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Chance Quote by Irwin Shaw

“You must avoid giving hostages to fortune, like getting an…” quote by Irwin Shaw — Download Open image

“You must avoid giving hostages to fortune, like getting an expensive wife, an expensive house, and a style of living that never lets you aford the time to take the chance to write what you wish.”

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More by Irwin Shaw

“The world," said Pavone, "will swing to the left. The whole world except America. The world will swing, not because people read Karl Marx,…

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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…

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A writer has to live with a sense of honor.

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It's those damn critics again.

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I haven't stuck to any formula. Most great writers stick to the same style, but I wanted to be more various

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

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

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“This time it is not a simple, understandable war, within the same culture. This time it is an assault of the animal world upon…

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

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

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“The abuse of alcohol,” Mr. Parrish said in a solemn, preacher-like voice, as he reached for his glass, “is the one thing that puts…

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Before I debuted, it was my goal to make my debut, and afterwards, I aimed at winning champion titles on television music shows, and…

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I might, by chance, write something just as shoddy; But then I wouldn't show it to everybody.

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The happy medium is television. And if you find a good suitor, you can do it for years. With movies, you roll the dice.…

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I have heard that if you pull a bent breath through the second hole of a harmonica tuned to the key of Georgia while…

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There are times when we can feel destiny close around us like a fist around a doorknob. Sure, we can resist. But a knob…

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Pain held no terror for him. Pain was, if not friend, then family, something he had grown up with in his crèche, learning to…

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Love changes people, for better or for worse. You could look at it as a chance for you to change. The best kind of…

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“It's not who, it's when”

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Childhood is Last Chance Gulch for happiness. After that, you know too much.

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