"Great things are not accomplished by those who yield to trends and fads and popular opinion."
— Jack Kerouac

"Boys and girls in America have such a sad time together; sophistication demands that they submit to sex immediately without proper preliminary talk. Not courting talk — real straight talk about souls, for life is holy and every moment is precious."
— Jack Kerouac (On the Road)

"There is no trap so deadly as the trap you set for yourself."
— Raymond Chandler (Long Goodbye)

"The problem with putting two and two together is that sometimes you get four, and sometimes you get twenty-two."
— Dashiell Hammett (The Thin Man)

"You only live twice:
Once when you're born
And once when you look death in the face."
— Ian Fleming (You Only Live Twice)

"So many books, so little time."
— Frank Zappa

"...down these mean streets a man must go who is not himself mean, who is neither tarnished nor afraid. He is the hero; he is everything. He must be a complete man and a common man and yet an unusual man. He must be, to use a rather weathered phrase, a man of honor—by instinct, by inevitability, without thought of it, and certainly without saying it. He must be the best man in his world and a good enough man for any world.

“He will take no man’s money dishonestly and no man’s insolence without a due and dispassionate revenge. He is a lonely man and his pride is that you will treat him as a proud man or be very sorry you ever saw him.

“The story is this man’s adventure in search of a hidden truth, and it would be no adventure if it did not happen to a man fit for adventure. If there were enough like him, the world would be a very safe place to live in, without becoming too dull to be worth living in."
— Raymond Chandler

"Dreams come true. Without that possibility, nature would not incite us to have them. "
— John Updike

"Suspect each moment, for it is a thief, tiptoeing away with more than it brings."
— John Updike (A Month of Sundays)

"What art offers is space – a certain breathing room for the spirit."
— John Updike

"Any activity becomes creative when the doer cares about doing it right, or better."
— John Updike

"Sex is one of the nine reasons for reincarnation. The other eight are unimportant"
— Henry Miller