53 quotes found
“Despair is something horribly simple.”
“Only those who are capable of silliness can be called truly intelligent.”
“That is what War is, I thought: two ships pass each other, and nobody waves his hand.”
“If you really have talent, you know, you'll go on writing - whatever people say to you.”
“If its going to be a world with no time for sentiment, its not a world that I want to live in.”
“Most of the time, thank goodness, we suffer quite stupidly and unreflectingly, like the animals.”
“Think of two people, living together day after day, year after year, in this small space, standing elbow to elbow cooking at the same small stove, squeezing past each other on the narrow stairs, sh...”
“An afternoon drive from Los Angeles will take you up into the high mountains, where eagles circle above the forests and the cold blue lakes, or out over the Mojave Desert, with its weird vegetation...”
“...all around George, approaching him, crossing his path from every direction, is the male and female raw material which is fed daily into this factory, along the conveyor-belts of the freeways, to...”
“Whats so phony nowadays is all this familiarity. Pretending there isnt any difference between people well, like you were saying about minorities, this morning. If you and I are no different, what d...”
“I certainly should have,' he agrees, smiling and thinking what an absurd and universally-accepted bit of nonsense it is, that your best friends must necessarily be the ones who best understand you....”
“No, Geounderneath all that, Nan really loves me. Its just she wants me to see things her way. You know, shes two years older; that meant a lot when we were children. Ive always thought of her as be...”
“2NOTESYou broke your other appointment, didnt you?I did not! I told you on the phonethese people canceled at the last minuteOh, Geo dear, come off it! You know, I sometimes think, about you, whenev...”
“George smiles to himself, with entire self-satisfaction. Yes, I am crazy, he thinks. That is my secret; my strength.”
“The harassed look is that of a desperately tired swimmer or runner; yet there is no question of stopping. The creature we are watching will struggle on and on until it drops. Not because it is hero...”
“Staring and staring into the mirror, it sees many faces within its face - the face of the child, the boy, the young man, the not-so-young man - all present still, preserved like fossils on superimp...”
“But George knows he can't do that. Because, absurdly, inadequately, in spite of himself, almost, he is a representative of the hope. And the hope is not false. No. It's just that George is like a m...”
“...I remember a rainy, depressing afternoon when she remarked 'What a pity we can't make love, there's nothing else to do,' and he agreed that it was and there wasn't.”
“As they embrace, she kisses him full on the mouth. And suddenly sticks her tongue right in. She has done this before, often. Its one of those drunken long shots which just might, at least theoretic...”
“Does he know about me? George wonders; do any of them? Oh yes, probably. It wouldn't interest them. They don't want to know about my feelings or my glands or anything below my neck. I could just as...”
“By the time it has gotten dressed, it has become he; has become already more or less George though still not the whole George they demand and are prepared to recognize. Those who call him on the p...”
“From 1929 to 1933, [age 25-29] I lived almost continuously in Berlin, with only occasional visits to other parts of Germany and to England. Already, during that time, I had made up my mind that I w...”
“But now isnt simply now. Now is also a cold reminder: one whole day later than yesterday, one year later than last year. Every now is labeled with its date, rendering all past nows obsolete, until ...”
“They keep telling you, when youre older, youll have experienceand thats supposed to be so great. What would you say about that, sir? Is it really any use, would you say?""What kind of experience?We...”
