Terry Southern Writing Quotations

The important thing in writing is the capacity to astonish. Not shock - shock is a worn-out word - but astonish.

For a director and a producer to be named on the writing credits is practically unheard of.

Writing on a contract for a major studio you get the very best.

I learned not to care ... and to write for an imaginary reader whose tastes were similar to my own.

I don't know why, but I always feel a kind of necessity to write things that are beyond acceptance, that are too offensive or something. For people to read them and say, Ha-ha-ha, very funny. No, we can't print that.