The true alchemists do not change lead into gold; they change the world into words. William H. Gass More Quotes by William H. Gass More Quotes From William H. Gass Of course there is enough to stir our wonder anywhere; there's enough to love, anywhere, if one is strong enough, if one is diligent enough, if one is perceptive, patient, kind enough -- whatever it takes. William H. Gass patient strong kind I do have a very conscious desire not to be academic. I'm antiacademic. I hate jargon. I hate that sort of pretension. I am a person who [commits] breaches of decorum - not in private life, but in my work. They are part of my mode of operation. That kind of playfulness is part of my nature in general. The paradox that, in a way, to take something very seriously, you can't always be serious about it. William H. Gass jargon hate desire it is discouraging to leave the past behind only to see it coming toward you like the thunderstorm which drenched you yesterday. William H. Gass thunderstorm yesterday past Sports, politics, and religion are the three passions of the badly educated. William H. Gass passion three sports Works of art are meant to be lived with and loved, and if we try to understand them, we should try to understand them as we try to understand anyone — in order to know them better, not in order to know something else. William H. Gass trying order art It’s not the word made flesh we want in writing, in poetry and fiction, but the flesh made word William H. Gass want writing fiction I write because I hate. A lot. Hard. William H. Gass i-hate hate writing As Rilke observed, love requires a progressive shortening of the senses: I can see you for miles; I can hear you for blocks, I can smell you, maybe, for a few feet, but I can only touch on contact, taste as I devour William H. Gass smell block feet I am unlikely to trust a sentence that comes easily. William H. Gass unlikely sentences What else is soul but a listener? William H. Gass listeners soul listening So if hunger provokes wailing and wailing brings the breast; if the breast permits sucking and milk suggests its swallow; if swallowing issues in sleep and stomachy comfort, then need, ache, message, object, act, and satisfaction are soon associated like charms on a chain; shortly our wants begin to envision the things which well reduce them, and the organism is finally said to wish. William H. Gass issues wish sleep The alcoholic trance is not just a haze, as though the eyes were also unshaven. It is not a mere buzzing in the ears, a dizzinessor disturbance of balance. One arrives in the garden again, at nursery time, when the gentle animals are fed and in all the world there are only toys. William H. Gass eye drinking animal Words [are] more beautiful than a found fall leaf. William H. Gass found beautiful fall I was struck by the way in which meanings are historically attached to words: it is so accidental, so remote, so twisted. A word is like a schoolgirl's room--a complete mess--so the great thing is to make out a way of seeing it all as ordered, as right, as inferred and following. William H. Gass twisted way rooms If you were a fully realized person-whatever the hell that would be-you wouldn't fool around writing books. William H. Gass would-be writing book The death of God represents not only the realization that gods have never existed, but the contention that such a belief is no longer even irrationally possible: that neither reason nor the taste and temper of the times condones it. The belief lingers on, of course, but it does so like astrology or a faith in a flat earth. William H. Gass astrology realization earth How do we know, then, when a code's been cracked?when we are right?when do we know if we have even received a message? Why, naturally, when, upon one set of substitutions, sense emerges like the outline under a rubbing; when a single tentative construal leads to several; when all the sullen letters of the code cry TEAM! after YEA! has been, by several hands, uncovered. William H. Gass team reading hands We converse as we live by repeating, by combining and recombining a few elements over and over again just as nature does when of elementary particles it builds a world. William H. Gass elements doe world Philosophy has a great sort of appeal in terms of an artistic or aesthetic organization of concepts. It's a conceptual art. William H. Gass organization philosophy art For me, the short story is not a character sketch, a mouse trap, an epiphany, a slice of suburban life. It is the flowering of a symbol center. It is a poem grafted onto sturdier stock. William H. Gass stories writing character
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