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
effort tough conscious
I make no conscious effort to be tough, or hard-boiled, or grim, or any of the things I am usually called.
good-night lying writing
When it’s too good, you do it over again. Too good is too easy. If it’s too easy you have to worry. If you’re not lying awake at night worrying about it, the reader isn’t going to, either. I always know that when I get a good night’s sleep, the next day I’m not going to get any work done. Writing a novel is like working on foreign policy. There are problems to be solved. It’s not all inspirational.
writing problem foreign-policy
Writing a novel is like working on foreign policy. There are problems to be solved. It's not all inspirational.
bills size hills
You usually can tell when a writer is going down hill by the size of his liquor bill.
people upset mind
She was a little given to rehearsing things in her mind, and having imaginary triumphs over people who had upset her in one way and another.
rabbits rattlesnakes
I loved her like a rabbit loves a rattlesnake
fear hate
Love, when you get fear in it, it's not love any more. It's hate.
girl distance years
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.
gun men haste
A gun is like breath to a drowning man--it has to be drawn in haste.
men
I had killed a man, for money and a woman. I didn't have the money and I didn't have the woman.
new-york cities village
New York is not even a city, it's a congerie of rotten villages.
men wife car
Stealing a man's wife, that's nothing, but stealing his car, that's larceny.