Keep your exclamation points under control. You are allowed no more than two or three per 100,000 words of prose.

I spent most of my dough on booze, broads and boats and the rest I wasted.

My most important piece of advice to all you would-be writers: When you write, try to leave out all the parts readers skip.

If it sounds like writing, I rewrite it. Or, if proper usage gets in the way, it may have to go. I can't allow what we learned in English composition to disrupt the sound and rhythm of the narrative.

The line of dialogue belongs to the character; the verb is the writer sticking his nose in.

What do you tell a man with two black eyes? Nothing, he's already been told twice.

It doesn't have to make sense, it just has to sound like it does.

Using adverbs is a mortal sin.

At the time I begin writing a novel, the last thing I want to do is follow a plot outline. To know too much at the start takes the pleasure out of discovering what the book is about.

Try not to write the parts that people skip.

All the information you need can be given in dialogue.

Dear smokers, when you burn one stick you not only burnrelationships but also burn your one and only life.

Friendship is Love without his wings!

...surely I could give him--a sort of contentment... That isn't enough to give. Not for the giver.

Daisies smell-less, yet most quaint, And sweet thyme true, Primrose, first born child of Ver, Merry Spring-time's harbinger.

Irreversible is not glamorous at all. I try to do different things because I want to grow as an actress and I like to take risks

You can accomplish so much with a strong will. Just do your best, no matter what. Don't let negative thoughts creep in. Don't talk yourself out of anything.

This is a free country, and nobody should be criticized for their political beliefs. We're all allowed to have our opinions.

Katniss: I guess all those hours decorating cakes paid off. Peeta: Yes, frosting. The final defence of the dying. (252)

Nothing will sustain you more potently than the power to recognize in your humdrum routine, as perhaps it may be thought, the true poetry of life.

Fortune is painted blind, with a muffler afore her eyes, to signify to you that Fortune is blind.