I try to stay in good physical shape, I don't smoke, I don't drink.

Oh yeah, I was one of the first guys writing comic books, I wrote Captain America, with guys like Stan Lee, who became famous later on with Marvel Comics.

I started off at the high level, in the slick magazines, but they didn't use my name, they used house names. Anyway, then I went downhill to the pulps, then downhill further to the comics.

Nobody reads a mystery to get to the middle. They read it to get to the end. If it's a letdown, they won't buy anymore. The first page sells that book. The last page sells your next book.

Authors want their names down in history; I want to keep the smoke coming out of the chimney.

Hemingway hated me. I sold 200 million books, and he didn't. Of course most of mine sold for 25 cents, but still... you look at all this stuff with a grain of salt.

I dont like any of them, because they don't read the books. In Kiss Me Deadly my story is better than his story. Anthony Quinn played in The Lond Wait and he didn't read the book either.

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.

Now I'm not an author, I'm a writer, that's all I am.

I'm 82 years old, wherever I go everybody knows me, but here's why... I'm a merchandiser, I'm not just a writer, I stay in every avenue you can think of.

I try to stay in good physical shape, I don't smoke, I don't drink.

Critics themselves, they used to tear me up.

If the public likes you, you're good.

If I need something, I'll invent it.

I'm a country boy. I hate New York. But that's where things happen, so I use it as a base for stories, I know enough about it. But I have to keep going back there.

Where I am they can smell out a hurricane. My house survived Hurricane Hazel, but it didn't get past Hugo.

Stephen King. Now I'm not crazy about him, but he's a great a writer.

I read all the time... I read a lot of history books.

I know an awful lot of Hollywood people, who are so self-important, I can't understand it.

If you're a singer you lose your voice. A baseball player loses his arm. A writer gets more knowledge, and if he's good, the older he gets, the better he writes.

I played in a movie called Ring of Fear with Clyde Beatty and Pat O'Brien.

See, heroes never die. John Wayne isn't dead, Elvis isn't dead. Otherwise you don't have a hero. You can't kill a hero. That's why I never let him get older.

My father was Catholic, my mother was Protestant, and because of that I got Christened in both churches, so I've got all these names... but my Dad always called me Mick.

I'm a commercial writer, not an author. Margaret Mitchell was an author. She wrote one book.

Victor Saville was bad news because he wanted money just to do one big picture.

I wrote the original Mike Hammer as a comic, Mike Danger.

Do not anticipate trouble, or worry about what may never happen. Keep in the sunlight.

We cannot turn our back and say that violence in films or anything that we do doesn't have a sort of influence. It does.

Teachers need to be comfortable talking about feelings.

What they do in America in all those sitcoms is hire glamorous girls and they're never that funny... that's because they've never had to develop a personality because they're hot.

I mean, my father was killed when I was six. And I only have tiny, tiny flashes of memory.

Watching a peaceful death of a human being reminds us of a falling star; one of a million lights in a vast sky that flares up for a brief moment only to disappear into the endless night forever.

First love is only a little foolishness and a lot of curiosity.

Every new revelation about the Obama Administration comes with the familiar musical notes of the Rod Serling TV classic ringing in my head: 'Do-dee-do-do, do-dee-do-do.'

I was put on a surfboard by a cute boyfriend in high school.

I'm constantly tortured, and that's why I say happiness is irrelevant. Happiness is for children and yuppies.

A hatred of failure has always been part of my nature.

I cannot help but think a curious event is this life of mine.

I'm really interested in modern history, but to fulfill a History degree at Brown you have to do modern and pre-modern.

I think my tendency when working is to try and find what's lacking in my current project and then tackle that in whatever I do next.

The dream of democracy has long been enshrined in the hearts of the Egyptian people. It only needed awakening.

The only thing I was trying to portray was serenity. Also, innocence, vulnerability and elegance.

Make new friends, but don't forget the old, One is silver, the other is gold.

I think the thing that I always try to do - because it piques my interest - is to play really different parts all the time.

Between two groups of people who want to make inconsistent kinds of worlds, I see no remedy but force.

My kingdom is not of this world. If it were, my servants would fight to prevent my arrest by the Jews. But now my kingdom is from another place.

The only band that we have never played with but have always wanted to is the Rolling Stones.

But promises based on ignorance always prove disappointing.

You must never find time for anything. If you want time you must make it.