“But bad luck makes good stories.”

“Whoever takes me captive won't live long enough to enjoy it”

“Suppose the world were only one of God's jokes, would you work any the less to make it a good joke instead of a bad one?”

“Shit!” Evelgold added.“What?” Hook asked, alarmed.“I just stepped in some.”“That’s supposed to bring you luck,” Hook said.“Then I’d better dance in the goddam stuff.”

“Americans are rather like bad Bulgarian wine; the don't travel well.”

“The great secret, Eliza, is not having bad manners or good manners or any other particular sort of manners, but having the same manner for all human souls: in short, behaving as if you were in Heaven, where there are no thirdclass carriages, and one soul is as good as another.”

“First drafts are for learning what your novel or story is about. Revision is working with that knowledge to enlarge & enhance an idea, to reform it . . . Revision is one of the true pleasures of writing.”