“If there is a special Hell for writers it would be in the forced contemplation of their own works”

— John Dos Passos

"Looking Back on U.S.A.," New York Times, Oct 25 1959
Context: If there is a special Hell for writers it would be in the forced contemplation of their own works, with all the misconceptions, the omissions, the failures that any finished work of art implies.

Adopted from Wikiquote. Last update June 3, 2021. History

Help us to complete the source, original and additional information

Do you have more details about the quote "If there is a special Hell for writers it would be in the forced contemplation of their own works" by John Dos Passos?

John Dos Passos 25

novelist, playwright, poet, journalist, painter 1896–1970

Related quotes

“We play at believing ourselves imortal. We delude oursleves in the appraisal of our own works and in our perpetual misappraisal of the works of others. See you at the Nobel, writers say, as one might say: see you in hell.”

Roberto Bolaño book 2666

Source: 2666

“If I owned Texas and Hell, I would rent Texas and live in Hell…”

Philip Sheridan (1831–1888) United States Army general

http://the-american-catholic.com/2010/04/30/sheridan-hell-and-texas/
Many newspapers stated that he had said this, and later on in his life he repeated it in variations.

“I discovered that rejections are not altogether a bad thing. They teach a writer to rely on his own judgment and to say in his heart of hearts, "To hell with you."”

Saul Bellow (1915–2005) Canadian-born American writer

Quoted in "Feeling Rejected? Join Updike, Mailer, Oates..." by Barbara Bauer and Robert F. Moss, New York Times (21 July 1985), section 7, page 1, column 1
General sources