Mickey Spillane Quotes

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

Inspiration is an empty bank account.

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

It was easy,' I said.

If the public likes you, you're good.

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

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 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.

Critics themselves, they used to tear me up.

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.

No one likes my books except the public.

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

God, but it was fun! It was the way I liked it. No arguing, no talking to the stupid peasants. I just walked into that room with a tommy gun and shot their guts out. They never thought that there were people like me in this country. They figured us all to be soft as horse manure and just as stupid.

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

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.

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

They were going to die slower and harder than any son of a bitch had ever died before, and while they died I'd laugh my god-damn head off!

I don't give a damn about reviews. What I like to read are royalty checks.

Guys like you can't escape the city. Hell, you a got a blood contract with this place. You're married to the old girl.

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

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

All right, you conniving little punks, I'll play ball, but I'm going to make up a lot of rules you never heard of. You think I'm cornered and it'll be a soft touch. Well, you won't be playing with a guy who's a hero. You'll be up against a guy with a mind gone rotten and a lust for killing! That's the way I was and that's the way I like it!

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

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

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.

I was a ruthless bastard with a twisted mind who could look on death and find it pleasant. I could break an arm or smash in a face because it was easier that way than asking questions. I could out-fox the fox with a line of reasoning that laughed at the truth because I was the worst of the lot and never did deserve to live. That's what that damned judge thought anyway.

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.

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

Nobody reads a book to get to the middle.

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

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

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.