A writer ... whittles at the words and phrases of today and makes of them forms to set the mind of tomorrow's generation. John Dos Passos More Quotes by John Dos Passos More Quotes From John Dos Passos People don't choose their careers; they are engulfed by them. John Dos Passos careerspeople Every generation rewrites the past. In easy times history is more or less of an ornamental art, but in times of danger we are driven to the written record by a pressing need to find answers to the riddles of today.... In times of change and danger when there is a quicksand of fear under men's reasoning, a sense of continuity with generations gone before can stretch like a lifeline across the scary present and get us past that idiot delusion of the exceptional Now that blocks good thinking. John Dos Passos blockpastart The creation of a world view is the work of a generation rather than of an individual, but we each of us, for better or for worse, add our brick to the edifice. John Dos Passos generationsviewsworld Individuality is freedom lived. John Dos Passos individualitylibertywisdom Democracy evolves where freedom is able to determine its own policy. John Dos Passos democracyablefreedom The people of this country are too tolerant. There's no other country in the world where they'd allow it... After all we built up this country and then we allow a lot of foreigners, the scum of Europe, the offscourings of Polish ghettos to come and run it for us. John Dos Passos ghettorunningcountry Life is to be used, not just held in the hand like a box of bonbons that nobody eats. John Dos Passos usedlifehands Why won't they let a year die without bringing in a new one on the instant, can't they use birth control on time? I want an interregnum. The stupid years patter on with unrelenting feet, never stopping - rising to little monotonous peaks in our imaginations at festivals like New Year's and Easter and Christmas - But, goodness, why need they do it? John Dos Passos new-yeareastertime It's rather grisly, isnt it, how soon a living man becomes nothing more than a collection of stocks and bonds and debts and real estate? John Dos Passos debtrealmen Anything that happens to you has some bearing upon what you write. John Dos Passos happenswriting If there is a special Hades for writers is would be in the forced contemplation of their own works. John Dos Passos contemplationspecialwould-be Marxism has not only failed to promote human freedom, it has failed to produce food. John Dos Passos marxismproducehumans If I were sufficiently romantic I suppose I'd have killed myself long ago just to make people talk about me. I haven't even got the conviction to make a successful drunkard. John Dos Passos long-agosuccessfulromantic I've always thought you should concentrate on paddling your own canoe. John Dos Passos paddlingshould Man seems to be an animal whose capacity for lies is only equalled by his credulity; it does no good to let battalions of cats outof bags, to produce whole harems of naked facts, people eat the same three meals daily deception, and are always ready to turn with fury upon the purveyors of bagless cats and facts undraped. Probably their instinct is wise. Who knows? John Dos Passos truthwiselying A man's got to work for more than himself and his kids to feel right John Dos Passos feels-rightmenkids Men who have lost their conviction of what is good and what is bad find themselves without a sextant to check their position by. We are in the position of a man with an elaborate camping kit who finds himself lost in the woods without his matches; to kindle a fire he has to resort to the stratagems of the caveman. We fall back through generations into the oldest terrors and confusions of the race. John Dos Passos firemenfall I think we are all of us a pretty milky lot, without tea-table convictions and our radicalism that keeps so consistently within the bounds of decorum . . . .I'd like to annihilate these stupid colleges of ours . . . instillers of stodginess. John Dos Passos collegestupidthinking Isn't it curious how completely ignorant we all are of the most important part of our bodily mechanism. It is really criminal. Yet there is no nation in the world that doesnt surround sex with fantastic walls. Of course ours are sillier than any-but not much. John Dos Passos ignorantwallsex The man who invented Eskimo Pie made a million dollars, so one is told, but E.E. Cummings, whose verse has been appearing off andon for three years now, and whose experiments should not be more appalling to those interested in poetry than the experiment of surrounding ice-cream with a layer of chocolate was to those interested in soda fountains, has hardly made a dent in the doughy minds of our so-called poetry lovers. John Dos Passos ice-creampiemen
