I put on such a good show, the story is outrageous, and people don't want to hear that I'm basically a reasonable human being. As long as it continues to get me print, I'll continue to perform in an exuberant manner.
I wanted to portray a newly democratized, enclosed society. I wanted to show how extraordinarily fluid people are in their embrace of other human beings.
Sometimes I'll leave the house and go to a delicatessen down the street from me - it's been there a million years - just because I can look at people.
[Raymond] Chandler, I reread him, and there's a lot of bad writing there. I don't think he knew much about people.
I'm grateful for the life I have. I lived bad for many years, and I've got a great life now. I've got the kind of life people only dream about.
Raymond Chandler once wrote that Dashiell Hammett gave murder back to the people who really committed it.
Rock and rollers can get you the youth buzz, and younger people are fanatical readers.
Dead people belong to the live people who claim them most obsessively.
The 1950s to me is darkness, hidden history, perversion behind most doors waiting to creep out. The 1950s to most people is kitsch and Mickey Mouse watches and all this intolerable stuff...
I'm getting a wider circle of fans now. More women, more middle class people.
Some people don’t respond to civility.