Quotes By Irwin Shaw

It's those damn critics again.

A writer has to live with a sense of honor.

In Europe, a writer is supposed to improve up until he's about 75.

I never drink while I'm working, but after a few glasses I get ideas that would never have occurred to me dead sober.

Writing for the theater, you find yourself living a nocturnal life.

The last paragraph, in which you tell what the story is about, is almost always best left out.

A good editor understands what you're talking and writing about and doesn't meddle too much.

Curiously, the United States is full of writers who have one big work in their life and that's all.

My favorite short-story writer is John Cheever.

If you're young enough, any kind of writing you do for a short period of time is a marvelous apprenticeship.

I never show anything to anybody until I've finished it.

Every novelist has a different purpose - and often several purposes which might even be contradictory.

All writers are the same - they forget a thousand good reviews and remember one bad one.

I am forced to say that I have many fiercer critics than myself.

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.

I don't think that the writer is regarded as a freak by Americans.