How we cite our quotes: All quotations are from The Lost Weekend.
Quote #7
DON: I moved right in on New York. Well, the first thing I wrote, that didn't quite come off, and the second I dropped—the public wasn't ready for that one.
As you can imagine, this chain of half-baked and unfinished novels leads us all the way to the present day and The Bottle. It's also worth noting that Don rushed to New York City immediately after dropping out of college, which is a classic example of "too much, too soon" if we've ever see one.
Quote #8
DON: I'd sit in front of that typewriter, trying to squeeze out one page that was halfway decent, and that guy would pop up again.
That "guy," btw, is Don's alcoholism. This quote confirms something that we had already suspected—that Don turned to booze after his first, failed attempts at writing novels. This leads to a nasty Catch-22 in which he drinks to write, but ends up drinking so much that he can't.
Quote #9
DON: Sure, take a nice job. Public accountant, real estate salesman. I haven't the guts. Most men lead lives of quiet desperation—I can't take quiet desperation.
In other words, Don couldn't live with himself knowing that he completely failed to achieve his dreams. It would be too great a disappointment. Still, we'd argue that he's failing to achieve his dream even without the "nice job," so it shouldn't make that much of a difference, right?