114 Quotes by Irwin Shaw

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

If you’re young enough, any kind of writing you do for a short period of time is a marvelous apprenticeship.

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

I never show anything to anybody until I’ve finished it.

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

My favorite short-story writer is John Cheever.

I’m not as hopeful as I was when I was young.

I cringe when critics say I’m a master of the popular novel. What’s an unpopular novel?

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