Quotes of All Topics . Occasions . Authors
So long as you live and work, you will be misunderstood; to that you must resign yourself once and for all. Be silent!
What is the destiny of man, but to fill up the measure of his sufferings, and to drink his allotted cup of bitterness?
The greatest piece of folly is that every man thinks himself compelled to hand down what people think they have known.
Who enslaves another's manhood with weak human power alone, Lays a heavier yoke of bondage thoughtlessly upon his own.
The only pleasure in redecorating or moving house comes from stumbling across books that I'd almost forgotten I owned.
I always wanted to be a painter. I loved painting. I went on three different art courses but had no talent whatsoever.
I think before I act---and then think again. I am not entirely a coward, but I do not lose myself in action as you do.
I don't make that hard and fast distinction between political and nonpolitical writing. I write about what bothers me.
There's an incredible amount of pain involved in being a human, but this humorous stuff is essential in overcoming it.
African people need to stop shouting 'nationtime' until they are clear about the responsibilities of running a nation.
If I lead the field in any way, it is in the area of curricula development, study guides and other teaching materials.
Be persistent. Editors change; tastes change; editorial markets change. Too many beginning writers give up too easily.
If we seem to get no good by attempting to draw near to Him, we may be sure we will get none by keeping away from Him.
The writing itself is no big deal. The editing, and even more than that, the self-doubt, is excruciatingly impossible.
I often find myself unsatisfied with books 'about' Indians because they are written from the viewpoint of non-Indians.
I think the person who takes a job in order to live - that is to say, for the money - has turned himself into a slave.
It is by going down into the abyss that we recover the treasures of life. Where you stumble, there lies your treasure.
The purpose of the journey is compassion. When you have come past the pairs of opposites, you have reached compassion.
It has always been the prime function of mythology and rite to supply the symbols that carry the human spirit forward.
Men have torn up the roads which led to Heaven, and which all the world followed; now we have to make our own ladders.
Hey, its not much of a closet is it?" "No. Its not. I don't like closets. Life's to short to spend hiding in the dark.
Have I ever told you, you look like Monty Clift? he inquired in a deep, seductive voice. Before or after the accident?
I've never had anyone define purity. You probably can't define purity. Purity is to live according to original design.
Perhaps the world progresses not by maturing, but by being in a permanent state of adolescence, of thrilled discovery.
He didn’t really like travel, of course. He liked the idea of travel, and the memory of travel, but not travel itself.
In Britain I'm sometimes regarded as a suspiciously Europeanized writer, who has this rather dubious French influence.
If you really want a prize, or if you really want applause, you should try to write as many books as humanly possible.
I never wanted to be away from the family. Intuitively, I knew how easily distances could harden and become permanent.
I was a fine arts major in college, and a painter for many years. And I found that, like writing, art is very similar.
Summer School: Never stop learnin' if you want to stop earnin'. I'm reasonably sure there G's in learning and earning.
No crime lab in the world looks like the 'CSI' ones because there's simply not the money for all those fancy machines.
Heinrich Heine so loosened the corsets of the German language that today every little salesman can fondle her breasts.
It is the style of idealism to console itself for the loss of something old with the ability to gape at something new.
Hands down, the biggest thrill is to get a letter from a kid saying, I loved your book. Will you write me another one?
Courage is like a disobedient dog, once it starts running away it flies all the faster for your attempts to recall it.
First you buy me a mocha. Then you let me help you hide a body. Now you take me to a biker clubhouse. Best. Day. Ever.
We're never ready for the things that happen. When the big stuff happens, we're always looking in the other direction.
I think 'The Avengers' is a Black Widow movie. She saves the day. And if you take her out, the plot does not function.
If writing has taught me anything, it's that you don't actually understand anything until you can express it in words.
Long Division has a lot of Afrosurrealist impulses. I think the book was more Afrofuturist when it was like 700 pages.
Everybody was strange. In a fit of frustration, she scratched out strange and wrote the word CRACKPOTS in big letters.
...that's how memory works ... Things disappear without your permission, then come back again without your permission.
A daughter without her mother is a woman broken. It is a loss that turns to arthritis and settles deep into her bones.
I sometimes think humor and satire are more effective techniques for expressing social statements than direct comment.
He was a graduate of West Point, which is military academy that turns young men into homicidal maniacs for use in war.
Montana was naked, and so was Billy, of course. He had a tremendous wang, incidentally. You never know who'll get one.
In an unmoored life like mine, sleep and hunger and work arrange themselves to suit themselves, without consulting me.
My soul knows my meat is doing bad things, and is embarrassed. But my meat just keeps right on doing bad, dumb things.
All writers are going to have to learn more about science, because it's such an interesting part of their environment.
People used to have time to live and enjoy themselves, but there is no time anymore for anything but work, work, work.