Quote

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

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Mickey Spillane
Age: 88 †
Born: 1918
Born: March 9
Died: 2006
Died: July 17
Author
Novelist
Television Actor
Writer
Brooklyn
New York
Didn
Mines
Stills
Mine
Hemingway
Still
Millions
Cents
Look
Courses
Sold
Book
Course
Grain
Looks
Books
Salt
Literature
Hated
Stuff
Million

More quotes by Mickey Spillane

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The first page sells this book. The last page sells your next book.
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If the public likes you, you're good.
Mickey Spillane
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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.
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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.
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I'm a commercial writer, not an author. Margaret Mitchell was an author. She wrote one book.
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Victor Saville was bad news because he wanted money just to do one big picture.
Mickey Spillane
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Now I'm not an author, I'm a writer, that's all I am.
Mickey Spillane
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I wrote the original Mike Hammer as a comic, Mike Danger.
Mickey Spillane
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Inspiration is an empty bank account.
Mickey Spillane
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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
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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
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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.
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I played in a movie called Ring of Fear with Clyde Beatty and Pat O'Brien.
Mickey Spillane
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I read all the time... I read a lot of history books.
Mickey Spillane
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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
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The most important part of a story is the ending. No one reads a book to get to the middle.
Mickey Spillane
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The first chapter sells the book the last chapter sells the next book.
Mickey Spillane
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I'm the most translated writer in the world, behind Lenin, Tolstoy, Gorki and Jules Verne. And they're all dead.
Mickey Spillane
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No one likes my books except the public.
Mickey Spillane
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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