"Writing is like a contact sport, like football. You can get hurt, but you enjoy it."
"Special-interest magazines are dangerous places for writers to start out in because the writing quickly falls into a routine and people are likely to find themselves artistically exhausted when they want to work on something of their own"
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Source: Irwin Shaw (2013). “Short Stories: Five Decades”, p.68, Open Road Media
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"Writing is like a contact sport, like football. Why do kids play football? They can get hurt on any play, can't they? Yet they can't wait until Saturday comes around so they can play on the high school team, or the college team, and get smashed around. Writing is like that. You can get hurt, but you enjoy it!"
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