Gene Fowler

Gene Fowler (March 8, 1890 – July 2, 1960) was an American journalist, author, and dramatist.

Quotes

• That man was so much larger than life that there's no scale by which to measure him. Most of Wilson's dialogue, if put down on paper, seems either vulgar or obscene.
  • Gene Fowler, as quoted by Anita Loos, Kiss Hollywood Goodbye, Viking Press, New York, 1974, ISBN 0-670-41374-7: About Wilson Mizner

• Sometimes I think it sounds like I walked out of the room and left the typewriter running.
  • Attributed without citation in Military Chaplains' Review, Chaplains, U.S. Army. (1981), p. 144

• What is success? It is a toy balloon among children armed with pins.
  • Skyline: A Reporter's Reminiscence of the 1920s (1961); as cited by Jonathon Green (1988) Says who?: a guide to the quotations of the century. p. 308

• A book is never finished; it's abandoned.
  • Quoted in H. Allen Smith's The Life and Legend of Gene Fowler (1977); as cited by Paul Dickson (1990), The New Official Rules, p. 74

• Men are not against you, they are merely for themselves.
  • Skyline: A Reporter's Reminiscence of the 1920s (1961) p. 105

• Everyone needs a warm personal enemy or two to keep him free of rust in the movable parts of the mind.
  • Skyline: A Reporter's Reminiscence of the 1920s (1961), p. 99

• Writing is easy. All you do is stare at a blank sheet of paper until drops of blood form on your forehead.
  • Attributed without citation in Janice R. Matthews et al. (2000) Successful Scientific Writing. p. 53
  • Sometimes attributed to Douglas Adams

• The best way to become a successful writer is to read good writing, remember it, and then forget where you remember it from.
  • Attributed without citation in Blythe Camenson (2002) How to Sell, Then Write Your Nonfiction Book. p. 188

• He has a profound respect for old age. Especially when it's bottled.
  • Attributed without citation in Judy Valon (2009) In Your 60s