Loving Chicago Is Like Loving A Woman

A Book, A True Book, Is The Writer's Confessional. For, Whether He Would Have It So Or Not, He Is Betrayed, Directly Or Indirectly, By His Characters, Into Presenting Publicly His Innermost Feelings.

Loving Chicago Is Like Loving A Woman With A Broken Nose.

Watch For A Wild Boy Of No Particular Clan, Ready For Anything, Always Armed. Prefers Fighting To Toil, Drink To Fighting, Chasing Women To Booze Or Battle: May Attempt All Three Concurrently.

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.

You Don't Write A Novel Out Of Sheer Pity Any More Than You Blow A Safe Out Of A Vague Longing To Be Rich. A Certain Ruthlessness And A Sense Of Alienation From Society Is As Essential To Creative Writing As It Is To Armed Robbery.