John O'Hara

John Henry O'Hara (January 31, 1905; April 11, 1970) was an Irish-American writer. He earned a reputation first for short stories and became a best-selling novelist by the age of thirty with Appointment in Samarra and BUtterfield 8. He was particularly known for an unparalleled and shockingly accurate ear for dialogue. O'Hara was a keen observer of social status and class differences, and wrote frequently about the socially ambitious.

Quotes

 * I have work to do, and I am afraid not to do it.
 * Forward to The Horse Knows the Way (1964).

Quote about O'Hara

 * I tended to read whatever was in the house, which meant that I read a lot of odd stuff. Who was that guy that used to write about men's clubs all the time? John O'Hara. It was Mars for me
 * 1996 interview in Conversations with Octavia Butler


 * John O'Hara was a terrible bore as a young man—always looking for a fight, and making sure he never found one.
 * Oscar Levant, as quoted in "Oscar the Magnificent" by Burt Prelutsky, in The Los Angeles Times (January 26, 1969), p. 468