A good editor understands what you're talking and writing about and doesn't meddle too much.
Irwin Shaw
2
A writer has to live with a sense of honor.
Irwin Shaw
3
All writers are the same - they forget a thousand good reviews and remember one bad one.
Irwin Shaw
4
At the height of the McCarthy period, writers were being hounded.
Irwin Shaw
5
Every novelist has a different purpose - and often several purposes which might even be contradictory.
Irwin Shaw
6
I am forced to say that I have many fiercer critics than myself.
Irwin Shaw
7
I cringe when critics say I'm a master of the popular novel. What's an unpopular novel?
Irwin Shaw
8
I don't think that the writer is regarded as a freak by Americans.
Irwin Shaw
9
I haven't stuck to any formula. Most great writers stick to the same style, but I wanted to be more various.
Irwin Shaw
10
I imagine that my characters have become much more complicated than when I first began, which would be normal.
Irwin Shaw
11
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
12
I'm not as hopeful as I was when I was young.
Irwin Shaw
13
I've gone on the wagon, but my body doesn't believe it.
Irwin Shaw
14
In America, we have the feeling of the doomed young artist. Fitzgerald was the great example of that.
Irwin Shaw
15
In Europe, a writer is supposed to improve up until he's about 75.
Irwin Shaw
16
My attitudes have changed, but somebody would have to read all my books to find out how they have.
Irwin Shaw
17
My favorite short-story writer is John Cheever.
Irwin Shaw
18
My views naturally have mellowed. Most of the critics have been more or less nice to me.
Irwin Shaw
19
No writer need feel sorry for himself if he writes and enjoys it, even if he doesn't get paid.
Irwin Shaw
20
People who light up like Roman candles come down in the dark very quickly.
Irwin Shaw
21
Posterity makes the judgments. There are going to be a lot of surprises in store for everybody.
Irwin Shaw
22
Special-interest magazines are dangerous places for writers to start out in because the writing quickly falls into a routine and people are likely to find themselves artistically exhausted when they want to work on something of their own.
Irwin Shaw
23
The great writers just kept bringing them out. They didn't care if they repeated themselves.
Irwin Shaw
24
The last paragraph, in which you tell what the story is about, is almost always best left out.
Irwin Shaw
25
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
26
There are too many books I haven't read, too many places I haven't seen, too many memories I haven't kept long enough.
Irwin Shaw
27
Writing for the theater, you find yourself living a nocturnal life.
Irwin Shaw
28
Writing is like a contact sport, like football. You can get hurt, but you enjoy it.
Irwin Shaw
