Jack London

Jack London (January 12, 1876 - November 22, 1916), American author

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Short stories

"The trouble with him was that he was without imagination. He was quick and alert in the things of life, but only in the things, and not in the significances."
- "To Build a Fire" published as a collection of short stories in the book Lost Face (1910)

I have always stood for the exalting of the life that is in me over art, or any other extraneous thing.

The man who dreams of artistry, and yet thinks it is necessary for someone else to lick him into shape, is a man whose art is doomed to mediocrity. If you're going to deliver the real goods, you've got to do your own licking into shape. Buck up ! Kick in ! Get onto yourself ! Don't squeal ! Don't tell me, or any other man how good you consider anything you've done, and that you think it is as good as somebody else's. Make your work so damned well better that you won't have time or thought to compare it with another man's mediocrity.