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Quote by Pete Hamill

“The goal is to be both disciplined and loose, so that the writing does not turn into a task or a chore. To leave myself behind, along with the mechanics, and disappear into the lives of my characters.”

Quote by Pete Hamill

Author

Pete Hamill (born June 24, 1935) was a renowned American journalist, author, and columnist. Born in Brooklyn, New York, to Irish immigrant parents, he became a prominent voice in New York journalism. Hamill wrote for major outlets like the New York Post, Daily News, and The New Yorker, covering politics, culture, and social issues. He was known for his deep empathy for the city's working class and immigrants. Hamill also authored several novels and nonfiction works, including the bestseller "A Drinking Life." His direct, emotional style and personal narratives made him a distinctive figure in American media. He passed away in 2020, leaving a lasting legacy. more

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“The best newspapermen I know are those most thrilled by the daily pump of city room excitements; they long fondly for a good murder; they pray that assassinations, wars, catastrophes break on their editions.”

Knows Long War Rooms Cities Break Praying Murder Excitement Catastrophe Assassination Pumps

Author:Pete Hamill

“The culture of drink endures because it offers so many rewards: confidence for the shy, clarity for the uncertain, solace to the wounded and lonely, and above all, the elusive promises of friendship and love.”

Culture Drink Promise Offers Lonely And Love Rewards Endure Clarity Shy Uncertain Wounded Solace Elusive Love And Friendship

Book:A Drinking Life: A Memoir

Source: A Drinking Life: A Memoir

“Frank Sinatra was the voice of the 20th-century American city.”

Voice Cities Century Frank 20th Century American Cities

Author:Pete Hamill

“One thing is certain: for many of those who came back from WWII, the music of Frank Sinatra was no consolation for their losses. Some had lost friends. Some had lost wives and lovers. All had lost portions of their youth. More important to the Sinatra career the girls started marrying the men who came home. Bobby socks vanished from many closets. The girls who wore them had no need anymore for imaginary lovers; they had husbands. Nothing is more embarrassing to grownups than the passions of adolescence, and for many, Frank Sinatra was the passion.”

“A critic is someone who enters the battlefield after the war is over and shoots the wounded.”

War Critics Wounded Battlefields

Author:Murray Kempton

“Any experience deeply felt makes some men better and some men worse. When it has ended, they share nothing but the recollection of a commitment in which each was tested and to some degree found wanting. [...] The consequences of the journey change the voyager so much more than the embarking or the arrival.”

Men Found Felt Journey Share Degrees Commitment Consequence Tested Recollection Arrivals Embarking

Author:Murray Kempton

“By adherence to a special set of rules, the child of the shabby-genteel can sometimes leap across the time which has passed by his family and function in the real world without doing violence to the hopes his mother held out for him. But those who cannot live within this pattern are the freaks and poets, and they travel a different road to peace.”

World Children Different Real Sometimes Mother Violence Special Poet Function Patterns Leap Real World Freak Adherence Shabby Different Roads

Book:Part of Our Time: Some Ruins and Monuments of the Thirties

Source: Part of Our Time: Some Ruins and Monuments of the Thirties

“To say that an idea is fashionable is to say, I think, that is has been adulterated to a point where it is hardly an idea at all.”

Thinking Has Beens Ideas Fashionable

Author:Murray Kempton

“A neighborhood is where, when you go out of it, you get beat up.”

Beats Neighborhood

Book:America comes of middle age: columns, 1950-1962

Source: America comes of middle age: columns, 1950-1962

“No great scoundrel is ever uninteresting.”

Author:Murray Kempton