“...if he can write a book at all, a writer cannot do it by peeping over his shoulder at somebody else, any more than a woman can have a baby by watching some other woman have one. It is a genital process, and all of its stages are intra-abdominal;” WritingWritersWriters On WritingWriting A Book Book:The Butterfly Source: The Butterfly
“A lot of novelists start late-Conrad, Pirandello, even Mark Twain. When you're young, chess is all right, and music and poetry. But novel-writing is something else. It has to be learned, but it can't be taught. This bunkum and stinkum of college creative writing courses! The academics don't know that the only thing you can do for someone who wants to write is to buy him a typewriter.” KnowsWantWritingYoungCoursesCan DoNovelCreativeTaughtCollegeLateMarkChessNovelistsCreative WritingTypewritersNovel Writing Author:James M. Cain
“I write of the wish that comes true--for some reason, a terrifying thought.” WritingReasonWish Author:James M. Cain
“You have to wait for your mind to catch up with whatever it is it’s working on; then you can write a novel.” WritingMindWaitingNovel Author:James M. Cain
“If your writing doesn`t keep you up at night, it won`t keep anyone else up either".” IfsWritingNight Author:James M. Cain
“When it’s too good, you do it over again. Too good is too easy. If it’s too easy you have to worry. If you’re not lying awake at night worrying about it, the reader isn’t going to, either. I always know that when I get a good night’s sleep, the next day I’m not going to get any work done. Writing a novel is like working on foreign policy. There are problems to be solved. It’s not all inspirational.” IfsKnowsWritingDoneProblemLyingNightNextEasySleepWorryNovelPolicyReaderAwakeForeign PolicyNext DayGood NightWork DoneAwake At Night Author:James M. Cain
“If you can't write like New York, you have no business living in New York and making New York the locale of your stories.” IfsWritingStoriesNew York Author:James M. Cain
“Writing a novel is like working on foreign policy. There are problems to be solved. It's not all inspirational.” WritingProblemNovelPolicyForeign Policy Author:James M. Cain
“I make no conscious effort to be tough, or hard-boiled, or grim, or any of the things I am usually called. I merely try to write as the character would write, and I never forget that the average man, from the fields, the streets, the bars, the offices and even the gutters of his country, has acquired a vividness of speech that goes beyond anything I could invent, and that if I stick to this heritage, this logos of the American countryside, I shall attain a maximum of effectiveness with very little effort.” IfsMenWritingTryingLittlesCountryHardCharacterForgetEffortStreetsFieldsSpeechOfficeConsciousToughSticksAverageBarsNever ForgetHeritageMaximumEffectivenessGrimCountrysideAverage ManLogosGuttersVividness Author:James M. Cain
