Image: Alan Light, CC BY 2.0
50 quotes
American author and screenwriter (1920–2012)
“And what, you ask, does writing teach us? First and foremost, it reminds us that we are alive and that it is a gift and a privilege, not a right.”
"It was a simple thing. All terror is a simplicity. ("Interval In Sunlight")"
on Fear
"We have everything we need to be happy, but we aren't happy. Something's missing."
on Happiness
"Everything that happens before Death is what counts."
on Life
"I’m the thing you most desire, you represent the thing I least desire, death. It’s just the opposite of love."
on Love
"When you reach the stars, boy, yes, and live there forever, all the fears will go, and Death himself will die."
"And when he died, I suddenly realized I wasn't crying for him at all, but for the things he did. I cried because he would never do them again..."
"The best scientist is open to experience and begins with romance - the idea that anything is possible."
on Philosophy
"That's the good part of dying; when you've nothing to lose, you run any risk you want."
on Death
"There is no cause for nostalgia save the good and life-enhancing nostalgia for the present."
"The good writers touch life often. The mediocre ones run a quick hand over her. The bad ones rape her and leave her for the flies."
on Writing
"Your intuition knows what to write, so get out of the way."
"Insanity is relative. It depends on who has who locked in what cage."
"Our civilization is flinging itself to pieces. Stand back from the centrifuge."
"Without the library, you have no civilization."
on Wisdom
"You must stay drunk on writing so reality cannot destroy you."
"It is a wise writer who knows his own subconscious."
"Look for the little loves. Find and shape the little bitternesses."
"You're afraid of making mistakes. Don't be. Mistakes can be profited by."
"Jump and let's build our wings on the way down"
on Courage
"In order for a thing to be horrible it has to suffer a change you can recognize."
