Irwin Shaw Quotes

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There are too many books I haven’t read, too many places I haven’t seen, too many memories I haven’t kept long enough.
Irwin Shaw
There are too many books I haven't read, too many places I haven't seen, too many memories I haven't kept long enough
Irwin Shaw
I cringe when critics say I'm a master of the popular novel. What's an unpopular novel?
Irwin Shaw
I never drink while I'm working, but after a few glasses I get ideas that would never have occurred to me dead sober.
Irwin Shaw
An absolutely necessary part of a writer's equipment, almost as necessary as talent, is the ability to stand up under punishment, both the punishment the world hands out and the punishment he inflicts upon himself.
Irwin Shaw
I look at everything. God gave me eyes and I look at women and men and subway excavations and moving pictures and the little flowers of the field. I casually inspect the universe.
Irwin Shaw (Short Stories of Irwin Shaw)
All writers are the same - they forget a thousand good reviews and remember one bad one.
Irwin Shaw
ما قيمة هذه الدنيا التي تتعلقون بها ؟ ..
Irwin Shaw (Bury The Dead)
If the players were armed with guns, there wouldn’t be stadiums large enough to hold the crowds.
Irwin Shaw
Critics in New York are made by their dislikes, not by their enthusiasms.
Irwin Shaw
No writer need feel sorry for himself if he writes and enjoys the writing, even if he doesn’t get paid for it.
Irwin Shaw
It is always necessary to remain barbarians, because it is the barbarians who always win.
Irwin Shaw (The Young Lions)
A taste of luxury is part of the education of any intelligent human being. It teaches him how unnecessary it is.
Irwin Shaw (Bread Upon the Waters)
يجب أن تترك الفرصة للإنسان ليمضي إلى قبره في هدوء ولا يقذف به إليه قذفا
Irwin Shaw (ثورة الموتى)
Our imperfections are the bonds that hold us together. We might as well recognize them.
Irwin Shaw (Bread Upon the Waters)
По едно време той беше промърморил "Завинаги" с устни, опрени до гърлото ѝ, и сега тя си спомни това, като си мислеше колко млад трябва да е човек, за да каже "завинаги".
Irwin Shaw (Lucy Crown)
The modern world, he thought resentfully, prepares you very poorly for the tests it puts you to.
Irwin Shaw (The Young Lions)
I make it a point to look as healthy and attractive as I can at all times,” Boylan had explained to Rudolph. “Even if I don’t see anybody for weeks on end. It’s a form of self-respect.
Irwin Shaw (Rich Man, Poor Man)
Now,' Elias said, 'if only I didn't have to go home to my lousy wife. I married her in 1929. A lot of things've changed since 1929.' He sighed. 'What's a woman?' he asked. 'A Woman is a trap.
Irwin Shaw (Short Stories: Five Decades (Phoenix Fiction))
Horror would not annoy a soldier any more than the sight of a hammer annoys a carpenter. It is sentimental to pretend that horror is not the tool of the soldier, just as the hammer is the tool of the carpenter. We live off death and the threat of death and we must take it calmly and use it well.... Eventually I came to enjoy killing, as a pianist enjoys the Czerny which keeps his fingers limber for the Beethoven.
Irwin Shaw (The Young Lions)
The abuse of alcohol,” Mr. Parrish said in a solemn, preacher-like voice, as he reached for his glass, “is the one thing that puts Man above the animal.
Irwin Shaw (The Young Lions)
الاطفالا لا يسعدون الفقراء ، لا هم ولا أي شيء آخر يمكن أن يسعدهم
Irwin Shaw (ثورة الموتى)
The war's not over yet,' Jordache said. 'There's still a lot of idiots waiting that have to be killed.
Irwin Shaw (Rich Man, Poor Man)
You’re a good model for a German soldier, except for the hair. You look as though you once had a thought in your head and that’s hard to find.
Irwin Shaw (The Young Lions)
When I went into the Army, I made up my mind that I was putting myself at the Army's disposal. I believe in the war. That doesn't mean I believe in the Army. I don't believe in any army. You don't expect justice out of an army, if you're a sensible, grown-up human being, you only expect victory. And if it comes to that, our Army is probably the most just one that ever existed. . . . I expected the Army to be corrupt, inefficient, cruel, wasteful, and it turned out to be all those things, just like all armies, only much less so than I thought before I got into it. It is much less corrupt, for example, than the German Army. Good for us. The victory we win will not be as good as it might be, if it were a different kind of army, but it will be the best kind of victory we can expect in this day and age, and I'm thankful for it.
Irwin Shaw (The Young Lions)
Это как прыжок в воду, подумала она. Оттолкнувшись, уже нельзя передумать, какой бы высокой ни показалась вышка, каким бы глубоким ни был водоем, какой бы страх ты ни испытывал, как бы сильно не пожалел, что оторвался от мостика.
Irwin Shaw (Lucy Crown)
Thomas B. Costain, Herman Wouk, Marjorie Kinnan Rawlings, Kenneth Roberts, Edna Ferber, Sholem Asch, Ben Ames Williams, Frederic Wakeman, Frances Parkinson Keyes, Irwin Shaw, Budd Schulberg, Hamilton Basso, and, of course, Samuel Shellabarger.
Samuel Shellabarger (Prince of Foxes: The Best-Selling Historical Epic)
Why does a man spend fifty years of his life in an occupation that is often painful? I once told a class I was teaching that writing is an intellectual contact sport, similar in some respects to football. The effort required can be exhausting, the goal unreached, and you are hurt on almost every play; but that doesn’t deprive a man or a boy from getting peculiar pleasures from the game.
Irwin Shaw (Short Stories: Five Decades (Phoenix Fiction))
Are these the people, created in greatness by the work of Jefferson and Franklin, he thought, are these the bitter farmers and hunters and craftsmen who came out of the wilderness, furious for liberty and justice, is this the new world of giants sung by Whitman?
Irwin Shaw (The Young Lions)
ينبغي على هؤلاء الرجال الذين ظلوا يموتون منذ آلاف السنين من أجل فرعون وقيصر وروما " ، أن ينتبهوا في نهاية الأمر -وقبل أن يضيع كل أمل- إلى أن الإنسان قد يموت وهو سعيد ، ويُدفن وهو راضٍ "... حينما يموت في سبيل نفسه أو في سبيل وطنه حقاً، أو لسبب يهمه هو ولا يهم فرعون أو قيصر أو روما
Irwin Shaw (ثورة الموتى)
The world," said Pavone, "will swing to the left. The whole world except America. The world will swing, not because people read Karl Marx, or because agitators will come out of Russia, but because, after the war is over, that will be the only way they can turn. Everything else will have been tried, everything else will have failed. And I am afraid that American will be isolated, hated, backward, we will all be living there like old maids in a lonely house in the woods, locking the doors, looking under the beds, with a fortune in the mattress, not being able to sleep, because every time the wind blows and a floor creaks, we will think the murderers are breaking in to kill us and take our treasure...
Irwin Shaw (The Young Lions)
أليس لموتك معنى أكبر من حياتك ؟ ربما .. وربما لم يكن هناك أي معنى لا للحياة ولا للموت ، ولكننا لا نستطيع أن نصدق ذلك
Irwin Shaw (ثورة الموتى)
Кейт, всеки път, когато те любя, забравям по едно лошо нещо в живота си
Irwin Shaw (Rich Man, Poor Man)
He doesn’t drink.” “Your boss,” said Michael, “is a dangerous alien.
Irwin Shaw (The Young Lions)
This time it is not a simple, understandable war, within the same culture. This time it is an assault of the animal world upon the house of the human being. I don’t know what you saw in Africa and Italy, but I know what I saw in Russia and Poland. We made a cemetery a thousand miles long and a thousand miles wide. Men, women, children, Poles, Russians, Jews, it made no difference. It could not be compared to any human action. It could be compared to a weasel in a henhouse. It was as though we felt that if we left anything alive in the East, it would one day bear witness against us and condemn us. And, now, we have made the final mistake. We are losing the war
Irwin Shaw (The Young Lions)
Cannes was to blame, he told himself defensively. It was a city made for the indulgence of the senses, all ease and sunshine and provocative flesh. “What had he seen, what had he learned? He had seen all kinds of movies, good and bad, mostly bad. He had been plunged into a carnival, a delirium of film. In the halls, on the terraces, on the beach, at the parties, the art or industry or whatever it deserved to be called in these few days was exposed at its essence. The whole thing was there—the artists and pseudo-artists, the businessmen, the con men, the buyers and sellers, the peddlers, the whores, the pornographers, critics, hangers-on, the year’s heroes, the year’s failures. And then the distillation of what it was all about, a film of Bergman's and one of Bunuel's, pure and devastating.
Irwin Shaw (Evening in Byzantium)
When I think of New York City, I think of all the girls, the Jewish girls, the Italian girls, the Irish, Polack, Chinese, German, Negro, Spanish, Russian girls, all on parade in the city. I don't know whether it's something special with me or whether every man in the city walks around with the same feeling inside him, but I feel as though I'm at a picnic in this city. I like to sit near the women in the theaters, the famous beauties who've taken six hours to get ready and look it. And the young girls at the football games, with the red cheeks, and when the warm weather comes, the girls in their summer dresses . . .
Irwin Shaw (Short Stories of Irwin Shaw)
...Тя си спомни майка си, която умираше на шестдесетгодишна възраст и знаеше, че умира. Спомни си я как лежеше в леглото, пожълтяла и изнемощяла след един живот, изпълнен с болки, неприятности, нищета, разочарование. "Не мога да повярвам - бе казала тя. - Най-трудно ми е да повярвам, че съм една старица. По някакъв начин, освен когато се зърна в огледалото, все още имам същото усещане за себе си, което имах, когато бях на шестнадесет години. Дори и сега, когато лекарят идва и се намръщва и аз знам, че той мисли, че няма да преживея този месец, ми се иска да му кажа: "Не, има някакво недоразумение. Умирането е твърде сложно за човек, който се чувства на шестнадесет години.
Irwin Shaw (Lucy Crown)
И тогава видя пламъка, който изведнъж лумна на хълма извън града - малка, ярка огнена струя, която бързо се превърна в кръст, горящ на хоризонта. Той се засмя. Всичко си е както обикновено; по дяволите победадата. Долу католиците, негрите и евреите и не забравяй - весели се днес, защото утре ще гориш в пламъци. Америка си е Америка. Ние сме тук, за да ви напомним каква е истината.
Irwin Shaw (Rich Man, Poor Man)
Рудолф имаше дарбата да се харесва. Но разбираше, че това всъщност не е истински талант. Трябваше предварително да се подготви, за да го харесат, за да бъде симпатичен на хората, да се прави, че проявява интерес към тях и да приема с радост неблагодарни поръчения. Не смяташе, че умението му да се харесва е истински талант, защото нямаше близки приятели, а и самият той не обичаше много хората.
Irwin Shaw (Rich Man, Poor Man)
I'm older now, I'm a man getting near middle age, putting on a little fat and I still love to walk along Fifth Avenue at three o'clock on the east side of the street between Fiftieth and Fifty-seventh streets, they're all out then, making believe they're shopping, in their furs and their crazy hats, everything all concentrated from all over the world into eight blocks, the best furs, the best clothes, the handsomest women, out to spend money and feeling good about it, looking coldly at you, making believe they're not looking at you as you go past.
Irwin Shaw (Short Stories of Irwin Shaw)
It had been off-hand and flattering, in exactly the proper proportions, and Louise had cleverly erected a thin shield of something that was less than and better than love to protect him from the comic, unending abuse of the Army. And, now, it was probably over. Women, Michael thought resentfully, can never learn the art of being transients. They are all permanent settlers at heart, making homes with dull, instinctive persistence in floods and wars, on the edges of invasions, at the moment of the crumbling of states. No, he thought, I will not have it. For my own protection I am going to get through this time alone …
Irwin Shaw (The Young Lions)
It was the most banal idea about a war, Michael knew, that if of fatality, but it was impossible not to think of it, impossible not to think of the casual threads of accident on which we survive to face the next if that comes tomorrow.
Irwin Shaw (The Young Lions)
В живота нещата много рядко стават по поръчка" "А когато един мъж ревнува, все едно, че говориш на стена или на дърво." "Има много неща, за които си струва да се криеш. Не всичко е хубаво, когато е явно.
Irwin Shaw (Rich Man, Poor Man)
Hemingway, pulling up to the Ritz with two truckloads of his French irregulars, told the bartender, “How about seventy-three dry martinis?” Later, after he and several companions had dined on soup, creamed spinach, raspberries in liqueur, and Perrier-Jouët champagne, the waiter added the Vichy tax to the bill, explaining, “It’s the law.” No matter: “We drank. We ate. We glowed,” one of Hemingway’s comrades reported. Private Irwin Shaw of the 12th Infantry, who later won fame as a writer, believed that August 25 was “the day the war should have ended.” To Ernie Pyle, ensconced in a hotel room with a soft bed though no hot water or electricity, “Paris seems to have all the beautiful girls we have always heard it had.… They dress in riotous colors.” The liberation, he concluded, was “the loveliest, brightest story of our time.” *
Rick Atkinson (The Guns at Last Light: The War in Western Europe 1944-1945 (The Liberation Trilogy))
some shadowy haven back in
Irwin Shaw (The Young Lions)
and
Irwin Shaw (Bread Upon the Waters)
Hazen had already begun to mix her a martini. She watched approvingly. “Martinis make everything worthwhile, don’t they?” she said, smiling at Strand.
Irwin Shaw (Bread Upon the Waters)
Ci sono troppi libri che non ho letto, troppi posti che non ho visto, troppi ricordi che non ho conservato abbastanza a lungo
Irwin Shaw
- Еуфория – възкликна господин Хегенер. – Дори думата, само думата те кара да тръпнеш. Това е дума от пустотите - човек никога не би я изполвал, за да опише нещо, преживяно в съвременния град. Радост, може би дори екстаз, но никога еуфория. „Еуфория” е дума, която изисква мълчание.
Irwin Shaw (The Top of the Hill)
unloading
Irwin Shaw (Rich Man, Poor Man)
a blood-spattered Utopia, now on the fringe of German soil, where no man was rich and none poor, a shell-burst democracy where all living was a community enterprise, where all food was distributed according to need and not according to pocket, where light, heat, lodging, transportation, medical attention, and funeral benefits were at the cost of the government and available with absolute impartiality to white and black, Jew and Gentile, worker and owner, where the means of production, in this case M1s, 30 caliber machine guns, 90s, 105s, 204s, mortars, bazookas, were in the hands of the masses; that ultimate Christian socialism in which all worked for the common good and the only leisure class were the dead.
Irwin Shaw (The Young Lions)
After Billy was born, they had moved to the top floor of an old
Irwin Shaw (Rich Man, Poor Man)
He was an indifferent Christian but the afternoon called for gratitude and belief.
Irwin Shaw (Bread Upon the Waters)
Ей богу, толкова сте хубава, че ми се иска просто да седна и да заплача.
Irwin Shaw (Rich Man, Poor Man)
Беше достатъчно интелигентен, за да знае, че интелигентността само по себе си не е гаранция за нищо. За успеха, който родителите му очакваха, че ще постигне, беше нужно нещо повече — късмет, произход, талант.
Irwin Shaw (Rich Man, Poor Man)
Той трябваше да се промени. Но как да се промени, какво да си промени? Гените, хромозомите или зодията?
Irwin Shaw (Rich Man, Poor Man)
He always felt trapped and restless when talking to lawyers or doing any business with them,
Irwin Shaw (The Young Lions)
Like most well-brought-up persons of twentieth-century America, the ritual of the private bathroom with the locked door was one of the pillars of existence.
Irwin Shaw (The Young Lions)
The human race was only bearable when the obscene juices of living were being constantly washed away.
Irwin Shaw (The Young Lions)
ينبغي على هؤلاء الرجال الذين ظلوا يموتون منذ آلاف السنين من أجل فرعون وقيصر وروما ، أن ينتبهوا في نهاية الأمر -وقبل أن يضيع كل أمل- إلى أن الإنسان قد يموت وهو سعيد ، ويُدفن وهو راضٍ ... حينما يموت في سبيل نفسه أو في سبيل وطنه حقاً، أو لسبب يهمه هو ولا يهم فرعون أو قيصر روما
Irwin Shaw (ثورة الموتى)