Sentimentality is the emotional promiscuity of those who have no sentiment.
From Norman Mailer
Revolutions are the periods of history when individuals count most.
Ultimately a hero is a man who would argue with the gods, and so awakens devils to contest his vision. The more a man can achieve, the more he may be certain that the devil will inhabit a part of his creation.
Because there is very little honor left in American life, there is a certain built-in tendency to destroy masculinity in American men.
What characterizes a member of a minority group is that he is forced to see himself as both exceptional and insignificant, marvelous and awful, good and evil.
I think it's bad to talk about one's present work, for it spoils something at the root of the creative act. It discharges the tension.
Writing books is the closest men ever come to childbearing.
In America all too few blows are struck into flesh. We kill the spirit here, we are experts at that. We use psychic bullets and kill each other cell by cell.
Culture's worth huge, huge risks. Without culture we're all totalitarian beasts.
It's not a good idea to put your wife into a novel; not your latest wife anyway.
3 perspectives
2 perspectives
1 perspectives