Top James M. Cain Quotes - Quotesmemo.com

James M. Cain Biography

James Mallahan Cain (July 1, 1892 – October 27, 1977) was an American author and journalist. Cain vehemently opposed labeling, but he is usually associated with the hardboiled school of American crime fiction and is seen as one of the creators of the roman noir. Several of his crime novels inspired successful movies.

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James M. Cain Quotes

I had killed a man, for money and a woman. I didn't have the money and I didn't have the woman.

Killed, Man, Men, Money, Woman

Stealing a man's wife, that's nothing, but stealing his car, that's larceny.

Car, Men, Nothing, Wife

A guitar has moonlight in it.

Guitar, Moonlight

I make no conscious effort to be tough, or hard-boiled, or grim, or any of the things I am usually called.

Conscious, Effort, Grim, Make, Tough, Usually

Yes, I have actually mined coal, and distilled liquor, as well as seen a girl in a pink dress, and seen her take it off. I am 54 years old, weigh 220 pounds, and look like the chief dispatcher of a long-distance driving concern. I am a registered Democrat. I drink.

Actually, Distance, Dress, Girl, Look, Years

I loved her like a rabbit loves a rattlesnake

Like, Loved, Loves, Rabbits, Rattlesnake, Rattlesnakes

I write of the wish that comes true--for some reason, a terrifying thought.

Reason, Thought, Wish, Write, Writing

They threw me off the haytruck about noon.

Haytruck, Noon, Threw

If you have to do it, you can do it.

Can Do, Ifs, You Can Do It

The hand that holds the money cracks the whip.

Cracks, Hands, Money, Whip, Whips

Writing a novel is like working on foreign policy. There are problems to be solved. It's not all inspirational.

Foreign, Foreign Policy, Novel, Problem, Problems, Writing

If you can't write like New York, you have no business living in New York and making New York the locale of your stories.

Business, Like, Locale, New York, Stories, Writing

A home is not a museum. It doesn't have to be furnished with Picasso paintings, or Sheraton suites, or Oriental rugs, or Chinese pottery. But it does have to be furnished with things that mean something to you.

Home, Mean, Museum, Museums, Rugs, Suites

You usually can tell when a writer is going down hill by the size of his liquor bill.

Bill, Bills, Down, Hills, Size, Writer

A lot of novelists start late-Conrad, Pirandello, even Mark Twain. When you're young, chess is all right, and music and poetry. But novel-writing is something else. It has to be learned, but it can't be taught. This bunkum and stinkum of college creative writing courses! The academics don't know that the only thing you can do for someone who wants to write is to buy him a typewriter.

College, Novelists, Stinkum, Typewriters, Writing

New York is not even a city, it's a congerie of rotten villages.

Cities, City, New York, Rotten, York

A gun is like breath to a drowning man--it has to be drawn in haste.

Breath, Gun, Haste, Like, Men

Time is the only critic.

Critic, Criticism, Critics, Time