The Daring Young Man on the Flying Trapeze (1934), A Cold Day
“If you write to impress it will always be bad, but if you write to express it will be good”
“People do not deserve good writing, they are so pleased with bad.”
“Don't believe anything they write about you, good or bad.”
Advice to Red Grange as quoted in The Wicked City: Chicago from Kenna to Capone (1998) by Curt Johnson and R. Craig Sautter, p. 159; Unsourced variant: Don't ever forget two things I'm going to tell you. One, don't believe everything that's written about you. Two, don't pick up too many checks.
Context: Keed, I'll give you a little bit of advice. Don't believe anything they write about you, good or bad. Two, get the dough while the getting is good, but don't break your heart trying to get it. And don't pick up too many checks!
“All poets write bad poetry. Bad poets publish them, good poets burn them.”
“It takes writing a billion bad words before you get to the good ones.”
“Your writing is never as good as you hoped; but never as bad as you feared.”
Letter to A.S. Suvorin (May 4, 1889)
Letters
Variant: A bad book is as much of a labour to write as a good one; it comes as sincerely from the author's soul.
Source: Point Counter Point
Quoted in Naomi Hamilton, "The A-Z of Programming Languages: Forth," http://www.computerworld.com.au/index.php/id;766897508 Computerworld (2008-06-27)
