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
terrifying
I write of the wish that comes true - for some reason, a terrifying concept.
criticism critics
Time is the only critic.
fear hate
That's all it takes, one drop of fear to curdle love into hate.
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.
ifs can-do you-can-do-it
If you have to do it, you can do it.
noon
They threw me off the haytruck about noon.
hands cracks whips
The hand that holds the money cracks the whip.
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.
guitar moonlight
A guitar has moonlight in it.
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".
dog beer rivers
O.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.
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.