"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. Compassion is all to the good, but vindictiveness is the verity Faulkner forgot: the organic force in every creative effort, from the poetry of Villon to the Brinks Express Robbery, that gives shape and color to all our dreams. [...] A certain ruthlessness and a sense of alienation from society is as essential to creative writing as it is to armed robbery. The strong-armer isn't out merely to turn a fast buck any more than the poet is out solely to see his name on the cover of a book, whatever satisfaction that event may afford him. What both need most deeply is to get even. And, of course, neither will."
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Novelists from the United StatesShort story writers from the United StatesNon-fiction authors from the United StatesPeople from ChicagoPeople from Detroit
Original Language: English
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Nelson Algren
(March 28, 1909 – May 9, 1981) was an American writer.
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