Quotes of Nelson Algren - somelinesforyou

“ For people never say anything the same way twice; no two of them ever say it the same. The greatest imaginative writer that ever brooded in a lavender robe and a mellowed briar in his teeth, couldn't tell you, though e try for a lifetime, how the simplest straphanger will ask the conductor to be let off at the next stop. ... It is all for the taking. All the manuals by frustrated fictioneers on how to write can't give you the first syllable of reality, at any cot, that any common conversation can. All the classics, read and reread, can't help you catch the ring of truth as does the word heard firsthand. ”

- Nelson Algren

“ Never play cards with a man called Doc. Never eat at a place called Mom's. Never sleep with a woman whose troubles are worse than your own. ”

- Nelson Algren

“ You don't write a novel out of sheer pity any more than you blow a safe out of a vague longing to be rich. A certain ruthlessness and a sense of alienation from society is as essential to creative writing as it is to armed robbery. ”

- Nelson Algren

“ A book, a true book, is the writer's confessional. For, whether he would have it so or not, he is betrayed, directly or indirectly, by his characters, into presenting publicly his innermost feelings. ”

- Nelson Algren

“ For people never say anything the same way twice; no two of them ever say it the same. The greatest imaginative writer that ever brooded in a lavender robe and a mellowed briar in his teeth, couldn't tell you, though e try for a lifetime, how the simplest straphanger will ask the conductor to be let off at the next stop. ... It is all for the taking. All the manuals by frustrated fictioneers on how to write can't give you the first syllable of reality, at any cot, that any common conversation can. All the classics, read and reread, can't help you catch the ring of truth as does the word heard firsthand. ”

- Nelson Algren

“ It's the place built out of Man's ceaseless failure to overcome himself. Out of Man's endless war against himself we build our successes as well as our failures. Making it the city of all cities most like Man himself— loneliest creation of all this very old poor earth. ”

- Nelson Algren

“ A book, a true book, is the writer's confessional. For, whether he would have it so or not, he is betrayed, directly or indirectly, by his characters, into presenting publicly his innermost feelings. ”

- Nelson Algren

“ To literary critics a book is assumed to be guilty until it proves itself innocent. ”

- Nelson Algren

“ To literary critics a book is assumed to be guilty until it proves itself innocent. ”

- Nelson Algren

“ Literature is made upon any occasion that a challenge is put to the legal apparatus by conscience in touch with humanity. ”

- Nelson Algren

“ The hard necessity of bringing the judge on the bench down into the dock has been the peculiar responsibility of the writer in all ages of man. ”

- Nelson Algren

“ Chicago is an October sort of city even in spring. ”

- Nelson Algren

“ Literature is made upon any occasion that a challenge is put to the legal apparatus by conscience in touch with humanity. ”

- Nelson Algren

“ The Impossible Generalized Man today is the critic who believes in loving those unworthy of love as well as those worthy — yet believes this only insofar as no personal risk is entailed. Meaning he loves no one, worthy or no. This is what makes him impossible. ”

- Nelson Algren

“ Never play cards with a man called Doc. Never eat at a place called Mom's. Never sleep with a woman whose troubles are worse than your own. ”

- Nelson Algren

“ Never play cards with a man called Doc. Never eat at a place called Mom's. Never sleep with a woman whose troubles are worse than your own. ”

- Nelson Algren

“ Chicago is an October sort of city even in spring. ”

- Nelson Algren

“ Loving Chicago is like loving a woman with a broken nose. ”

- Nelson Algren

“ The hard necessity of bringing the judge on the bench down into the dock has been the peculiar responsibility of the writer in all ages of man. ”

- Nelson Algren

“ Never play cards with a man called Doc. Never eat at a place called Mom's. Never sleep with a woman whose troubles are worse than your own. ”

- Nelson Algren

“ Never play cards with a man called Doc. Never eat at a place called Mom's. Never sleep with a woman whose troubles are worse than your own. ”

- Nelson Algren

“ I went out there for a thousand a week, and I worked Monday, and I got fired Wednesday. The guy that hired me was out of town Tuesday. ”

- Nelson Algren

“ I went out there for a thousand a week, and I worked Monday, and I got fired Wednesday. The guy that hired me was out of town Tuesday. ”

- Nelson Algren

“ Chicago is an October sort of city even in spring. ”

- Nelson Algren

“ Literature is made upon any occasion that a challenge is put to the legal apparatus by conscience in touch with humanity. ”

- Nelson Algren

“ I went out there for a thousand a week, and I worked Monday, and I got fired Wednesday. The guy that hired me was out of town Tuesday. ”

- Nelson Algren

“ The Impossible Generalized Man today is the critic who believes in loving those unworthy of love as well as those worthy — yet believes this only insofar as no personal risk is entailed. Meaning he loves no one, worthy or no. This is what makes him impossible. ”

- Nelson Algren

“ The Impossible Generalized Man today is the critic who believes in loving those unworthy of love as well as those worthy — yet believes this only insofar as no personal risk is entailed. Meaning he loves no one, worthy or no. This is what makes him impossible. ”

- Nelson Algren

“ Literature is made upon any occasion that a challenge is put to the legal apparatus by conscience in touch with humanity. ”

- Nelson Algren

“ Literature is made upon any occasion that a challenge is put to the legal apparatus by conscience in touch with humanity. ”

- Nelson Algren
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