Dashiell Hammett (post 4, update): Why did he have writer’s block for the last decades of his life? Why did he fail in his attempt to write literary novels?

I’m up to page 141 in The Dain Curse. The protagonist, who is a detective, says to another character, who is a writer:

“Don’t be literary with me, building up to climaxes and the like. I’m too crude for that—it’d only give me a bellyache. Just spread it out for me.

“ ‘You’ll always be what you are,’ he [the writer] said.”

I don’t think this dialogue proves my speculation as to why Hammett had writer’s block when he tried to write more literary novels; however, in the context of my speculation in yesterday’s post about “artistic differences” between personalities, I do find it funny.