Remarks by Stephen Crane | V2Melody Quotations

“I have been very careful not to let any theories or pet ideas of my own creep into my work.”

Guarding against the intrusion of personal doctrine into the art · Letter, written in England (published 1900)

“A man is sure to fail at it, but there is something in the failure.”

Finding value even in the inevitable shortfall of the attempt at honesty · Letter, circa 1895–96 (to a friend, published 1900)

“When I was the mark for every humorist in the country I went ahead, and now, when I am the mark for only 50 per cent. of the humorists of the country, I go ahead.”

Persisting in the face of mockery and shifting public opinion · Letter, circa 1895–96 (to a friend, published 1900)

“There is a great deal of labor connected with literature. I think that is the hardest thing about it.”

Acknowledging the sheer effort required by the craft · Letter, after leaving college (published 1900)

“If I had kept to my clever Rudyard-Kipling style, the road might have been shorter but, ah, it wouldn’t be the true road.”

Choosing the harder path of sincerity over easier popularity · Letter to Lily Brandon, 29 February 1896

“I was happier in the old days when I was always dreaming of the thing I have now attained.”

Finding anticipation more satisfying than the arrival of success · Letter, written in England (published 1900)

“I have only one pride—and may it be forgiven me. This single pride is that the English edition of The Red Badge has been received with praise by the English reviewers.”

Taking quiet satisfaction in distant, seemingly harder-won approval · Letter, written in England (published 1900)

“The one thing that deeply pleases me in my literary life—brief and inglorious as it is—is the fact that men of sense believe me to be sincere.”

Valuing the recognition of sincerity above fame or sales · Letter, circa 1895–96 (to a friend, published 1900)

“Personally I am aware that my work does not amount to a string of dried beans—I always calmly admit it. But I also know that I do the best that is in me, without regard to cheers or damnation.”

Combining self-deprecation with quiet determination to persist · Letter, circa 1895–96 (to a friend, published 1900)

“I live in Hartwood, Sullivan Co., N.Y., on an estate of 3500 acres belonging to my brother and am distinguished for corduroy trousers and briar-wood pipes.”

Offering a wry, unpretentious self-portrait · Letter to John Northern Hilliard, 2 January 1896

“They came, and I wrote them, that’s all.”

Describing the spontaneous arrival of his lines without elaborate method · Remark on the composition of The Black Riders (to friends)

“I always want to be unmistakable.”

Insisting on clarity and directness as the goal of writing · Letter to a friend, early career

“What I can’t do, I can’t do at all.”

Acknowledging absolute limits rather than pretending to versatility · Conversation with Willa Cather, 1894 (as recalled by her)

“I wonder that some of those fellows don’t tell how they felt in those scraps. They spout enough of what they did, but they’re as emotionless as rocks.”

Criticising factual war narratives for ignoring psychological experience · Remark on Civil War accounts (attested by contemporaries)

“Maggie tries to show that environment is a tremendous thing in the world and frequently shapes lives regardless.”

Emphasising the power of circumstance over individual will · Comment on Maggie: A Girl of the Streets (attested in letters and accounts)

“I am clay—very common uninteresting clay. I am a good deal of a rascal, sometimes a bore, often dishonest.”

Offering a blunt, self-deprecating assessment of character · Letter to Daisy Hill, circa 1896

“My idea of happiness is the saddle of a good-riding horse.”

Expressing a simple, physical ideal of contentment · Letter to John Northern Hilliard, 2 January 1896

“Later I discovered that my creed was identical with the one of Howells and Garland and in this way I became involved in the beautiful war between those who say that art is man’s substitute for nature and we are most successful in art when we approach the nearest to nature and truth.”

Aligning himself with the realists against artificial cleverness · Letter to Lily Brandon, 29 February 1896

“You know when I left you I renounced the clever school in literature. It seemed to me that there must be something more in life than to sit and cudgel one’s brains for clever and witty expedients. So I developed all alone a little creed of art which I thought a good one.”

Rejecting cleverness in favour of a personal creed of truthful representation · Letter to Lily Brandon, 29 February 1896

“It seems a pity that this should be so—that art should be a child of suffering; and yet such seems to be the case.”

Observing that hardship can sharpen literary work · Letter, written in England (published 1900)

“There is nothing to respect in art save one's own opinion of it.”

Insisting that artistic value rests solely on the maker's internal judgement · Letter, after leaving college (published 1900)

“The word poet continually reminds me of long-hair and seems to me a most detestable form of insult.”

Rejecting conventional poetic affectation in favour of plain 'lines' · Conversation or letter (commonly attested)

“I am disappointed with success, and I am tired of abuse.”

Expressing disillusionment once fame arrived after years of struggle · Letter, written in England (published 1900)

“Personally, I like my little book of poems, The Black Riders, better than I do The Red Badge of Courage. The reason is, I suppose, that the former is the more ambitious effort. In it I aim to give my ideas of life as a whole, so far as I know it, and the latter is a mere episode.”

Preferring the broader philosophical scope of his verse to the episodic novel · Letter, written in England (published 1900)

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