Quotes from Al Alvarez

I mean being a writer is like being a psychoanalyst, but you don't get any patients.

When you make a bet, you're saying something.

Despair, in short, seeks its own environment as surely as water finds its own level.

The point is that it looks like gambling because the language of the game is money.

Hold'em is a game of calculated aggression. If your cards are good enough for you to call a bet, they are good enough to raise with.

The fact that we write about it doesn't mean we play better than ordinary players at all.

I think one of the interesting things about poker is that once you let your ego in, you're done for.

It is easy to smile at an insult and pretend it's funny when the person insulting you is hosing you with money.

I'm good at reading people.

I could think of worse ways of going than at the poker table.

But in a tournament, you can be said in for all your money at any point so you can't make any mistakes so you have to, it's all about where you're sitting at the table.

Now, if, as I think, writing should be, it's a kind of risky trade.

I mean to say, this is the book and I really loathe it and I can't imagine what a nice Jewish boy like me ever, how I ever got into this dreadful trade.

Yes, I think poker really isn't gambling.

I absolutely don't believe in anything. Full stop. Including luck.

The better the artist, the more vulnerable he seems to be.