top of page
"My attitudes have changed, but somebody would have to read all my books to find out how they have."
Standard
Customized
Exlpore more Books quotes

"A bad book with a good cover is nothing but a wooden house with a golden door."

"I don't have the feeling that as a very young person I read books that absolutely made their mark on my mind."

"The biggest markets for my books outside the UK are France and Italy, and those are the two countries where I also have the closest personal relationships with my translators - I don't know whether that's a coincidence, or if there's something to be learned from it."

"Some books mirror reality while others are entirely fantasy. My favorite are those that manage to weave both into a world."

"Even a book with completely empty pages will change you because you will start thinking about the reason behind this emptiness and once you enter the thinking territory it means that you entered a territory of change!"

"It was also a room full of books and made of books. There was no actual furniture; this is to say, the desk and chairs were shaped out of books. It looked as though many of them were frequently referred to, because they lay open with other books used as bookmarks."

"They want a lip print for their autograph books. I'm a sport; I go along."

"The writer I feel the most affinity with - you said you felt my books are 19th century novels, I think they're 18th century novels - is Fielding, Henry Fielding, he's the guy who does it for me."

"Books that you carry to the fire, and hold readily in your hand, are most useful after all."
Explore more quotes by Irwin Shaw

"I never drink while I'm working, but after a few glasses I get ideas that would never have occurred to me dead sober."

"I imagine that my characters have become much more complicated than when I first began, which would be normal."

"I cringe when critics say I'm a master of the popular novel. What's an unpopular novel?"
bottom of page