Malcolm Cowley quotes
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“The germ of a story is a new and simple element introduced into an existing situation or mood.”
-- Malcolm CowleySource : Malcolm Cowley (1978). “And I worked at the writer's trade: chapters of literary history, 1918-1978”, Viking Adult
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“In matters like writing and painting, a man does what he has to do - if he has to write, why then, he writes; and if he doesn't feel the urgent need of writing, there are dozens of professions in which it is easier to earn a comfortable living.”
-- Malcolm Cowley -
“Talent is what you possess; genius is what possesses you.”
-- Malcolm Cowley -
“Writing offers fairly large rewards to a few successful people, but the rewards come late, and most writers are failures.”
-- Malcolm Cowley -
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“Be kind and considerate with your criticism... It's just as hard to write a bad book as it is to write a good book.”
-- Malcolm Cowley -
“Going back to Hemingway's work after several years is like going back to a brook where you had often fished and finding the woods as deep and cool as they used to be.”
-- Malcolm CowleySource : Quoted in Pete Hamill A Drinking Life (1994).
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“First New York was a sort of provincial capital, bigger and richer than Manchester or Marseilles, but not much different in its essential spirit. Then, after the war, it became one among half a dozen world cities. Today it has the appearance of standing alone, as the center of culture in the part of the world that still tries to be civilized.”
-- Malcolm CowleySource : MALCOLM COWLEY (1967). “Think Back on Us”
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“Authors are sometimes like tomcats: They distrust all the other toms but they are kind to kittens”
-- Malcolm Cowley -
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“Age is not different from earlier life as long as you're sitting down”
-- Malcolm Cowley -
“Put cotton in your ears and pebbles in your shoes. Pull on rubber gloves. Smear Vaseline over your glasses, and there you have it: instant old age.”
-- Malcolm Cowley -
“A man rising in the world is not concerned with history; he is too busy making it. But a citizen with a fixed place in the community wants to acquire a glorious past just as he acquires antique furniture. By that past he is reassured of his present importance; in it he finds strength to face the dangers that lie in front of him.”
-- Malcolm CowleySource : MALCOLM COWLEY (1967). “Think Back on Us”
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“They tell you that you'll lose your mind when you grow older. What they don't tell you is that you won't miss it very much.”
-- Malcolm CowleySource : Malcolm Cowley (1982). “The view from 80”, Penguin Books, 1982
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“It is the fear of being as dependent as a young child, while not being loved as a child is loved, but merely being kept alive against one's will.”
-- Malcolm CowleySource : Malcolm Cowley (1980). “The view from 80”, Viking Pr
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