Irwin Shaw quotes

There are too many books I haven't read, too many places I haven't seen, too many memories I haven't kept long enough. (Irwin Shaw)
I cringe when critics say I'm a master of the popular novel. What's an unpopular novel?
Irwin Shaw
An absolutely necessary part of a writer's equipment, almost as necessary as talent, is the ability to stand up under punishment, both the punishment the world hands out and the punishment he inflicts upon himself.
Irwin Shaw
I never drink while I'm working, but after a few glasses I get ideas that would never have occurred to me dead sober.
Irwin Shaw
Writing is like a contact sport, like football. You can get hurt, but you enjoy it.
Irwin Shaw
A writer has to live with a sense of honor.
Irwin Shaw
A good editor understands what you're talking and writing about and doesn't meddle too much.
Irwin Shaw
All writers are the same - they forget a thousand good reviews and remember one bad one.
Irwin Shaw
My attitudes have changed, but somebody would have to read all my books to find out how they have.
Irwin Shaw
In the theater, characters have to cut the umbilical cord from the writer and talk in their own voices.
Irwin Shaw
People who light up like Roman candles come down in the dark very quickly. (Irwin Shaw)
Posterity makes the judgments. There are going to be a lot of surprises in store for everybody.
Irwin Shaw
The romantic idea is that everybody around a writer must suffer for his talent. I think a writer is a citizen of humanity, part of his nation, part of his family. He may have to make some compromises.
Irwin Shaw
I've gone on the wagon, but my body doesn't believe it.
Irwin Shaw
The last paragraph, in which you tell what the story is about, is almost always best left out.
Irwin Shaw
If you're young enough, any kind of writing you do for a short period of time is a marvelous apprenticeship.
Irwin Shaw
When I started out in the early 1930s, there were a great many magazines that published short stories. Unfortunately, the short-story market has dwindled to almost nothing.
Irwin Shaw
Ernest Hemingway did a great deal toward making the writer an acceptable public figure; obviously, he was no sissy.
Irwin Shaw
You must avoid giving hostages to fortune, like getting an expensive wife, an expensive house, and a style of living that never lets you aford the time to take the chance to write what you wish.
Irwin Shaw
At the height of the McCarthy period, writers were being hounded.
Irwin Shaw
My favorite short-story writer is John Cheever. (Irwin Shaw)
The writer works in a lonely way.
Irwin Shaw
I haven't stuck to any formula. Most great writers stick to the same style, but I wanted to be more various.
Irwin Shaw
Every novelist has a different purpose - and often several purposes which might even be contradictory.
Irwin Shaw
I am forced to say that I have many fiercer critics than myself.
Irwin Shaw