168 Quotes by John D. MacDonald

If you would be thrilled by watching the galloping advance of a major glacier, you’d be ecstatic watching changes in publishing.

He thought, as the locked truck slid and hit: Too much time staring at the pretty girl, Cherrik. Too much dreaming. Too old, Cherrik. Too damn old.

What kind of people did he have aboard, Willy?” “Smart-ass kids.” “Tourists, college kids?” He stared through me for a moment. “I knew one of them.” “One of the kids?” “What the hell are we talking about? One of the kids. Yes. You know over the bridge on the right there, past where they’re building is a place called Charlie Char-Broil.

Never leave anything which can be traced, when you do have a choice.

It was to have been a quiet evening at home. Home is the Busted Flush, 52-foot barge-type houseboat, Slip F-18, Bahia Mar, Lauderdale.

Newsmen have a very short attention span. It is a prerequisite in the business. That is why the news accounts of almost anything make sense to all ages up to the age of twelve. If one wishes to enjoy newspapers, it is wise to halt all intellectual development right at that age. The schools are doing their level best to achieve this goal.

The early bird who gets the worm works for somebody who comes in late and owns the worm farm.

The wide world is full of likable people who get kicked in the stomach regularly.

There are middle-aged children who spend a part of every day thinking of their college or their war, but the ones who grow up to be men do not have this plaintive need for a flavor of past importance, and Callowell was one of these.