“Everywhere was the atmosphere of a long debauch that had to end; the orchestras played too fast, the stakes were too high at the gambling tables, the players were so empty, so tired, secretly hoping to vanish together into sleep… — Malcolm Cowley Copy Share Image
“The late 1920s were an age of islands, real and metaphorical. They were an age when Americans by thousands and tens of thousands were scheming to take the next boat for the South Seas or the West Indies, or better… — Malcolm Cowley Copy Share Image
“There would seem to be four stages in the composition of a story. First comes the germ of the story, then a period of more or less conscious meditation, then the first draft, and finally the revision, which may be simply ‘pencil work’ as John O’Hara calls it — that is, minor changes in wording — or may lead to… — Malcolm Cowley Copy Share
First New York was a sort of provincial capital, bigger and richer than Manchester or Marseilles, but not much different in its essential spirit.… — Malcolm Cowley Copy Share Image
“Everywhere was the atmosphere of a long debauch that had to end; the orchestras played too fast, the stakes were too high at the… — Malcolm Cowley Copy Share Image
Authors are sometimes like tomcats: They distrust all the other toms but they are kind to kittens — Malcolm Cowley Copy Share Image
Writing offers fairly large rewards to a few successful people, but the rewards come late, and most writers are failures. — Malcolm Cowley Copy Share Image
“They were learning that New York had another life, too — subterranean, like almost everything that was human in the city — a life of writers meeting in restaurants at lunchtime or in coffee houses after business hours to talk of work just started or magazines unpublished, and even to lay modest plans for the future. Modestly they were beginning… — Malcolm Cowley Copy Share
The germ of a story is a new and simple element introduced into an existing situation or mood. — Malcolm Cowley Copy Share Image
Age is not different from earlier life as long as youre sitting down. — Malcolm Cowley Copy Share Image
They tell you that you'll lose your mind when you grow older. What they don't tell you is that you won't miss it very… — Malcolm Cowley Copy Share Image
In matters like writing and painting, a man does what he has to do - if he has to write, why then, he writes;… — Malcolm Cowley Copy Share Image
It is the fear of being as dependent as a young child, while not being loved as a child is loved, but merely being… — Malcolm Cowley Copy Share Image
I never cease to be amazed why some of my friends became famous and others, just as talented, didn't. I've come to suspect it's… — Malcolm Cowley Copy Share Image
