"[A]lways get to the dialogue as soon as possible. I always feel the thing to go for is speed. Nothing puts the reader off more than a big slab of prose at the start."(Interview, The Paris Review, Issue 64, Winter 1975)"
"In a series of events, all of which had been a bit thick, this, in his opinion, achieved the maximum of thickness."
"There is only one cure for grey hair. It was invented by a Frenchman. It is called the guillotine."
"She looked away. Her attitude seemed to suggest that she had finished with him, and would be obliged if somebody would come and sweep him up."
"As for Gussie Finknottle, many an experienced undertaker would have been deceived by his appearance and started embalming on sight."
"I know I was writing stories when I was five. I don't know what I did before that. Just loafed, I suppose."