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.

Quote by John Cheever

Topics: History Quotes, Writers Quotes

Wisdom we know is the knowledge of good and evil, not the strength to choose...

Wisdom we know is the knowledge of good and evil, not the strength to choose...

The deep joy we take in the company of people with whom we have just...

The deep joy we take in the company of people with whom we have just...

Art is the triumph over chaos.

Art is the triumph over chaos.

All literary men are Red Sox fans - to be a Yankee fan in a...

All literary men are Red Sox fans - to be a Yankee fan in a...

The deep joy we take in the company of people with whom we have just...

The deep joy we take in the company of people with whom we have just...

The task of an American writer is not to describe the misgivings of a woman...

The task of an American writer is not to describe the misgivings of a woman...

Fiction is experimentation; when it ceases to be that, it ceases to be fiction.

Fiction is experimentation; when it ceases to be that, it ceases to be fiction.

I sometimes go back to walk through the ghostly remains of Sutton Place where the...

I sometimes go back to walk through the ghostly remains of Sutton Place where the...

Homesickness is nothing Fifty percent of the people in the world are homesick all the...

Homesickness is nothing Fifty percent of the people in the world are homesick all the...

When I remember my family, I always remember their backs. They were always indignantly leaving...

When I remember my family, I always remember their backs. They were always indignantly leaving...

What I am going to write is the last of what I have to say....

What I am going to write is the last of what I have to say....

People look for morals in fiction because there has always been a confusion between fiction...

People look for morals in fiction because there has always been a confusion between fiction...

Good writers are often excellent at a hundred other things, but writing promises a greater...

Good writers are often excellent at a hundred other things, but writing promises a greater...

That's the way I remember them, heading for an exit.

That's the way I remember them, heading for an exit.

I can't write without a reader. It's precisely like a kiss - you can't do...

I can't write without a reader. It's precisely like a kiss - you can't do...

A lonely man is a lonesome thing, a stone, a bone, a stick, a receptacle...

A lonely man is a lonesome thing, a stone, a bone, a stick, a receptacle...

The need to write comes from the need to make sense of one's life and...

The need to write comes from the need to make sense of one's life and...

For me, a page of good prose is where one hears the rain [and] the...

For me, a page of good prose is where one hears the rain [and] the...

One joy shatters a hundred griefs

One joy shatters a hundred griefs

What is deservedly suffered must be borne with calmness, but when the pain is unmerited,...

What is deservedly suffered must be borne with calmness, but when the pain is unmerited,...

Poetry is thoughts that breathe, and words that burn.

Poetry is thoughts that breathe, and words that burn.