My attitudes have changed, but somebody would have to read all my books to find out how they have. – 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
My views naturally have mellowed. Most of the critics have been more or less nice to me. – Irwin Shaw
Every novelist has a different purpose – and often several purposes which might even be contradictory. – Irwin Shaw
A good editor understands what you’re talking and writing about and doesn’t meddle too much. – Irwin Shaw
The last paragraph, in which you tell what the story is about, is almost always best left out. – 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
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 imagine that my characters have become much more complicated than when I first began, which would be normal. – Irwin Shaw
All writers are the same – they forget a thousand good reviews and remember one bad one. – Irwin Shaw
Ernest Hemingway did a great deal toward making the writer an acceptable public figure; obviously, he was no sissy. – Irwin Shaw
In the theater, characters have to cut the umbilical cord from the writer and talk in their own voices. – Irwin Shaw
No writer need feel sorry for himself if he writes and enjoys it, even if he doesn’t get paid. – Irwin Shaw
Posterity makes the judgments. There are going to be a lot of surprises in store for everybody. – Irwin Shaw
In America, we have the feeling of the doomed young artist. Fitzgerald was the great example of that. – Irwin Shaw
Curiously, the United States is full of writers who have one big work in their life and that’s all. – Irwin Shaw
