Mickey Spillane Quotations

I'm a commercial writer, not an author. Margaret Mitchell was an author. She wrote one book.

Imagine this guy hits Mike Hammer over the head with a wooden coathanger and knocks him out. You hit Mike Hammer over the head with a wooden coathanger, he'll beat the crap out of you.

Hemingway hated me. I sold 200 million books, and he didn't. Of course most of mine sold for 25 cents, but still... you look at all this stuff with a grain of salt.

Authors want their names down in history; I want to keep the smoke coming out of the chimney.

Nobody reads a mystery to get to the middle; they read it to get to the end. If it's a letdown, they won't buy any more. The first page sells that book. The last page sells your next book.

Now I'm not an author, I'm a writer, that's all I am.

If you're a singer you lose your voice. A baseball player loses his arm. A writer gets more knowledge, and if he's good, the older he gets, the better he writes.

I'm a country boy. I hate New York. But that's where things happen, so I use it as a base for stories, I know enough about it. But I have to keep going back there.

My father was Catholic, my mother was Protestant, and because of that I got Christened in both churches, so I've got all these names... but my Dad always called me Mick.

Where I am they can smell out a hurricane. My house survived Hurricane Hazel, but it didn't get past Hugo.

Stephen King. Now I'm not crazy about him, but he's a great a writer.

See, heroes never die. John Wayne isn't dead, Elvis isn't dead. Otherwise you don't have a hero. You can't kill a hero. That's why I never let him get older.

I played in a movie called Ring of Fear with Clyde Beatty and Pat O'Brien.

I wrote the original Mike Hammer as a comic, Mike Danger.

I try to stay in good physical shape, I don't smoke, I don't drink.

Victor Saville was bad news because he wanted money just to do one big picture.

Critics themselves, they used to tear me up.

I know an awful lot of Hollywood people, who are so self-important, I can't understand it.

I read all the time... I read a lot of history books.

I'm 82 years old, wherever I go everybody knows me, but here's why... I'm a merchandiser, I'm not just a writer, I stay in every avenue you can think of.

I started off at the high level, in the slick magazines, but they didn't use my name, they used house names. Anyway, then I went downhill to the pulps, then downhill further to the comics.

Oh yeah, I was one of the first guys writing comic books, I wrote Captain America, with guys like Stan Lee, who became famous later on with Marvel Comics.

But at my age, you start to get tired.

When I started the paperback market, there were only a few good writers, now the market's loaded... you don't know which one to take.

I'm a commercial writer, not an "author." Margaret Mitchell was an author. She wrote one book.

If the public likes you, you're good.

No one likes my books except the public.

Mike Hammer drinks beer because I can't spell Cognac.

The first page sells this book. The last page sells your next book.

I dont like any of them, because they don't read the books. In Kiss Me Deadly my story is better than his story. Anthony Quinn played in The Lond Wait and he didn't read the book either.

I'm not an author, I'm a writer, that's all I am. Authors want their names down in history; I want to keep the smoke coming out of the chimney.

I'm actually a softie. Tough guys get killed too early... I've got a full head of hair and don't wear eyeglasses.

I'm the most translated writer in the world, behind Lenin, Tolstoy, Gorki and Jules Verne. And they're all dead...

If the public likes you, you're good. Shakespeare was a common, down-to-earth writer in his day.

Those big-shot writers could never dig the fact that there are more salted peanuts consumed than caviar.

The most important part of a story is the ending. No one reads a book to get to the middle.

If I need something, I'll invent it.

I have no fans. You know what I got? Customers. And customers are your friends.

Nobody reads a book to get to the middle.

I don't like people. I don't like any kind of people. When you get them together in a big lump they all get nasty and dirty and full of trouble. So I don't like people including you. That's what a misanthropist is.

Inspiration is an empty bank account.

The first chapter sells the book; the last chapter sells the next book.