Nelson Algren: Quotes about thinking

Nelson Algren was American novelist, short story writer. Explore interesting quotes on thinking.

Nelson Algren: 60 quotes 7 likes

“I'm not against sentimentality. I think you need it. I mean, I don't think you get a true picture of people without it in writing… It's a kind of poetry, it's an emotional poetry, and, to bring it back to the literary scene, I don't think anything is true that doesn't have it, that doesn't have poetry in it.”

Nelson Algren

People , Thinking

“I always think of writing as a physical thing. I'm not trying to generalize, it just happens to be that way with me.”

Nelson Algren

"The Art of Fiction No. 11" (1955)

Thinking

“I've always felt strongly that a writer shouldn't be engaged with other writers, or with people who make books, or even with people who read them. I think the farther away you get from the literary traffic, the closer you are to sources.”

Nelson Algren

"The Art of Fiction No. 11" (1955)
Context: I don't know many writers. [... ] Well, I dunno, but I do have the feeling that other writers can't help you with writing. I've gone to writers' conferences and writers' sessions and writers' clinics, and the more I see of them, the more I'm sure it's the wrong direction. It isn't the place where you learn to write. I've always felt strongly that a writer shouldn't be engaged with other writers, or with people who make books, or even with people who read them. I think the farther away you get from the literary traffic, the closer you are to sources. I mean, a writer doesn't really live, he observes.

People , Books , Thinking , Reading

“Thinking of Melville, thinking of Poe, thinking of Mark Twain and Vachel Lindsay, thinking of Jack London and Tom Wolfe, one begins to feel there is almost no way of becoming a creative writer in America without being a loser.”

Nelson Algren

"Algren at the height of his success" in 1950, quoted by Richard Flanagan, 2005.
Nonfiction works

Way , Feeling , Thinking , Wolf

“A man who won't demean himself for a dollar is a phoney to my way of thinking.”

Nelson Algren

"Algren wrote in a letter in late middle age" (1960s), quoted by Richard Flanagan, 2005.
Nonfiction works

Way , Thinking