“With any part you play, there is a certain amount of yourself in it. There has to be, otherwise it's just not acting. It's lying. ”

“With every part you act, there must be a little of yourself in it. If there isn't, it's not acting. It's lying.”

“You have a great deal of yourself on the line, writing— your vanity is at stake. You discover a tricky thing about fiction writing; a certain amount of vanity is necessary to be able to do it all, but any vanity above that certain amount is lethal.”

“...it takes only a modest amount of disruption to create an inordinate amount of mayhem. It's not necessary to wreak all the destruction yourself. Just begin with a fair amount and man's stupidity and selfishness will do the rest.”

“Some people say it's easy to lie. This may be true for them, but the hard part is remembering the lie because a lie has no memory.”

“Life has to be a little nuts sometimes. Otherwise it's just a bunch of Thursdays strung together.”