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.
James M. CainYou have to wait for your mind to catch up with whatever it is itโs working on; then you can write a novel.
James M. CainA 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.
James M. CainO.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.
James M. CainWhen itโs too good, you do it over again. Too good is too easy. If itโs too easy you have to worry. If youโre not lying awake at night worrying about it, the reader isnโt going to, either. I always know that when I get a good nightโs sleep, the next day Iโm not going to get any work done. Writing a novel is like working on foreign policy. There are problems to be solved. Itโs not all inspirational.
James M. Cain