Saul Bellow Quotes
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But she's a nut, and nuts win.
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Whoever wants to reach a distant goal must take small steps.
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It seems hard for the American people to believe that anything could be more exciting than the times themselves. What we read daily and view on the TV has thrust imagined forms into the shadow. We are staggeringly rich in facts, in things, and perhaps, like the nouveau riche of other ages, we want our wealth faithfully reproduced by the artist.
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Is our species crazy? Plenty of evidence.
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The main reason for rewriting is not to achieve a smooth surface, but to discover the inner truth of your characters.
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Writers are greatly respected. The intelligent public is wonderfully patient with them, continues to read them, and endures disappointment after disappointment, waiting to hear from art what it does not hear from theology, philosophy, social theory, and what it cannot hear from pure science. Out of the struggle at the center has come an immense, painful longing for a broader, more flexible, fuller, more coherent, more comprehensive account of what we human beings are, who we are and what this life is for.
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The two real problems in life are boredom and death.
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I think that New York is not the cultural centre of America, but the business and administrative centre of American culture.
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When we ask for advice, we are usually looking for an accomplice.
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...there is no old age of the soul.
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Excuse me ... but I reject your definitions of me.
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All a writer has to do to get a woman is to say he's a writer. It's an aphrodisiac.
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In politics continental Europe was infantile - horrifying. What America lacked, for all its political stability, was the capacity to enjoy intellectual pleasures as though they were sensual pleasures. This is what Europe offered, or was said to offer.
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There was a disturbance in my heart, a voice that spoke there and said, I want, I want, I want! It happened every afternoon, and when I tried to suppress it it got even stronger.
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Art is order, made out of the chaos of life.
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He believed that he must, that he could and would recover the good things, the happy things, the easy tranquil things of life. He had made mistakes, but he could overlook these. He had been a fool, but that could be forgiven. The time wasted--must be relinquished. What else could one do about it? Things were too complex, but they might be reduced to simplicity again. Recovery was possible.
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She's very pretty but she's honey from the icebox, if you know what I mean. Cold sweets won't spread.
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Alternatives, and particularly desirable alternatives, grow only on imaginary trees.
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The first undressing of two lovers is a most special event.
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In the history of the world many souls have been, are, and will be, and with a little reflection this is marvelous and not depressing. Many jerks are made gloomy about it, for they think quantity buries them alive. That's just crazy. Numbers are very dangerous, but the main thing about them is that they humble your pride. And that's good.
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In here, the human bosom -- mine, yours, everybody's -- there isn't just one soul. There's a lot of souls. But there are two main ones, the real soul and a pretender soul. Now! Every man realizes that he has to love something or somebody. He feels that he must go outward. 'If thou canst not love, what art thou?' Are you with me?
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I love solitude, but I prize it most when plenty of company is available.
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I've discovered that rejections are not altogether a bad thing. They teach a writer to rely on his own judgment and to say in his heart of hearts, 'To hell with you.'
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What Homo sapien imagines, he may slowly convert himself to.