There are some people who have been reading me for years, and they keep saying kind things about the writing. That's what you're writing for, to get people to respond to it.
Everyone has his own sound. I'm not going to presume how to tell anybody how to write.
I think any writer is a fool if he doesn't do it for money. There needs to be some kind of incentive in addition to the project. It all goes together. It's fun to sit there and think of characters and get them into action, then be paid for it. I can't believe it when writers tell me 'I don't want to show my work to anybody'.
If it sounds like writing, I rewrite it.
I have fun writing. I don't make it a chore. I don't have to struggle with it.
A pen connects you to the paper. It definitely matters.
I left advertising as fast as I could in 1961. And I haven't ever thought about going back.
I once saw Dizzy Gillespie at a live show, and it made me want to go home immediately and start writing.
I'm not going to write for posterity. I'm going to write to make a buck.
I've quit writing screenplay [adaptations]. It's too much work. I don't look at writing a novel as work, because I only have to please myself. I have a good time sitting here by myself, thinking up situations and characters, getting them to talk - it's so satisfying. But screenwriting's different. You might think you're writing for yourself, but there are too many other people to please.
I started out of course with Hemingway when I learned how to write. Until I realized Hemingway doesn't have a sense of humor. He never has anything funny in his stories.
A friend of mine who is in the publishing business knew I was writing a book, and he said, 'Have you said anything yet about the good guy? Because I know you spend so much time with the bad guys.' Because they're fun. So then you have to make the good guy fun, in order to compete. That's the challenge.
I always felt, you don’t have a good time doin crime, you may as well find a job.
I used to be able to write five pages a day, every day, no problem. Now a good day is five or four pages, and that's from 9:30 A.M. until 6 P.M.
I don’t think writers compete, I think they’re all doing separate things in their own style.
To me, writing is the most fun. It's not always fun, but finally when you make it come out the way you want, it's then you can say, 'It's fun, boy.'
After 58 years you'd think writing would get easier. It doesn't. If you're lucky, you become harder to please. That's all right, it's still a pleasure.
I still read Hemingway. I still read his short stories because they're so good. He doesn't waste any words.
Keep your exclamation points under control. You are allowed no more than two or three per 100,000 words of prose.
Bad guys are not bad guys twenty-four hours a day.
Never use a verb other than "said" to carry dialogue... I once noticed Mary McCarthy ending a line of dialogue with "she asseverated" and had to stop reading and go to the dictionary.
I try to leave out the parts readers skip.
Never use the words 'suddenly' or 'all hell broke loose.'
I got halfway through 'The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo.' I don't get it at all. What's the big thrill? It's boring.
There are 500 million people on Facebook, but what are they saying to each other? Not much.
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