American crime writer (1938- )
The less attention I pay to what people want and the more attention I pay to just writing the book I want to write, the better I do.
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Newsweek, Jul. 13, 2009
She made love with the freshness of an impatient virgin and the ingenuity of a sex-scarred whore.
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Grifter's Game
It's the easiest thing in the world to know God's will. You just wait and see what happens, and that's it.
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Even The Wicked
If you want to write fiction, the best thing you can do is take two aspirins, lie down in a dark room, and wait for the feeling to pass.
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Writing the Novel: From Plot to Print
The novel, I submit, is not merely the ultimate goal. It is also the place to start.
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Writing the Novel: From Plot to Print
Something I learned long ago. It is not necessary to know what a person is afraid of. It is enough to know the person is afraid.
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The Sins Of The Fathers
Sometimes it's a dog-eat-dog world and the rest of the time it's the other way around.
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A Dance at the Slaughterhouse
Every year there's a few more things I'm not sure of. I've decided that a wide-ranging uncertainty is the mark of the true maturity of man.
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Everybody Dies
People don't get to change things. Things change people once in a while, but people don't change things.
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In the Midst of Death
If you cannot stand a spoon upright in the cup, then the coffee is too weak.
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The Thief who Couldn't Sleep
You know, it was a revelation to me to learn that I don't have to be comfortable. Nowhere is it written that I must be comfortable. I always thought if I felt nervous or anxious or unhappy I had to do something about it. But I learned that's not true. Bad feelings won't kill me. Alcohol will kill me, but my feelings won't.
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Eight Million Ways to Die
To say I drank my way into marriage isn't much of an exaggeration, and it's none at all to say I drank my way out of it.
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Step by Step
There were a hundred reasons why a man will want a drink, but I wanted one now for the most elementary reason of all. I didn't want to feel what I was feeling, and a voice within was telling me that I needed a drink, that I couldn't bear it without it. But that voice is a liar. You can always bear the pain. It'll hurt, it'll burn like acid in an open wound, but you can stand it. And, as long as you can make yourself go on choosing the pain over the relief, you can keep going.
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Out on the Cutting Edge
Back then, before it became clear that democracy was best served by a drunken electorate, the bars in New York City were required to close on Election Day.
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You Could Call It Murder
You got to ask a street question to get a street answer.
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Everybody Dies
I don't know about the rest of the country but in New York more people have learned anonymity from rent control than ever discovered it in a twelve-step program.
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The Burglar Who Thought He Was Bogart
Fiction writing starts off by requiring the towering arrogance that enables one to sit down at the typewriter in the belief that someone somewhere will actually be eager to read the productions of our own private imaginations. But that arrogance must be buffered by the humility that leads us to learn our craft and strive to make our work comprehensible and inviting and accessible to the reader.
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The Liar's Bible: A Handbook for Fiction Writers
Booze and tobacco and lots of sex. It keeps a lad young.
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The Sins of the Fathers
Life, I'd heard someone say, is a comedy for those who think and a tragedy for those who feel. It seemed to me that it was both at once, even for those of us who don't do much of either.
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A Ticket to the Boneyard
She knew how much I needed her. And now she was teasing, playing games. I looked at her and watched her turn into a sex symbol in front of my eyes. She did not look sweet and virginal and lovely anymore. I looked at the very simple summer dress and saw breasts and belly and hips. I looked at her eyes and saw lust as naked as my own.
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Grifter's Game