A best-seller is the golden touch of mediocre talent.


No one can write a best seller by trying to. He must write with complete sincerity; the clichTs that make you laugh, the hackneyed characters, the well-worn situations, the commonplace story that excites your derision, seem neither hackneyed, well worn nor commonplace to him. The conclusion is obvious: you cannot write anything that will convince unless you are yourself convinced. The best seller sells because he writes with his heart's blood.


The principle of procrastinated rape is said to be the ruling one in all the great bestsellers.