Irwin Shaw quotes

Irwin Shaw was an American playwright, screenwriter, and novelist, celebrated for his impactful contributions to 20th-century literature. His works often explored themes of war, morality, and the complexities of human relationships. He gained international fame with novels such as "The Young Lions" and is remembered as a masterful storyteller. Here are 47 of his quotes:

I cringe when critics say I'm a master of the popular novel. What's an unpopular novel?

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

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

Writing is like a contact sport, like football. You can get hurt, but you enjoy it.

Irwin Shaw

A writer has to live with a sense of honor.

Irwin Shaw

A good editor understands what you're talking and writing about and doesn't meddle too much.

Irwin Shaw

All writers are the same - they forget a thousand good reviews and remember one bad one.

Irwin Shaw

My attitudes have changed, but somebody would have to read all my books to find out how they have.

Irwin Shaw

In the theater, characters have to cut the umbilical cord from the writer and talk in their own voices.

Irwin Shaw

Posterity makes the judgments. There are going to be a lot of surprises in store for everybody.

Irwin Shaw

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.

Irwin Shaw

I've gone on the wagon, but my body doesn't believe it.

Irwin Shaw

The last paragraph, in which you tell what the story is about, is almost always best left out.

Irwin Shaw

If you're young enough, any kind of writing you do for a short period of time is a marvelous apprenticeship.

Irwin Shaw

When I started out in the early 1930s, there were a great many magazines that published short stories. Unfortunately, the short-story market has dwindled to almost nothing.

Irwin Shaw

Ernest Hemingway did a great deal toward making the writer an acceptable public figure; obviously, he was no sissy.

Irwin Shaw

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.

Irwin Shaw

At the height of the McCarthy period, writers were being hounded.

Irwin Shaw

The writer works in a lonely way.

Irwin Shaw

I haven't stuck to any formula. Most great writers stick to the same style, but I wanted to be more various.

Irwin Shaw

Every novelist has a different purpose - and often several purposes which might even be contradictory.

Irwin Shaw

I am forced to say that I have many fiercer critics than myself.

Irwin Shaw