A Walk On The Wild Side (novel)
A Walk on the Wild Side is a 1956 novel by Nelson Algren, most often quoted as the source for Algren's "three rules of life": "Never play cards with a man called Doc. Never eat at a place called Mom's. Never sleep with a woman whose troubles are worse than your own."
Algren noted, "The book asks why lost people sometimes develop into greater human beings than those who have never been lost in their whole lives."
Read more about A Walk On The Wild Side (novel): Plot Summary, Literary Debt, Film Adaptation, References in Other Works
Famous quotes containing the words walk, wild and/or side:
“During a walk or in a book or in the middle of an embrace, suddenly I awake to a stark amazement at everything. The bare fact of existence paralyzes me... To be alive is so incredible that all I can do is to lie still and merely breathe—like an infant on its back in a cot. It is impossible to be interested in anything in particular while overhead the sun shines or underneath my feet grows a single blade of grass.”
—W.N.P. Barbellion (1889–1919)
“His mind resembled the vast amphitheatre, the Colisæum at Rome. In the centre stood his judgement, which, like a mighty gladiator, combated those apprehensions that, like the wild beasts of the Arena, were all around the cells, ready to be let out upon him. After a conflict, he drove them back into their dens; but not killing them, they were still assailing him.”
—James Boswell (1740–1795)
“The gingham dog and the calico cat
Side by side on the table sat;”
—Eugene Field (1850–1895)