"There will always be people like me, who believe that to ripple the pages of a printed book is a special experience, one that through the centuries has taken millions from the darkness into the light."

"Your life informs your writing."

"When you notice light seeping into your coffin, it's hard to go on pretending that you're still dead."

"Have you noticed anything strange about him? Strange? We humans insist on inhabiting a charnel ground - isn't that strange enough for spiritual creatures without splitting hairs? He seems to be two different men. His personality switches from moment to moment. Only two? Perhaps there is something wrong with your eyes. Look more closely and you will see he changes with every exhalation. So do I. So do you.""

"Have you seen anything strange about him? Strange? He insists on inhabiting an melting earth - isn't that strange enough without splitting hairs? He seems to be two different people. His personality switches from second to second. I heard something about it a long time ago.....what was it again?"

"I'm always making the mistake of believing what I see with my own eyes."

"No fucking wolves in the house!"

"Killing a park ranger in Alaska ain't the same thing as murder."

"That's some fucking doorman you've got out there."

"I'm a detective, but nuns could stonewall Sam Spade into an asylum."

"Vanity is a weakness. I know this. It's a shallow dependence on the exterior self, on how one looks instead of what one is. I know this well...Vanity and dishonesty may be vices, but they're also the first forms of protection I ever knew."

"Wickham is not an upwardly mobile community. It's dingy and gray as only a mill town can be. The streets are the color of a shoe bottom, and the only way to tell the difference between the bars and the homes is to look for the neon signs in the windows. The roads and sidewalks are uneven, the tar cracked and pale. Many of the people, especially the workers as they trudge home from the mills in the dying light, have the look of those who've long ago gotten used to the fact that no one remembers them. It's a place where the people are grateful for the seasons, because at least they confirm that time is actually moving on."

"Hate came in a maelstrom, and we called it several things—racism, pedophilia, justice, righteousness—but all those words were just ribbons and wrapping paper on a soiled gift that no one wanted to open."

"“You’re probably right,” sighed Vance. “I haven’t any coruscatin’ arguments to combat you with. Only, I’m disappointed. I don’t like anticlimaxes, especially when they don’t jibe with my idea of the dramatist’s talent. Pardee’s death at this moment is too deuced neat—it clears things up too tidily. There’s too much utility in it, and too little imagination.”"

"“Oh, my dear fellow! I’m not indulgin’ in implications. I’m merely givin’ tongue to my youthful curiosity, don’t y’ know.”"

"Giving full rein to one‘s cynicism as one goes along produces a normal outlet and maintains an emotional equilibrium."

"“Do you play chess, by the by?” asked Vance. “Used to. But no more. A beautiful game, though—if it wasn't for the players.”"

"Only, as long as we‘re going insane we may as well go the whole way. A mere shred of sanity is of no value."

"I trust the clergy are not involved in this problem. They‘re notoriously unscientific. One can‘t attack them with mathematics."

"Anyway, you know full well I never wear boutonnieres. The decoration has fallen into disrepute. The only remaining devotees of the practice are roués and saxophone players."

"Circumstantial evidence, Markham, is the utt‘rest tommyrot imag‘nable. Its theory is not unlike that of our present-day democracy. The democratic theory is that if you accumulate enough ignorance at the polls, you produce intelligence; and the theory of circumst‘ntial evidence is that if you accumulate a sufficient number of weak links, you produce a strong chain."

"“Good God!” he mummered. “I don‘t know what to believe.” “In that respect,” returned Vance, “you‘re in the same disheartenin‘ predic‘ment as all the philosophers.”"

"He spent considerable time at his clubs; his favorite was the Stuyvesant, because, as he explained to me, its membership was drawn largely from the political and commercial ranks, and he was never drawn into a discussion which required any mental effort"

"As I understand it, your policemen are chosen by their height and weight; they must meet certain requirements as to heft—as thought the only crimes they had to cope with were riots and gang feuds. Bulk—the great American ideal, whether in art, architecture, table d‘hôte meals, or detectives. An entrancin‘ notion."

"A fairy tale in terms of blood—a world in anamorphosis—a perversion of all rationality.… It’s unthinkable, senseless, like black magic and sorcery and thaumaturgy. It’s downright demented."

""I'll sue you and the Sheriff's Department," he said, sounding more sulky than anything else. "Questioning me like a common criminal! And with an FBI agent standing over me in a threatening manner!" Since Bishop was across the room leaning rather negligently against the filing cabinet, that was such an obvious exaggeration that Miranda could only admire it for a moment in silence."

"Morpheus' gifts used to come to me in bottles, Beam and black Jack Daniel's, straight up with a frosted schooner of Jax on the side, while the rain poor down in the neon glow outside the window of an all-night bar not far from the Huey Long Bridge. In a half hour I could kick open a furnace door and fling into the flames all the snakes and squeaking bats that lived inside me. Except the next morning they would writhe with new life in the ashes and come back home, stinking and hungry."

"I never read contemporary fiction – with one exception: the works of Simenon concerned with Inspector Maigret."

"Writing is not a profession but a vocation of unhappiness. I don't think an artist can ever be happy."

"The fact that we are I don't know how many millions of people, yet communication, complete communication, is completely impossible between two of those people, is to me one of the biggest tragic themes in the world."

"Fellini, je crois que, dans ma vie, j'ai été plus Casanova que vous! J'ai fait le calcul, il ya un an ou deux. J’ai eu dix mille femmes depuis l’âge de treize ans et demi. Ce n’ést pas du tout un vice. Je n’ai aucun vice sexuel, mais j’avais besoin de communiquer."

"You've lived here for eight years, surely you must have explored the grounds. Do I look like someone who takes exercise? You're very slim. Well, I eat very little, drink neat spirits and smoke like a chimney. It does wonders for the figure, but leaves me gasping for breath halfway up the stairs."

"Did you know where the ice house was? No Well, what did you think the hillock was? A hillock probably."

"Our reputation has obviously preceded us. Don't worry shaking hands with a lesbian is perfectly safe. I have nothing against dykes Miss Cattrell, just wouldn't put my finger in one. The only disabilities that idiot has are both in his trousers. He's a prick and an arsehole."

"The awful phantom of the hungry poor."

"Ah, happy world, where all things live Creatures of one great law, indeed; Bound by strong roots, the splendid flower,— Swept by great seas, the drifting seed!"

"A place of dream, the Holy Land Hangs midway between earth and heaven."

"Beauty vanishes like a vapor, Preach the men of musty morals."

"He is one of those people to whom you must allow moods,—when their sun shines, dance,—and when their vapors rise, sit in the shadow."

"As Gloria Steinem said about Ginger Rogers: She was doing everything Fred Astaire was doing, just doing it backwards in high heels. Well, Southern women are doing and enduring what other women have to do and endure, but (at least until recently) they had to do it in heels and hats and white gloves and makeup and a sweet smile, with maybe a glass of bourbon and a cigarette to get them through the magnolia part of being a steel magnolia."

"There is nothing more profoundly serious than real comedy, which is an affirmation of human communion, redemption and grace."

"I think the greatest taboos in America are faith and failure."

"When their lordships asked Bacon How many bribes he had taken He had at least the grace To get very red in the face."

"John Stuart Mill, By a mighty effort of will, Overcame his natural bonhomie And wrote "Principles of Political Economy.""

"The art of Biography Is different from Geography. Geography is about maps, But Biography is about chaps."

"Sir Christopher Wren Said, "I am going to dine with some men. If anyone calls Say I am designing St. Paul's.""