Mickey Spillane famous quotes

03-23-2025

The first chapter sells the book; the last chapter sells the next book.
-- Mickey Spillane

#Book #Writing #Lasts
Nobody reads a book to get to the middle.
-- Mickey Spillane

#Book #Writing #Middle
Where I am they can smell out a hurricane. My house survived Hurricane Hazel, but it didn't get past Hugo.
-- Mickey Spillane

#Past #Smell #House
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.
-- Mickey Spillane

#Hero #Redneck #Firefighter
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.
-- Mickey Spillane

#Dirty #People #Together
Mike Hammer drinks beer because I can't spell Cognac.
-- Mickey Spillane

#Beer #Hammers #Cognac
Inspiration is an empty bank account.
-- Mickey Spillane

#Inspiration #Empty #Bank Accounts
Those big-shot writers ... could never dig the fact that there are more salted peanuts consumed than caviar.
-- Mickey Spillane

#Caviar #Facts #Peanuts
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.
-- Mickey Spillane

#Names #Want #Coming Out
I'm a commercial writer, not an author. Margaret Mitchell was an author. She wrote one book.
-- Mickey Spillane

#Book
I have no fans. You know what I got? Customers. And customers are your friends.
-- Mickey Spillane

#Fans #Customers #Knows
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.
-- Mickey Spillane

#Book #Grain Of Salt #Looks
If the public likes you, you're good. Shakespeare was a common, down-to-earth writer in his day.
-- Mickey Spillane

#Literature #Earth #Likes
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.
-- Mickey Spillane

#Baseball #Art #Writing
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 anymore. The first page sells that book. The last page sells your next book.
-- Mickey Spillane

#Book #Writing #Literature
No one likes my books except the public.
-- Mickey Spillane

#Book #Likes #Language
The first page sells this book. The last page sells your next book.
-- Mickey Spillane

#Book #Pages #Lasts
If I need something, I'll invent it.
-- Mickey Spillane

#Needs #Literature #Ifs
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.
-- Mickey Spillane

#Names #House #Magazines
I'm the most translated writer in the world, behind Lenin, Tolstoy, Gorki and Jules Verne. And they're all dead.
-- Mickey Spillane

#World #Behinds
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.
-- Mickey Spillane

#Book #Kissing #Waiting
I know an awful lot of Hollywood people, who are so self-important, I can't understand it.
-- Mickey Spillane

#Self #People #Important
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.
-- Mickey Spillane

#Thinking #Years #Literature
I'm actually a softie. Tough guys get killed too early... I've got a full head of hair and don't wear eyeglasses.
-- Mickey Spillane

#Hair #Eyeglasses #Guy

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