top of page
.png){kind=small}
Quotes by Novelist
"May the days be aimless. Do not advance action according to a plan."
52
"This brings me back to the image of Kafka standing before a fish in the Berlin aquarium, a fish on which his gaze fell in a newly found peace after he decided not to eat animals. Kafka recognized that fish as a member of his invisible family- not as his equal, of course, but as another being that was his concern."
52
"After all this kind of fanfare, and even more, I came to a point where I needed solitude and to just stop the machine of 'thinking' and 'enjoying' what they call 'living,' I just wanted to lie in the grass and look at the clouds..."
52
"Defeat is a thing of weariness of incoherence of boredom."
52
"There is no bitterness like that of man who finds out he has been believing in a ghost."
52
"Sentimentality is the emotional promiscuity of those who have no sentiment."
52
"That would be fine, she said "If we're alone, we'll leave the lamp lighted so that we can see each other, and I can holler as much as I want without anybody's having to butt in, and you can whisper in my ear any crap you can think of."
52
"I have lived through much, and now I think I have found what is needed for happiness. A quiet secluded life in the country, with the possibility of being useful to people to whom it is easy to do good, and who are not accustomed to have it done to them; then work which one hopes may be of some use; then rest, nature, books , music, love for one's neighbor - such is my idea of happiness. And then, on top of all that, you for a mate, and children, perhaps - what more can the heart of a man desire?"
52
"Book collecting is an obsession, an occupation, a disease, an addiction, a fascination, an absurdity, a fate. It is not a hobby. Those who do it must do it. Those who do not do it, think of it as a cousin of stamp collecting, a sister of the trophy cabinet, bastard of a sound bank account and a weak mind."
52
"Be yourself. Unless you can be a unicorn, In that case, you should always be a unicorn."
52
"We'll be remembered more for what we destroy than what we create."
52
"The more original a discovery, the more obvious it seems afterwards."
52
"When she reaches down to touch his shoulder-a gesture only a few species and a million or so years removed from lifting a leg and marking him as her territory with a stream of urine-enough bracelets and bangles to lay track across the Australian Outback slide down her arm and come to a jangling stop at her wrist."
52
"When I was young, my favorite picture book was 'Fletcher and Zenobia,' written by Edward Gorey and illustrated by Victoria Chess. It's long out of print now, but its mix of macabre humor and 1960s psychedelia made it a perfect children's book for the times."
52
"Fathers, provoke not your children to wrath."
52
"It's often a matter of sitting in front of the computer and worrying. It's what writing comes down to--worrying that things aren't going to work out."
52
"The notion of looking on at life has always been hateful to me. What am I if I am not a participant? In order to be, I must participate."
52
"It is plain indeed that in spite of later estrangement Hobbits are relatives of ours: far nearer to us than Elves, or even than Dwarves. Of old they spoke the languages of Men, after their own fashion, and liked and disliked much the same things as Men did. But what exactly our relationship is can no longer be discovered."
52
"Between any two beings there is a unique, uncrossable distance, an unenterable sanctuary. Sometimes it takes the shape of aloneness. Sometimes it takes the shape of love."
52
"Our ideals, laws and customs should be based on the proposition that each generation in turn becomes the custodian rather than the absolute owner of our resources - and each generation has the obligation to pass this inheritance on in the future."
52
"Being in love is the only transcendent experience."
51
"When I start getting close to the end of a novel, something registers in the back of my mind for the next novel, so that I usually don't write, or take notes. And I certainly don't begin. I just allow things to percolate for a while."
51
"Much ingenuity with a little money is vastly more profitable and amusing than much money without ingenuity."
51
"Publishing is a very mysterious business. It is hard to predict what kind of sale or reception a book will have, and advertising seems to do very little good."
51
"I do write long, long character notes - family background, history, details of appearance - much more than will ever appear in the novel. I think this is what lifts a book from that early calculated, artificial stage."
51
"A woman can look both moral and exciting... if she also looks as if it was quite a struggle."
51
"If consumers found fulfillment at any meaningful level, she extemporized, corpocracy would be finished."
51
"The downtrodden are the great creators of slang."
51
"Truth isn't always beauty, but the hunger for it is."
51
"I'm not flailing now, as my muscles are rigid with the tension of holding myself together. The pain over my heart returns, and from it I imagine tiny fissures spreading out into my body. Through my torso, down my arms and legs, over my face, leaving it crisscrossed with cracks. One good jolt and I could shatter into strange, razor-sharp shards."
51
"There is one crucial rule that must be followed in all creative meetings. Never speak first. At least at the start, your job is to shut up."
51
"No author ever drew a character consistent to human nature, but he was forced to ascribe to it many inconsistencies."
51
bottom of page