Damon Runyon
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"Alfred Damon Runyon" was an American newspaperman and author.

He was best known for his short stories celebrating the world of Broadway (Manhattan)/Broadway in New York City that grew out of the Prohibition in the United States/Prohibition era. To New Yorkers of his generation, a "Damon Runyon character" evoked a distinctive social type from the Brooklyn or Midtown Manhattan/Midtown demi-monde. The adjective "Runyonesque" refers to this type of character as well as to the type of situations and dialog that Runyon depicted. He spun humorous and sentimental tales of gamblers, hustlers, actors, and gangsters, few of whom go by square (slang)/"square" names, preferring instead colorful monikers such as "Nathan Detroit," "Benny Southstreet," "Big Jule," "Harry the Horse," "Good Time Charley," "Dave the Dude," or "The Seldom Seen Kid." His distinctive vernacular style is known as "Runyonese": a mixture of formal speech and colorful slang, almost always in present tense, and always devoid of Contraction (grammar)/contractions. He is credited with coining the phrase "Hooray Henry", a term now used in British English to describe an upper-class, loud-mouthed, arrogant twit.

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Much as he is opposed to law - breaking, he is not bigoted about it.

Always try to rub up against money, for if you rub up against money long enough, some of it may rub off on you.

You can keep the things of bronze and stone and give me one man to remember me just once a year.

I once knew a chap who had a system of just hanging the baby on the clothes line to dry and he was greatly admired by his fellow citizens for having discovered a wonderful innovation on changing a diaper.

The race is not always to the swift, nor the battle to the strong, but that's the way to bet.

I came to the conclusion long ago that all life is six to five against.

I long ago came to the conclusion that all life is 6 to 5 against.

One of these days in your travels, a guy is going to come up to you and show you a nice brand-new deck of cards on which the seal is not yet broken, and this guy is going to offer to bet you that he can make the Jack of Spades jump out of the deck and squirt cider in your ear. But, son, do not bet this man, for as sure as you are standing there, you are going to end up with an earful of cider.