the old ploy of the powerful: never refuse when you can confuse. Distraction and delay are always better than obstruction.

Every criminal leaves psychic fingerprints. And he can't wear gloves to hide them.

That's the worst thing about money - the moment you have some you begin to suspect everyone of trying to take it away from you. And usually they are.

The experiences of the heartless are so limited. It is hate that is blind. Love may miss a flaw here and there, but hate misses beauty everywhere.

A critic is a person who rationalizes his likes and dislikes in such impressive language that the layman thinks he is reasoning instead of rationalizing.

To the Latin, cynicism and middle age are synonymous. Look at our politicians - they move through their careers from left to center to right, like the hands of a clock.

Nobody believes in ghosts, but everybody is afraid of them.

fiction and lies are both works of creative art, and creation always reveals the creator.

Everything you do in war is a crime in peace

At twenty your choices are almost unlimited. At fifty you're a prisoner of past decisions. At seventy you have no free will left at all.

Diamonds are the tears of the poor.

When your heart feels strangely warm, you’ve found your love

There is a Moment in each Day that Satan cannot find

The ugliest of trades have their moments of pleasure. Now if I were a grave-digger or even a hangman there are some people I could work for with a great deal of enjoyment.

I hate to travel. I don't go anywhere.

When you do bad things, bad things happen to you.

What you will be in your next life is the sum total of the realizations that you have had in this lifetime.

Cities have a psychogeographical relief, with constant currents, fixed points and vortexes which strongly discourage entry into or exit from certain zones

I've done as many as 20 or 30 drafts of a story. Never less than 10 or 12 drafts.

Norman Bates heard the noise and a shock went through him.

To book commercials, you do something to get to a callback, and once you get to the callback, you've got three minutes to get the people to want to hang out with you for a day.