I worked in Hollywood as a reader and a would-be writer for about 6 years before I sold my first story.
Peace is a simple word, but it has a lot of ramifications. Peace doesn’t have any financial benefits. When there’s a war, countries buy billions of dollars’ worth of armaments that are made here in the United States. In peacetime, they don’t need any. Because Iran can’t sell its oil, oil prices are up, and the United States gets the benefit of that.
A man was soft when he was hard and hard when he was soft. So it was only necessary to keep him hard until he gave you what you wanted.
Kelly, before you walked out there, the audience thought you were just a beautiful, untouchable dream, a fantasy, out of reach. When you tripped and fell, it showed them that you’re human, and they adored you for it.
Old money’s motto was, If you have it, hide it. New money’s motto was, If you have it, flaunt it.
It was as though her emotions had been worn out. She went from hatred to anger and, finally, to a resigned acceptance.
There was no one to see her off, no one for her to care about, no one who cared about her. That’s not true, Tracy told herself.
What had started as idle conversation began to take concrete shape as a plan of action.
His dreams were so big and his successes so small.
Power. If you had power, you had food. You had medicine. You had freedom. She saw those around her fall ill and die, and she equated power with life. One day, Kate thought, I’ll have power. No one will be able to do this to me again.
A man’s shoes said something about his character. Jennifer looked for jurors who wore comfortable shoes, because they were inclined to be easy-going.
Men mold some cities, some cities mold men.
She used a lot of makeup – thick, dark eyeliner, false eyelashes, colored eye shadow and bright lipstick. It was as though she were trying to hide her beauty.
There were some people you hated on sight, just as there were others you liked on sight.
I hope I didn’t wake.
But loving and being in love are two different things, aren’t they?
To succeed, you need friends. To really succeed, you need enemies.
It takes a man to make a woman feel female, Jennifer thought, to make her feel beautiful, to make her feel wanted.
On trial... the most important factor is not innocence or guilt, but the impression of innocence or guilt. There’s no absolute truth. Just the interpretation of truth.
Beware of people who say they’re too rich to have to work for money, Adam thought.
Civilization was a thin, dangerously fragile veneer, and when that veneer cracked, man became one with the beasts again, falling back into the slime of the primeval abyss he prided himself on having climbed up from.