Quotes by Irwin Shaw

“There are too many books I havent read, too many places I havent seen, too many memories I havent kept long enough.”

“If football players were armed with guns, there wouldnt be stadiums large enough to hold the crowds”

“I cringe when critics say Im a master of the popular novel. Whats an unpopular novel?”

“An absolutely necessary part of a writers 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.”

“You go to the multiplex and you dont see anyone you know, ... invariably you see someone you know. Its like old home week.”

“A lot of people have neat memories of here that add to the enjoyment of what theyre coming to see,”

“The theater went from just weekend shows to Wednesday and Thursday also,”

“The idea behind that was to encourage regular attendance,”

“That, I think, is when things really took off, ... More and more people were buying the passes.”

“They do an excellent job, ... They really care about it and look into it.”

I cringe when critics say Im a master of the popular novel. Whats an unpopular novel?

I never drink while Im working, but after a few glasses I get ideas that would never have occurred to me dead sober.

Now, Elias said, if only I didnt have to go home to my lousy wife. I married her in 1929. A lot of thingsve changed since 1929. He sighed. Whats a woman? he asked. A Woman is a trap.

When I think of New York City, I think of all the girls, the Jewish girls, the Italian girls, the Irish, Polack, Chinese, German, Negro, Spanish, Russian girls, all on parade in the city. I dont know whether its something special with me or whether every man in the city walks around with the same feeling inside him, but I feel as though Im at a picnic in this city. I like to sit near the women in the theaters, the famous beauties whove taken six hours to get ready and look it. And the young girls at the football games, with the red cheeks, and when the warm weather comes, the girls in their summer dresses . . .

Im older now, Im a man getting near middle age, putting on a little fat and I still love to walk along Fifth Avenue at three oclock on the east side of the street between Fiftieth and Fifty-seventh streets, theyre all out then, making believe theyre shopping, in their furs and their crazy hats, everything all concentrated from all over the world into eight blocks, the best furs, the best clothes, the handsomest women, out to spend money and feeling good about it, looking coldly at you, making believe theyre not looking at you as you go past.

I look at everything. God gave me eyes and I look at women and men and subway excavations and moving pictures and the little flowers of the field. I casually inspect the universe.

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

Critics in New York are made by their dislikes, not by their enthusiasms.

My attitudes have changed, but somebody would have to read all my books to find out how they have.

The romantic idea is that everybody around a writer must suffer for his talent. I think a writer is a citizen of humanity, part of his nation, part of his family. He may have to make some compromises.