Mickey Spillane(1918-2006)

Reportedly needed quick cash to buy some land for a house in 1946, so he wrote the detective novel "I, The Jury" in less than a month. Although he had been a professional writer for magazines, "I, The Jury" was his first novel. It sold over three million copies and made him a celebrity due to his frank combination of sex and violence. He went on to write several more novels with his main character from "I, The Jury", hard-living private eye Mike Hammer. Several actors have played Hammer over the years in the movies and on television. Spillane even portrayed Hammer himself in Solo pour une blonde (1963) and parodied his own image in some funny Miller Lite beer commercials in the 1970s.

I have no fans. You know what I got? Customers. And customers are your friends.