A biography for Irwin Shawhasn’t been written yet.
“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.”
“I never drink while I'm working, but after a few glasses I get ideas that would never have occurred to me dead sober.”
“All writers are the same - they forget a thousand good reviews and remember one bad one.”
“Writers of fiction, when they begin, are more likely to try the short form.”
“I haven't stuck to any formula. Most great writers stick to the same style, but I wanted to be more various.”
“Writing is like a contact sport, like football. You can get hurt, but you enjoy it.”
“Now,' Elias said, 'if only I didn't have to go home to my lousy wife. I married her in 1929. A lot of things've changed since 1929.' He sighed. 'What's a woman?' he asked. 'A Woman is a trap.”
“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.”
“I never show anything to anybody until I've finished it.”
“I don't think that the writer is regarded as a freak by Americans.”
“The great writers just kept bringing them out. They didn't care if they repeated themselves.”
“I reach my readers regardless of what the critics have written.”
“If you're young enough, any kind of writing you do for a short period of time is a marvelous apprenticeship.”
“My favorite short-story writer is John Cheever.”
“In Europe, a writer is supposed to improve up until he's about 75.”
“My views naturally have mellowed. Most of the critics have been more or less nice to me.”
“It's those damn critics again.”
“Writing is finally play, and there's no reason why you should get paid for playing.”
“I'm not as hopeful as I was when I was young.”
“I cringe when critics say I'm a master of the popular novel. What's an unpopular novel?”