I don’t research anything. If I need something, I’ll invent it.
~ Mickey Spillane

:::

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

:::

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

:::

I don’t care what the editor likes or dislikes, I care what the people like.
~ Mickey Spillane

:::

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

:::

I’m a commercial writer, not an author. Margaret Mitchell was an author. She wrote one book.
~ Mickey Spillane

:::

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

:::

If the public likes you, you’re good. Shakespeare was a common, down-to-earth writer in his day.
~ Mickey Spillane

:::

It was one of those nights when the sky came down and wrapped itself around the world. The rain clawed at the windows of the bar like an angry cat and tried to sneak in every time some drunk lurched in the door. The place reeked of stale beer and soggy men with enough cheap perfume thrown in to make you sick.
~ Mickey Spillane via The Big Kill (1951)

:::