Any writer who knows what he's doing isn't doing very much.

- Nelson Algren

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. A certain ruthlessness and a sense of alie…

- Nelson Algren

And never, ever, no matter what else you do in your whole life, never sleep with anyone whose troubles are worse than your own.

- Nelson Algren

Chicago is an October sort of city even in spring.

- Nelson Algren

Yet once you've come to be part of this particular patch, you'll never love another. Like loving a woman with a broken nose, you may well find loveli…

- Nelson Algren

And money can't buy everything. For example: poverty.

- Nelson Algren

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.

- Nelson Algren

Thinking of Poe, thinking of Mark Twain and Vachel Lindsay, thinking of Jack London and Tom Wolfe, one begins to feel there is almost no way of becom…

- Nelson Algren

For the masses who do the city's labor also keep the city's heart.

- Nelson Algren