James M. Cain
James M. Cain
James Mallahan Cainwas an American author and journalist. Cain vehemently opposed labeling, but he is usually associated with the hardboiled school of American crime fiction and is seen as one of the creators of the roman noir. Several of his crime novels inspired successful movies...
NationalityAmerican
ProfessionNovelist
Date of Birth1 July 1892
CountryUnited States of America
writing college typewriters
A lot of novelists start late-Conrad, Pirandello, even Mark Twain. When you're young, chess is all right, and music and poetry. But novel-writing is something else. It has to be learned, but it can't be taught. This bunkum and stinkum of college creative writing courses! The academics don't know that the only thing you can do for someone who wants to write is to buy him a typewriter.
writing night ifs
If your writing doesn`t keep you up at night, it won`t keep anyone else up either".
dog beer rivers
O.K." "Gee I'm glad." "Me too. I'm so sick of hot dogs and beer and apple pie with cheese on the side I could heave it all in the river." "You'll love it, Frank. We'll get a place up in the mountains, where it's cool, and then, after I get my act ready, we can go all over the world with it. Go as we please, do as we please, and have plenty of money to spend. Have you got a little bit of gypsy in you?" "Gypsy? I had rings in my ears when I was born.
writing wish reason
I write of the wish that comes true--for some reason, a terrifying thought.
new-york writing stories
If you can't write like New York, you have no business living in New York and making New York the locale of your stories.
effort tough conscious
I make no conscious effort to be tough, or hard-boiled, or grim, or any of the things I am usually called.
good-night lying writing
When it’s too good, you do it over again. Too good is too easy. If it’s too easy you have to worry. If you’re not lying awake at night worrying about it, the reader isn’t going to, either. I always know that when I get a good night’s sleep, the next day I’m not going to get any work done. Writing a novel is like working on foreign policy. There are problems to be solved. It’s not all inspirational.
writing problem foreign-policy
Writing a novel is like working on foreign policy. There are problems to be solved. It's not all inspirational.
bills size hills
You usually can tell when a writer is going down hill by the size of his liquor bill.
people upset mind
She was a little given to rehearsing things in her mind, and having imaginary triumphs over people who had upset her in one way and another.
rabbits rattlesnakes
I loved her like a rabbit loves a rattlesnake
fear hate
Love, when you get fear in it, it's not love any more. It's hate.