Quotes from Ira Levin

What we are probably given is a mixture of truth and untruth. It's anybody's guess as to which part is which and how much there is of each.

The thing to do was kill it. Obviously.

Did you lose the game? Losing's the same as winning; you know that, don't you?" The

Les gens qui ont besoin de plus qu une valise ne sont pas de vrais voyageurs, ce sont des touristes.

One great difference between good writing, that readers overlook, and bad writing, that they fail to notice, has to do with the number of rewrites and revisions usually required by the former. It isn't at all easy to write clear, declarative prose—transparency evolves from ruthless cutting and trimming and is hard work—while lumpy, tangle-footed writing flows from the pen as if inspired by the Muse.

Today the combat takes a different shape; instead of wishing to put man in a prison, woman endeavors to escape from one; she no longer seeks to drag him into the realms of immanence but to emerge, herself, into the light of transcendence. Now the attitude of the males creates a new conflict: it is with a bad grace that the man lets her go.

The baby kicked like a demon

I say in my talks it takes two things to make it happen again, a new Hitler and social conditions like in the thirties. But that's not true. It takes three things: the Hitler, the conditions, and the people to follow the Hitler. And don't you think he'd find them? No, not enough of them. I really think people are better and smarter now, not so much thinking their leaders are God. The television makes a big difference.

No, thanks, we're not keen on cat pix.