Short Stories Quotes

“Why does a man spend fifty years of his life in an occupation that is often painful? I once told a class I was teaching that writing is an intellectual contact sport, similar in some respects to football. The effort required can be exhausting, the goal unreached, and you are hurt on almost every play; but that doesn’t deprive a man or a boy from getting peculiar pleasures from the game.”
― Irwin Shaw, Short Stories: Five Decades

“Now,' Elias said, 'if only I didn't have to go home to my lousy wife. I married her in 1929. A lot of things've changed since 1929.' He sighed. 'What's a woman?' he asked. 'A Woman is a trap.”
― Irwin Shaw, Short Stories: Five Decades

“Lust and conversation. The firm foundations of civilized relations between the sexes.”
― Irwin Shaw, Short Stories: Five Decades