“A collection of short stories is generally thought to be a horrendous clinker; an enforced courtesy for the elderly writer who wants to display the trophies of his youth, along with his trout flies.”

—  John Cheever

Quoted in James Charlton's The Writer’s Quotation Book (1980).

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 "A collection of short stories is generally thought to be a horrendous clinker; an enforced courtesy for the elderly wri…" by John Cheever?
John Cheever photo
John Cheever 36
American novelist and short story writer 1912–1982

Related quotes

Thomas Moore photo

“Man for his glory
To ancestry flies;
But Woman's bright story
Is told in her eyes.”

Thomas Moore (1779–1852) Irish poet, singer and songwriter

Desmond's Song, st. 4
Irish Melodies http://www.musicanet.org/robokopp/moore.html (1807–1834)

Iamblichus photo

“After his father's death, though he was still but a youth, his aspect was so venerable, and his habits so temperate that he was honored and even reverenced by elderly men, attracting the attention of all who saw and heard him speak, creating the most profound impression.”

Iamblichus (240–320) Syrian philosopher

Source: Life of Pythagoras, Ch. 2 : Youth, Education, Travels
Context: After his father's death, though he was still but a youth, his aspect was so venerable, and his habits so temperate that he was honored and even reverenced by elderly men, attracting the attention of all who saw and heard him speak, creating the most profound impression. That is the reason that many plausibly asserted that he was a child of the divinity. Enjoying the privilege of such a renown, of an education so thorough from infancy, and of so impressive a natural appearance he showed that he deserved all these advantages by deserving them, by the adornment of piety and discipline, by exquisite habits, by firmness of soul, and by a body duly subjected to the mandates of reason. An inimitable quiet and serenity marked all his words and actions, soaring above all laughter, emulation, contention, or any other irregularity or eccentricity; his influence at Samos was that of some beneficent divinity. His great renown, while yet a youth, reached not only men as illustrious for their wisdom as Thales at Miletus, and Bias at Prione, but also extended to the neighboring cities. He was celebrated everywhere as the "long-haired Samian," and by the multitude was given credit for being under divine inspiration.

“He is a noble gentleman; withal
Happy in his endeavours: the general voice
Sounds him for courtesy, behaviour, language,
And every fair demeanour, an example:
Titles of honour add not to his worth;
Who is himself an honour to his title.”

John Ford (dramatist) (1586–1639) dramatist

Act I, sc. iii.
The Lady's Trial (1638)

Joyce Meyer photo

“God is the Champion at bringing people from a place of destruction to a place of total victory. As they reach that place of victory they become trophies of his grace. and they are set on the display as a fragrant reminder of God's goodness.”

Joyce Meyer (1943) American author and speaker

Source: Beauty for Ashes: Receiving Emotional Healing

Gertrude Stein photo

“A creator is not in advance of his generation but he is the first of his contemporaries to be conscious of what is happening to his generation.
A creator who creates, who is not an academician, who is not someone who studies in a school where the rules are already known, and of course being known they no longer exist, a creator then who creates is necessarily of his generation. His generation lives in its contemporary way but they only live in it. In art, in literature, in the theatre, in short in everything that does not contribute to their immediate comfort they live in the preceding generation.”

Gertrude Stein Picasso

Picasso (1938)

H.L. Mencken photo

“The kind of man who wants the government to adopt and enforce his ideas is always the kind of man whose ideas are idiotic.”

H.L. Mencken (1880–1956) American journalist and writer

323
1940s–present, Minority Report : H.L. Mencken's Notebooks (1956)
Source: Minority Report

“I have written a few short stories for different venues, but I don’t see a big market in writing collections of short stories—at least not enough to sustain a living. Short stories are great for writing, but this is how I earn a living.”

Steve Alten (1959) American writer

Interview with New HWA Member Steve Alten http://horror.org/interview-with-new-hwa-member-steve-alten-by-ron-breznay/ (December 7, 2011)

William Wordsworth photo

“I thought of Chatterton, the marvellous Boy,
The sleepless Soul that perished in his pride;
Of Him who walked in glory and in joy
Following his plough, along the mountain-side:
By our own spirits are we deified:
We Poets in our youth begin in gladness;
But thereof come in the end despondency and madness.”

William Wordsworth (1770–1850) English Romantic poet

Stanza 7.
Resolution and Independence (1807)

Gabrielle Zevin photo

“We are not quite novels.
We are not quite short stories.
In the end, we are collected works.”

Gabrielle Zevin (1977) American writer

Source: The Storied Life of A.J. Fikry

Related topics