Writing Quotes by 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…

— Irwin Shaw

A writer has to live with a sense of honor.

— Irwin Shaw

Special-interest magazines are dangerous places for writers to start out in because the writing quickly falls into a routine and people are…

— 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

Writing is like a contact sport, like football. Why do kids play football? They can get hurt on any play, can't they?…

— Irwin Shaw

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

— Irwin Shaw

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

— Irwin Shaw

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

— Irwin Shaw

A writer is a human being. He has to live with a sense of honor.

— Irwin Shaw

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

— Irwin Shaw

Curiously, the United States is full of writers who have one big work in their life and that's all.

— Irwin Shaw

Kennedy was a man who liked writers and even I got invited to the White House

— Irwin Shaw

Writing for the theater, you find yourself living a nocturnal life

— Irwin Shaw

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

— Irwin Shaw

No writer need feel sorry for himself if he writes and enjoys it, even if he doesn't get paid.

— Irwin Shaw

I reach my readers regardless of what the critics have written

— Irwin Shaw

My favorite short-story writer is John Cheever

— Irwin Shaw

I don't think that the writer is regarded as a freak by Americans

— Irwin Shaw

The writer works in a lonely way.

— Irwin Shaw

The romantic idea is that everybody around a writer must suffer for his talent. I think a writer is a citizen of…

— Irwin Shaw

The great writers just kept bringing them out. They didn't care if they repeated themselves.

— Irwin Shaw

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

— Irwin Shaw

Writing is finally play, and there's no reason why you should get paid for playing

— 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

“No writer need feel sorry for himself if he writes and enjoys the writing, even if he doesn’t get paid for it.”

— Irwin Shaw