Top 34 C.S. Forester Quotes
#1. There is still need to think and plan, but on a different scale, and along different lines.
C.S. Forester
#2. Harm began to come to Hornblower from that day forth, despite his obedience to orders and diligent study of his duties, and it stemmed from the arrival in the midshipmen's berth of John Simpson as senior warrant officer.
C.S. Forester
#3. Perhaps that suspicion of fraud enhances the flavor.
C.S. Forester
#4. They were setting off on an adventure, and Hornblower was only too conscious that it was his own fault.
C.S. Forester
#5. The lucky man is he who knows how much to leave to chance.
C.S. Forester
#6. A man who writes for a living does not have to go anywhere in particular, and he could rarely afford to if he wanted.
C.S. Forester
#7. Novel writing is far and away the most exhausting work I know.
C.S. Forester
#8. The cork was in the bottle. He and the Atropos were trapped.
C.S. Forester
#9. It was not a conspiratorial wink, nor did Hornblower attempt the hopeless task of trying to pretend he stuffed hot greasy sausages into his pockets every day of his life; the wink simply dared the old gentleman to comment on or even think of the remarkable act.
C.S. Forester
#10. I must be like the princess who felt the pea through seven mattresses; each book is a pea.
C.S. Forester
#11. I did not ask for objections, but for comments, or helpful suggestions. I looked for more loyalty from you, Captain Hornblower.'
That made the whole argument pointless. If Leighton only wanted servile agreement there was no sense in continuing ...
C.S. Forester
#12. When I die there may be a paragraph or two in the newspapers. My name will linger in the British Museum Reading Room catalogue for a space at the head of a long list of books for which no one will ever ask.
C.S. Forester
#13. Everything was in stark and dreadful contrast with the trivial crises and counterfeit emotions of Hollywood, and I returned to England deeply moved and emotionally worn out.
C.S. Forester
#14. Hornblower bowed to Lady This and Lady That, to Lord Somebody and to Sir John Somebody-else. Bold eyes and bare arms, exquisite clothes and blue Garter-ribbons, were all the impressions Hornblower received.
C.S. Forester
#15. With two people and luggage on board she draws four inches of water. Two canoe paddles will move her along at a speed reasonable enough in moderate currents.
C.S. Forester
#18. They managed to find time ... to tell me that there was no chance of my being accepted for service and that really I should be surprised to still be alive.
C.S. Forester
#19. I formed a resolution to never write a word I did not want to write; to think only of my own tastes and ideals, without a thought of those of editors or publishers.
C.S. Forester
#20. There is no other way of writing a novel than to begin at the beginning at to continue to the end.
C.S. Forester
#21. Irresponsibility was something which, in the very nature of things, could not co-exist with independence.
C.S. Forester
#22. The material came bubbling up inside like a geyser or an oil gusher. It streamed up of its own accord, down my arm and out of my fountain pen in a torrent of six thousand words a day.
C.S. Forester
#23. Though there are very serious disadvantages about being a true believer. Who would want four wives at any time, especially when one pays for the doubtful privilege by abstaining from wine?
C.S. Forester
#24. A whim, a passing mood, readily induces the novelist to move hearth and home elsewhere. He can always plead work as an excuse to get him out of the clutches of bothersome hosts.
C.S. Forester
#25. When a man who is drinking neat gin starts talking about his mother he is past all argument.
C.S. Forester
#26. The work is with me when I wake up in the morning; it is with me while I eat my breakfast in bed and run through the newspaper, while I shave and bathe and dress.
C.S. Forester
#27. The doctor who applied a stethoscope to my heart was not satisfied. I was told to get my papers with the clerk in the outer hall. I was medically rejected.
C.S. Forester
#28. The stinks of the true believers have to be smelt to be believed.
C.S. Forester
#29. I'd rather be in trouble for having done something than for not having done anything.
C.S. Forester
#30. I have heard of novels started in the middle, at the end, written in patches to be joined together later, but I have never felt the slightest desire to do this.
C.S. Forester
#31. Hornblower worked as hard to conceal his human weaknesses as some men worked to conceal ignoble birth.
C.S. Forester
#32. The fools ran after me and I ran after the whores, foolish though I realized such a proceeding to be.
C.S. Forester
#33. I thank God daily for the good fortune of my birth, for I am certain I would have made a miserable peasant.
C.S. Forester
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