If you have a story that seems worth telling, and you think you can tell it worthily, then the thing for you to do is to tell it, regardless of whether it has to do with sex, sailors or mounted policemen.
Interpretation
This quote encourages individuals to share their stories, no matter the subject, if they believe they can do so effectively.
Dashiell Hammett's quote emphasizes the importance of storytelling, suggesting that anyone who feels their narrative is significant should share it, irrespective of its content. The mention of various topics like sex, sailors, and mounted policemen illustrates that all stories, regardless of their nature, can have value when told with sincerity and skill.
In practice
A writer might use this quote at a workshop to encourage participants to share their personal experiences.
We didn't exactly believe your story.' Then --?' 'We believed your two hundred dollars.' 'You mean --' She seemed not to know what he meant. 'I mean that you paid us more than if you'd been telling the truth,' he explained blandly, 'and enough more to make it all right.
She grinned at me. 'You got types?' 'Only you darling - lanky brunettes with wicked jaws.
What I try to do is write a story about a detective rather than a detective story. Keeping the reader fooled until the last, possible moment is a good trick and I usually try to play it, but I can't attach more than secondary importance to it. The puzzle isn't so interesting to me as the behavior of the detective attacking it.
The people who lie the most are nearly always the clumsiest at it, and they're easier to fool with lies than most people, too. You'd think they'd be on the look-out for lies, but they seem to be the very ones that will believe almost anything at all.
Singing has been a cherished gift, and my inability to sing has been a devastating blow.
There are connoisseurs of blue just as there are connoisseurs of wine.
When I was in high school, I felt totally alienated from the world, but I loved movies. They were my escape, but coming from a disadvantaged community, I never knew that filmmaking was an option for me. A program like School of Doc would have been a game-changer.
It is only after years of preparation that the young artist should touch color - not color used descriptively, that is, but as a means of personal expression.
The strange dilemma of the 'ethnic-fiction' writer is that you are supposed to carry a banner for your homeland, be a voice for it, and educate the rest of the world about it, but I think that's far too onerous a burden for any writer to bear.
Simplicity is the keynote of all true elegance.
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