“I’m not running away from my responsibilities. I’m running to them. There’s nothing negative about running away to save my life.”

All of my books deal in a very rough, rude fashion with subjects about which there are great conflicts of opinion.

They agreed that it was neither possible nor necessary to educate people who never questioned anything.

Some men are born mediocre, some men achieve mediocrity, and some men have mediocrity thrust upon them.

The question is: what is a sane man to do in an insane society?

Be glad you’re even alive. Be furious you’re going to die.

I’ve only had four ideas for a novel in my life, and I’ve written all of them.

I think in every country that there is at least one executive who is scared of going crazy.

The country was in peril; he was jeopardizing his traditional rights of freedom and independence by daring to exercise them.

There was no telling what people might find out once they felt free to ask whatever questions they wanted to.

Destiny is a good thing to accept when it’s going your way. When it isn’t, don’t call it destiny; call it injustice, treachery, or simple bad luck.

The villains will come along. There were plenty in the Carter administration, and there will be plenty with Reagan.

Every writer I know has trouble writing.

Death to all modifiers, he declared one day, and out of every letter that passed through his hands went every adverb and every adjective.

There is no disappointment so numbing as someone no better than you achieving more.

Remember that everyone deserves some fun during working hours.

She was the epitome of stately sorrow each time she smiled.

Never settle for the crumbs of life.

My days of whining and complaining about others have come to an end. Nothing is easier than fault finding. All it will do is discolor my personality so that none will want to associate with me. That was my old life. No more.

Jack Kennedy always said to me, Hedy, get involved. That’s the secret of life. Try everything. Join everything. Meet everybody.

How do I block you in real life?

I think what I’ve come to now is, that fear is good; it’s what life is about. You need to be afraid because fear gives you the strength to carry on important tasks.

I feel like everyone just gets constricted by their parents or, just, life.

Beginning today, treat everyone you meet as if they were going to be dead by midnight. Extend to them all the care, kindness and understanding you can muster, and do it with no thought of any reward. Your life will never be the same again.

Life is strange. You keep moving and keep moving. Before you know it, you look back and think, ‘What was that?