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Ben Hecht

Ben Hecht Quotes

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Famous Ben Hecht Quotes

“Love's the only thing I've thought of or read about since I was knee-high. That's what I always dreamed of, of meeting somebody and falling in love. And when that remarkable thing happened, I was going to recite poetry to her for hours about how her heart's an angel's wing and her hair the strings of a heavenly harp. Instead I got drunk and hollered at her and called her a harpy.”

LoveHeartFallHoursHappenedHairAngelWingsMeetingsFalling In LoveThings HappenDrunkKneesRemarkableHeavenlyStringsHarpsHarpies
Author:Ben Hecht
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“I haunted streets, whorehouses, police stations, courtrooms, theater stages, jails, saloons, slums, madhouses, fires, murders, riots, banquet halls and bookshops. I ran everywhere in the city like a fly buzzing in the works of a clock, tasted more than any fit belly could hold, learned not to sleep, and buried myself in a tick-tock of whirling hours that still echo in me.”

StillsHoursSleepCitiesFireStreetsStageFitMurderTheaterPoliceClockRanStationsHallsJailBuriedEchoesBellyRiotTickSlumsBanquetsCourtroomBookshopsSaloonsMadhousesTockTick Tock
Author:Ben Hecht
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“The factors that laid low so whooping and puissant an empire as the old Hollywood are many. I can think of a score, including the barbarian hordes of Television. But there is one that stands out for me in the post-mortem.... The factor had to do with the basis of movie-making: 'Who shall be in charge of telling the story.'”

ThinkingI CanStoriesTelevisionLowsHollywoodBasesIncludingFactorsPostsScoreEmpiresStanding OutBarbariansHordeMovie MakingOld Hollywood
Author:Ben Hecht
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“The writer is a definite human phenomenon. He is almost a type - as pugilists are a type. He may be a bad writer - an insipid one or a clumsy one - but there is a bug in him that keeps spinning yarns; and that bulges his brow a bit, narrows his jaws, weakens his eyes and gives him girl children instead of boys. Nobody but a writer can write. People who hang around writers for years - as producers did - who are much smarter and have much better taste, never learn to write.”

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Author:Ben Hecht
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“There was a land of Cavaliers and Cotton Fields called the Old South. Here in this pretty world, Gallantry took its last bow. Here was the last ever to be seen of Knights and their Ladies Fair, of Master and of Slave. Look for it only in books, for it is no more than a dream remembered, a Civilization gone with the wind.”

WorldLooksBookDreamLastsGoneLandFieldsWindMastersCivilizationFairsSlaveSouthRememberedBowsKnightsCottonGallantryScarlett O HaraCotton Fields
Author:Ben Hecht
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“Criticism can never instruct or benefit you. Its chief effect is that of a telegram with dubious news. Praise leaves no glow behind, for it is a writer's habit to remember nothing good of himself. I have usually forgotten those who have admired my work, and seldom anyone who disliked it. Obviously, this is because praise is never enough and censure always too much.”

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Book:A child of the century
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