public likes you, you're good. Shakespeare was a common, down-to-earth writer in his day.

Those big-shot writers ... could never dig the fact that there are more salted peanuts consumed than caviar.

I have no fans. You know what I got? Customers. And customers are your friends.

If I need something, I'll invent it.

I know it sounds so simple but Love Is All There Is.

For the first time in his centuries of life, doing the right thing didn’t seem like the right thing to do.

Love and time-those are the only two things in all the world and all of life that cannot be bought but only spent.

Sisterhood is magical and medicinal - use it as a lifelong resource.

Know that people are doing the best they can from their level of awareness. Accept people for who they are and always be ready to forgive.

You're charging money to have people come watch you play; I want them to feel taken someplace good or provoked into thinking my way for an hour and a half or two hours.

It's your life. Live it with people who are alive. It tends to be contagious.

Failure is hard, but success is far more dangerous. If you're successful at the wrong thing, the mix of praise and money and opportunity can lock you in forever.

That all may be so, but when I begin to exercise that power I am not conscious of the power, but only of the limitations imposed on me.

Some reviewer might be out there saying, obviously Edge of Darkness didn't come off because of the script, blah blah blah, but everybody has read the script, except the journalist attacking it.