Malcolm Cowley

“There would seem to be four stages in the composition of a story. First comes the germ of the story, then a…

— Malcolm Cowley

First New York was a sort of provincial capital, bigger and richer than Manchester or Marseilles, but not much different in its…

— Malcolm Cowley

“Everywhere was the atmosphere of a long debauch that had to end; the orchestras played too fast, the stakes were too high…

— Malcolm Cowley

Authors are sometimes like tomcats: They distrust all the other toms but they are kind to kittens

— Malcolm Cowley

Writing offers fairly large rewards to a few successful people, but the rewards come late, and most writers are failures.

— Malcolm Cowley

“They were learning that New York had another life, too — subterranean, like almost everything that was human in the city —…

— Malcolm Cowley

The germ of a story is a new and simple element introduced into an existing situation or mood.

— Malcolm Cowley

Age is not different from earlier life as long as youre sitting down.

— Malcolm Cowley

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…

— Malcolm Cowley

In matters like writing and painting, a man does what he has to do - if he has to write, why then,…

— Malcolm Cowley

It is the fear of being as dependent as a young child, while not being loved as a child is loved, but…

— Malcolm Cowley

I never cease to be amazed why some of my friends became famous and others, just as talented, didn't. I've come to…

— Malcolm Cowley

Going back to Hemingway's work after several years is like going back to a brook where you had often fished and finding…

— Malcolm Cowley

Be kind and considerate with your criticism... It's just as hard to write a bad book as it is to write a…

— Malcolm Cowley

Talent is what you possess; genius is what possesses you.

— Malcolm Cowley

“No complete son of a bitch ever wrote a good sentence.”

— Malcolm Cowley

It would have been the equivalent of Jackson Pollock's attempts to copy the Sistine Chapel.

— Malcolm Cowley

“...but you drank your black coffee by choice, believeng that Paris was sufficient alcohol.”

— Malcolm Cowley

Age is not different from earlier life as long as you're sitting down

— Malcolm Cowley

A man rising in the world is not concerned with history; he is too busy making it. But a citizen with a…

— Malcolm Cowley

“The late 1920s were an age of islands, real and metaphorical. They were an age when Americans by thousands and tens of…

— Malcolm Cowley

Any fiction should be a story. In any story there are three elements: persons, a situation, and the fact that in the…

— Malcolm Cowley

Put cotton in your ears and pebbles in your shoes. Pull on rubber gloves. Smear Vaseline over your glasses, and there you…

— Malcolm Cowley