Sorry; I have no space left for advice. Just do it.

When Stark isn't off sulking somewhere, or whatever he's doing when he won't return my calls, I alternate between the two. That usually works well, though occasionally an idea for the wrong guy drifts through my mind.

I start with the story, almost in the old campfire sense, and the story leads to both the characters, which actors should best be cast in this story, and the language. The choice of words, more than anything else, creates the feeling that the story gives off.

I also wanted Parker to operate in the Internet age without losing being Parker. He's always operated in the world without really being with the world, and cyberspace means that the rest of us are more and more living the same way.

Everybody in New York is looking for something. Once in a while, somebody finds it.

Once he became a series character, I made the conscious choice that he would never act like a series character, never wink at the reader, never pull his punches. Better for him, better for me.

Who's a boy gonna talk to if not his mother?

The many magazines, ranging from pulp to slick, that used to serve as both farm teams for writers and lures to readers, with hundreds of short stories every month, don't exist. Most of the doors for new people have been sealed.

I make a note, set it aside, and hope it makes sense when the time comes to look at it again.

If you think of movie studio executives, say, as society, then I root for the independent producers.

All of the changes in publishing since 1960 are significant. There are far fewer publishers.

My work schedule has changed over the years. The one constant is, when at work on a novel, I try to work seven days a week, so as not to lose touch with that world. Within that, I'm flexible on hours and output.

If it weren't for received ideas, the publishing industry wouldn't have any ideas at all.

I loved it, but social reality impeded. Now I wander in here at 9 in the morning or so, and come back for a while in the afternoon. I am a very lenient boss.

Sorry; I have no space left for advice. Just do it.

Seem to be telling this, but really telling that. Three-dimensional writing, like three-dimensional chess. Nabokov was the other master of that. You could learn something from Nabokov on every page he ever wrote.

Nothing about it interested me. Or about anything else, except making up stories. If literacy weren't so nearly universal, God knows what I'd be. A drain on the State, I shouldn't wonder.

A friend of mine, now retired, was then a major exec at a major bank, and one of her jobs, the last four years, was the farewell interview.

Women don't like advice. They don't want you to fix their problems, they just want you to listen.

I don't think a reporter should give advice or make predictions.

The only thing to do with good advice is to pass it on. It is never of any use to oneself.

Nobody can give you wiser advice than yourself.

No enemy is worse than bad advice.

I'm not in the business of becoming famous. And that's the advice I give to younger aspiring actors. Work onstage and do the little roles. In the end it's not important to be seen. It's important to do. There's a lot of disappointment in this business, but my family keeps me grounded.

Listen kid, take my advice, never hate a song that has sold half a million copies.

My advice to young film-makers is this: don't follow trends, start them!

There is nothing which we receive with so much reluctance as advice.

All of our affairs, since the union of crowns, have been managed by the advice of English ministers, and the principal offices of the kingdom filled with such men, as the court of England knew would be subservient to their designs.

To offer a man unsolicited advice is to presume that he doesn't know what to do or that he can't do it on his own.

But I try not to become preoccupied with that because with whatever direction I follow, with whatever advice I've followed or not followed, It's landed me in New York, in a very beautiful hotel, talking to people about something that I love. So I ain't that far off.

If it's free, it's advice; if you pay for it, it's counseling; if you can use either one, it's a miracle.

Never Have Your Dog Stuffed is really advice to myself, a reminder to myself not to avoid change or uncertainty, but to go with it, to surf into change.

I never take advice from anyone more messed up than I am.

What advice do I tell my grandson? I listen to him.

It is not unprofessional to give free legal advice, but advertising that the first visit will be free is a bit like a fox telling chickens he will not bite them until they cross the threshold of the hen house.

This character in the film, these things that he says which sound like advice and wise things, they are very common for Orientals. It's all the tradition.

Never give advice in a crowd.

Please give me some good advice in your next letter. I promise not to follow it.

When your mother asks, "Do you want a piece of advice?" it is a mere formality. It doesn't matter if you answer yes or no. You're going to get it anyway.

I counseled many returning missionaries. I interviewed 1,700 missionaries all over the world. My advice to them is that you should study and prepare for your life's work in a field that you enjoy.

His advice to me is basically to just love what you do and don't let the fear of failure stop you.

Advice is seldom welcome, and those who need it the most, like it the least.

So my own suspicion is that the attorney has stopped this prosecution because part of her defence was to question legality and that would have brought his advice into the public domain again and there was something fishy about the way in which he said war was legal.

It is an easy thing for one whose foot is on the outside of calamity to give advice and to rebuke the sufferer.

Carrot Top... I gave him advice once and he ran with it. He should thank me.

Anybody who thinks talk is cheap should get some legal advice.

Listen to advice. You don't know how many writer's conferences I've taught at where at least half the audience fights all the conventions of the field.

Be yourself is about the worst advice you can give to some people.

When I read commentary about suggestions for where C should go, I often think back and give thanks that it wasn't developed under the advice of a worldwide crowd.