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 waiting mind
You have to wait for your mind to catch up with whatever it is it’s working on; then you can write a novel.
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".
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.
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.
terrifying
I write of the wish that comes true - for some reason, a terrifying concept.
men
I had killed a man, for money and a woman. I didn't have the money and I didn't have the woman.
gun men haste
A gun is like breath to a drowning man--it has to be drawn in haste.
criticism critics
Time is the only critic.
fear hate
That's all it takes, one drop of fear to curdle love into hate.
girl distance years
Yes, I have actually mined coal, and distilled liquor, as well as seen a girl in a pink dress, and seen her take it off. I am 54 years old, weigh 220 pounds, and look like the chief dispatcher of a long-distance driving concern. I am a registered Democrat. I drink.
mean home museums
A home is not a museum. It doesn't have to be furnished with Picasso paintings, or Sheraton suites, or Oriental rugs, or Chinese pottery. But it does have to be furnished with things that mean something to you.