Success Quote by Evan Hunter

Ambition rarely sounds this polite. Evan Hunter stacks the Pulitzer, the Nobel, and a Tony like they’re items on a tidy grocery list, then deadpans that everything else is “modest.” The joke lands because it violates the usual etiquette around wanting things: most writers are trained to perform humility, to pretend their real goal is “the work.” Hunter punctures that performance with a grin and a raised eyebrow.

The subtext is less “I’m arrogant” than “let’s stop pretending we’re not keeping score.” These prizes aren’t random. They map three different cultural machines: the American prestige pipeline (Pulitzer), the global consecration factory (Nobel), and the commercial-theatrical spectacle of Broadway (Tony). Hunter is winking at the way authors are asked to be both serious artists and savvy brands, moving across mediums and institutions that reward different versions of legitimacy. Wanting all three is almost absurdly comprehensive, like announcing you’d like to be canonized, go platinum, and win an Olympic gold “for fun.”

Context matters: Hunter wrote under multiple names (including Ed McBain) and moved between literary fiction, crime, and screenwriting. That career shape makes the line sharper: he understands acclaim as something negotiated, not bestowed by pure genius. The punchline (“Aside from these...”) is a small act of defiance against the pious myth of the solitary artist. He’s admitting, cheerfully, that writers are citizens of an economy of trophies - and that pretending otherwise is its own kind of fiction.