Quote

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

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Irwin Shaw
Age: 71 †
Born: 1913
Born: February 27
Died: 1984
Died: May 16
Film Producer
Novelist
Playwright
Screenwriter
Writer
New York City
New York
Irwin Gilbert Shamforoff
Part
Necessary
Writing
Writer
World
Talent
Stand
Almost
Inflicts
Ability
Equipment
Upon
Punishment
Hands
Absolutely

More quotes by Irwin Shaw

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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.
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I cringe when critics say I'm a master of the popular novel. What's an unpopular novel?
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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.
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Every novelist has a different purpose-and often several purposes which might even be contradictory.
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Writing for the theater, you find yourself living a nocturnal life
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Writers of fiction, when they begin, are more likely to try the short form
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I imagine that my characters have become much more complicated than when I first began, which would be normal
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Critics in New York are made by their dislikes, not by their enthusiasms.
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Special-interest magazines are dangerous places for writers to start out in because the writing quickly falls into a routine and people are likely to find themselves artistically exhausted when they want to work on something of their own
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I never drink while I'm working, but after a few glasses I get ideas that would never have occurred to me dead sober.
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In Europe, a writer is supposed to improve up until he's about 75
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No writer need feel sorry for himself if he writes and enjoys it, even if he doesn't get paid.
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Posterity makes the judgments. There are going to be a lot of surprises in store for everybody.
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My views naturally have mellowed. Most of the critics have been more or less nice to me
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Kennedy was a man who liked writers and even I got invited to the White House
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Writing is like a contact sport, like football. Why do kids play football? They can get hurt on any play, can't they? Yet they can't wait until Saturday comes around so they can play on the high school team, or the college team, and get smashed around. Writing is like that. You can get hurt, but you enjoy it!
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All writers are the same - they forget a thousand good reviews and remember one bad one.
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My attitudes have changed, but somebody would have to read all my books to find out how they have
Irwin Shaw
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I'm not as hopeful as I was when I was young
Irwin Shaw
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The last paragraph in which you tell what the story is about is almost always best left out.
Irwin Shaw