Mickey Spillane (1918-2006)

Mickey Spillane was a Man.

Capital M.

I cut my teeth on Spillane's Mike Hammer. "I, the Jury"... "My Gun is Quick"... "Kiss Me Deadly"... Hard-Boiled and Two-Fisted, Spillane's Mike Hammer was the quintessential Tough Guy. So was Mickey.

I guess the older we get, the more of our heroes we have to bury. Well, Mickey Spillane was one of my heroes. He was as tough as nails as the characters he wrote. His words were pure fire and he wove tales that inspired all the Eastwood-Willis-Swatzeneggers that came after.

If you've not read a Mickey Spillane novel then you are doing yourself a disservice.


Some of my favorite quotes from Mickey include:


"Those big-shot writers could never dig the fact that there are more salted peanuts consumed than caviar."


"The first page sells that book. The last page sells your next book."


"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."


"Hemingway hated me. I sold 200 million books, and he didn't. Of course most of mine sold for 25 cents, but still... "


"...wherever I go everybody knows me, but here's why... I'm a merchandiser, I'm not just a writer, I stay in every avenue you can think of. "


So long Mick. Thanks for all the memories.