Mickey Spillane > Quotes

“The first chapter sells the book; the last chapter sells the next book.”
― Mickey Spillane

“Nobody reads a book to get to the middle.”
― Mickey Spillane

“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, The Big Kill

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

“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

“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

“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.”
― Mickey Spillane, Kiss Her Goodbye

“The first page sells this book. The last page sells your next book.”
― Mickey Spillane

“It was easy,' I said.”
― Mickey Spillane, I, the Jury

“I don't give a damn about reviews. What I like to read are royalty checks.”
― Mickey Spillane

“A Commie. She was a jerky Red. She owned all the trimmings and she was still a Red. What the hell was she hoping for, a government order to share it all with the masses? Yeah. A joint like this would suddenly assume a new owner under a new regime. A fat little general, a ranking secret policeman, somebody. Sure, it's great to be a Commie . . . as long as you're top dog. Who the hell was supposed to be fooled by all the crap?”
― Mickey Spillane, One Lonely Night

“Pretty and beautiful are two different things. Only a few women are pretty, but even one who's not so hot to look at can be beautiful. A lot of guys make mistakes when they turn down a beautiful woman for one who's just pretty.”
― Mickey Spillane

“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.”
― Mickey Spillane, One Lonely Night

“He killed her and I made a mess of his head. Even the devil won't recognize him now.”
― Mickey Spillane, My Gun Is Quick

“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.”
― Mickey Spillane, One Lonely Night

“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!”
― Mickey Spillane, One Lonely Night

“I couldn’t let her speak or I would never be able to keep my promise.)”
― Mickey Spillane, I, the Jury

“I'm a commercial writer. I'm not in this for arts sake. I'm in it to make money. It's my way of living. My machine is the typewriter. That's my tool. And I tell everybody that; 'This is a commercial business with me'. And a lot of them think this is a terrible thing to say; 'You should do it for arts sake'. Baloney, arts sake! This is the way I like to live. It allows me to do anything I want.”
― Mickey Spillane

“when he came in. I liked that guy.”
― Mickey Spillane, The Mike Hammer Collection, Volume II

“His mouth had already been hanging open, but it managed to hang open further as the tiny close-set peepers crowding his nose opened with the wide-eyed innocence of a newborn suffering its first gas pain.”
― Mickey Spillane, Killing Town

“The guy was a hell of a bookkeeper. His handwriting was hardly legible. How he arrived at his balances I didn’t know, but I wasn’t after that. I threw down the ledger I had after a half hour and picked up another. I was in the middle of the second when a patrolman called Pat over.”
― Mickey Spillane, I, the Jury

“He couldn't lose me now or ever. I was the guy with the cowl and scythe. I had a hundred and forty black horses under me and an hour-glass in my hand, laughing like crazy until the tears rolled down my cheeks.”
― Mickey Spillane, My Gun Is Quick

“Not a hunch. A fact. Some small, trivial fact. What was it? Could it be the answer? Something was bothering me terrifically. I tried some more beer. No. No. No ... no ... no ... no ... no. The answer wouldn’t come. How must our minds be made? So complicated that a detail gets lost in the maze of knowledge. Why? That damn ever-present WHY. There’s a why to everything. It was there, but how to bring it out? I tried thinking around the issue, I tried to think through it. I even tried to forget it, but the greater the effort, the more intense the failure.”
― Mickey Spillane, The Mike Hammer Collection, Volume I

“Too many times naked women and death walked side by side.”
― Mickey Spillane, Survival Zero

“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!”
― Mickey Spillane, My Gun Is Quick

“You got a face that belongs in the movies and a body that should be a crime to cover.”
― Mickey Spillane, Vengeance Is Mine

“I was a licensed investigator who knocked off somebody who needed knocking off bad and he couldn’t get to me. So I was a murderer by definition and all the law could do was shake its finger.”
― Mickey Spillane, The Mike Hammer Collection, Volume 1: I,the Jury / My Gun is Quick / Vengeance is Mine!

“A private snooper, eh?” He was going tough on me. I laid my fork down and looked at him. I can make pretty nasty faces when I have to. “Shorty, maybe just for the hell of it I’ll take you apart. You may be a rough apple, but I can make your face look like it’s been run through a grinder, and the more I think of the idea the more I like it.”
― Mickey Spillane, My Gun Is Quick

“Canal Street lay straight ahead, so I let Bobo out when I stopped for the red light. He gave me a breezy “so long” and took off down the street at a half trot. He was a good kid. Another harmless character. Nice, though.”
― Mickey Spillane, I, the Jury

“After a quick shower and shave, I whipped up some scrambled eggs and shoveled them into me.”
― Mickey Spillane, The Mike Hammer Collection, Volume I