1.
The first chapter sells the book; the last chapter sells the next book.
Mickey Spillane
2.
The most important part of a story is the ending. No one reads a book to get to the middle.
Mickey Spillane
3.
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
4.
Inspiration is an empty bank account.
Mickey Spillane
5.
Mike Hammer drinks beer because I can't spell Cognac.
Mickey Spillane
6.
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
7.
If the public likes you, you're good. Shakespeare was a common, down-to-earth writer in his day.
Mickey Spillane
8.
Nobody reads a book to get to the middle.
Mickey Spillane
9.
Those big-shot writers ... could never dig the fact that there are more salted peanuts consumed than caviar.
Mickey Spillane
10.
I have no fans. You know what I got? Customers. And customers are your friends.
Mickey Spillane
11.
If I need something, I'll invent it.
Mickey Spillane
12.
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
13.
Stephen King. Now I'm not crazy about him, but he's a great a writer.
Mickey Spillane
14.
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
15.
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
16.
Now I'm not an author, I'm a writer, that's all I am.
Mickey Spillane
17.
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
18.
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
19.
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
20.
Where I am they can smell out a hurricane. My house survived Hurricane Hazel, but it didn't get past Hugo.
Mickey Spillane
21.
I'm a commercial writer, not an author. Margaret Mitchell was an author. She wrote one book.
Mickey Spillane
22.
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
23.
I'm the most translated writer in the world, behind Lenin, Tolstoy, Gorki and Jules Verne. And they're all dead.
Mickey Spillane
24.
If the public likes you, you're good.
Mickey Spillane
25.
I know an awful lot of Hollywood people, who are so self-important, I can't understand it.
Mickey Spillane
26.
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
27.
I read all the time... I read a lot of history books.
Mickey Spillane
28.
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.
Mickey Spillane
29.
No one likes my books except the public.
Mickey Spillane
30.
The first page sells this book. The last page sells your next book.
Mickey Spillane
31.
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.
Mickey Spillane
32.
Critics themselves, they used to tear me up.
Mickey Spillane
33.
I'm a country boy. I hate New York. But that's where things happen, so I use it as a base for stories, I know enough about it. But I have to keep going back there.
Mickey Spillane
34.
I try to stay in good physical shape, I don't smoke, I don't drink.
Mickey Spillane
35.
I played in a movie called Ring of Fear with Clyde Beatty and Pat O'Brien.
Mickey Spillane
36.
Victor Saville was bad news because he wanted money just to do one big picture.
Mickey Spillane
37.
Oh yeah, I was one of the first guys writing comic books, I wrote Captain America, with guys like Stan Lee, who became famous later on with Marvel Comics.
Mickey Spillane
38.
I wrote the original Mike Hammer as a comic, Mike Danger.
Mickey Spillane
