Literary Birthday – 27 February – Irwin Shaw

Irwin Shaw was born 27 February 1913, and died 16 May 1984.

Top 10 Irwin Shaw Quotes On Writing

  1. 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.
  2. All writers are the same – they forget a thousand good reviews and remember one bad one.
  3. Writing is like a contact sport, like football. You can get hurt, but you enjoy it.
  4. The great writers just kept bringing them out. They didn’t care if they repeated themselves.
  5. 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.
  6. I cringe when critics say I’m a master of the popular novel. What’s an unpopular novel?
  7. Ernest Hemingway did a great deal toward making the writer an acceptable public figure; obviously, he was no sissy.
  8. And perhaps it isn’t a bad idea for a young writer to taste failure before success, because he’s going to know a lot more of failure before he’s done.
  9. I imagine that my characters have become much more complicated than when I first began, which would be normal.
  10. The last paragraph, in which you tell what the story is about, is almost always best left out.

Irwin Shaw was a prolific American playwright, screenwriter, novelist, and short-story author. His written works have sold more than 14 million copies. He is best known for his novels The Young Lions and Rich Man, Poor Man.

Source for Image

Amanda Patterson by Amanda Patterson

Are you interested in more authors’ birthdays? Please click here: Literary Birthday Calendar

Posted on: 27th February 2013
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