A writer who is afraid to overreach himself is as useless as a general who is afraid to be wrong.
Interpretation
Courage to take risks is essential for creativity and leadership.
In this quote, Raymond Chandler emphasizes the importance of taking risks both in writing and in leadership. Just as a general must be willing to make bold decisions, a writer must not hesitate to push beyond their limits to achieve greatness. Fear of failure can stifle creativity and effectiveness, rendering both a writer and a leader ineffective.
In practice
This quote can be used in a motivational speech for aspiring writers to encourage them to take creative risks.
Undoubtedly the stories about them [hard-boiled detectives] had a fantastic element. Such things happened, but not so rapidly, nor to so close-knit a group of people, nor within so narrow a frame of logic. This was inevitable because the demand was for constant action; if you stopped to think you were lost. When in doubt, have a man come through a door with a gun in his hand.
There was a desert wind blowing that night. It was one of those hot dry Santa Anas that come down through the mountain passes and curl your hair and make your nerves jump and your skin itch. On nights like that every booze party ends in a fight. Meek little wives feel the edge of the carving knife and study their husbands' necks. Anything can happen. You can even get a full glass of beer at a cocktail lounge.
Organized crime is the dirty side of the sharp dollar.
When in doubt, have a man come through the door with a gun in his hand.
The flood of print has turned reading into a process of gulping rather than savoring.
If my books had been any worse, I should not have been invited to Hollywood, and if they had been any better, I should not have come.
I shall die here. Every last inch of me shall perish. Except one. An inch. It's small and it's fragile and it's the only thing in the world worth having. we must never lose it, or sell it, or give it away. We must never let them take it from us.
We learn to curb our will and keep our overt actions within the bounds of humanity, long before we can subdue our sentiments and imaginations to the same mild tone.
But then anyone who's worth anything reads just what he likes, as the mood takes him, and with extravagant enthusiasm.
I don't know exactly where ideas come from, it's just a matter of us figuring out how to receive the ideas waiting to be heard.
A child thinks 20 shillings and 20 years can never be spent.
A wish is a desire without energy
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