At the worst I accepted Hollywood with the resignation of a ghost assigned to a haunted house.

More from The Last Tycoon

• All good writing is swimming under water and holding your breath.
• Family quarrels are bitter things. They don't go according to any rules. They're not like aches or wounds; they're more like splits in the skin that won't heal because there's not enough material.
• He knew that when he kissed this girl, and forever wed his unutterable visions to her perishable breath, his mind would never again romp like the mind of God.
• No amount of fire or freshness can challenge what a man will store up in his ghostly heart.
• She saw something awful in the very simplicity she failed to understand.
• Show me a hero, and I will write you a tragedy.