It's a Shame About Ray (Part Two)

I came across this little bit while reading The Long Embrace. It's an excerpt from Chandler's attempt at a literary short story, "A Couple of Writers" (1951).

"Jesus, we're the most useless people in the world. There must be a hell of a lot of us too, all lonely, all empty, all poor, all gritted with small mean worries that have no dignity. All trying like men caught in a bog to get some firm ground under our feet and knowing all the time it doesn't make a damn bit of difference whether we do or not.... All the world's would-be writers, the guys and girls that have education and will and desire and hope and nothing else. They know all there is to know about how it's done, except they can't do it. They've studied hard and imitated the hell out of everybody that ever rang the bell."

Gee, no wonder he drank...