George V. Higgins
Egotism: The art of seeing in yourself what others cannot see.
Data is what distinguishes the dilettante from the artist.
The seductiveness of baseball is that almost everyone with an abiding interest in it knows exactly how it should be played. And secretly believes that he could do it, if only God had seen fit to make him just a little bit less clumsy.Collection: Baseball
A cop told me, a long time ago, that there’s no substitute for knowing what you’re doing. Most of us scribblers do not. The ones that’re any good are aware of this. The rest write silly stuff. The trouble is this: The readers know it.Collection: Silly
Politics is a choice of enemas. You're gonna get it up the ass, no matter what you do.Collection: Choices
Egotism is the art of seeing in yourself what others cannot see.Collection: Art
The characters are telling you the story. I'm not telling you the story, they're going to do it. If I do it right, you will get the whole story.Collection: Character
Life is hard but being stupid makes it harder.Collection: Stupid
Writing is the only trade I know of in which sniveling confessions of extreme incompetence are taken as credentials probative of powers to astound the multitude.Collection: Taken
Show the reader what the character thinks about, and then the reader will think about it too.Collection: Character
What You Lose on the Swings You Make Up on the Merry-Go-Round.Collection: Swings
The Red Sox are a religion. Every year we re-enact the agony and the temptation in the Garden. Baseball child's play? Hell, up here in Boston it's a passion play.Collection: Baseball
You cannot write well without data.Collection: Writing
Nobody ever got started on a career as a writer by exercising good judgment, and no one ever will, either, so the sooner you break the habit of relying on yours, the faster you will advance.Collection: Exercise
The received image of a writer is that of an unproductive sensitive who suffers from the vapors, is enslaved by his gonads, falls victim to romantic swoons and passes out at deadlines.Collection: Fall
Rental formal wear of the sky-blue, brocade and shiny varieties is favored by upwardly mobile young gangsters drafted as groomsmen for weddings.Collection: Blue