Nelson Algren

“For the nobodies, for the outs. For the ones who left and for the ones who were left behind. For the ones who had nothing and still gave it all away.”

“Every writer is a hustler.”

“The world is a hustle.”

“Never play cards with a man called Doc. Never eat at a place called Mom's. Never sleep with a woman whose troubles are worse than your own.”

“A writer lives in awe of words for they can be twisted in any way. The writer who neglects punctuation, or misuses it, is like a violinist who neglects his fiddlestick.”

“The hard necessity of bringing the judge on the bench down into the dock has been the peculiar responsibility of the writer in all ages of man.”

“To literary critics a book is assumed to be guilty until it proves itself innocent.”

“If you can't be a hero, you can at least be a clown.”