All literary men are Red Sox fans - to be a Yankee fan in a literate society is to endanger your life. John Cheever More Quotes by John Cheever More Quotes From John Cheever Never eat a heavily sugared doughnut before you go on TV. John Cheever doughnuttvsgoes-on I do not understand the capricious lewdness of the sleeping mind. John Cheever minddreamsleep I believe that writing is an account of the powers of extrication. John Cheever i-believewritingbelieve Fiction must compete with first-rate reporting. If you cannot write a story that is equal to a factual account of battle in the streets or demonstrations, then you can't write a story. John Cheever battlewritingfiction I dream that my face appears on a postage stamp. John Cheever dreamfacesfame Only the opium eater truly understands the pain of death. John Cheever opiumpain Avoid kneeling in unheated stone churches. Ecclesiastical dampness causes prematurely grey hair. John Cheever churchstoneshair The fear of death is for all of us everywhere, but for the great intelligence of the opium eater it is beautifully narrowed into the crux of drugs. John Cheever cruxdrugdeath The irony of Christmas is always upon the poor in heart; the mystery of the solstice is always upon the rest of us. John Cheever ironymysteryheart There isn't a king or a merchant prince in the whole world that I envy, for I always knew I was born to be a child of destiny and that I was never meant to wring my living from detestable, low, degrading, mean and ordinary kinds of business. John Cheever kingsmeanchildren How can we describe the most exalted experience of our physical lives [sex], as if-jack, wrench, hubcap, and nuts-we were describing the changing of a flat tire? John Cheever tirenutssex It is not, as somebody once wrote, the smell of corn bread that calls us back from death; it is the lights and signs of love and friendship. John Cheever smelllightfriendship Children drown, beautiful women are mangled in automobile accidents, cruise ships founder, and men die lingering deaths in mines and submarines, but you will find none of this in my accounts. John Cheever beautifulmenchildren What I am going to write is the last of what I have to say. I will say that literature is the only consciousness we possess and that its role as consciousness must inform us of our ability to comprehend the hideous danger of nuclear power. John Cheever nuclearroleswriting We praise Him, we bless Him, we adore Him, we glorify Him, and we wonder who is that baritone across the aisle and that pretty woman on our right who smells of apple blossoms. Our bowels stir and our cod itches and we amend our prayers for the spiritual life with the hope that it will not be too spiritual. John Cheever smellprayerspiritual The organizations of men, like men themselves, seem subject to deafness, near-sightedness, lameness, and involuntary cruelty. We seem tragically unable to help one another, to understand one another. John Cheever organizationperfectionmen To be an American and unable to play baseball is comparable to being a Polynesian and unable to swim. John Cheever baseballsoftballplay The writer cultivates, extends, raises and inflates his imagination, sure that this is his destiny, his usefulness, his contribution to the understanding of good and evil. As he inflates his imagination he inflates his capacity for evil. John Cheever destinyimaginationevil Everything outside was elegant and savage and fleshy. Everything inside was slow and cool and vacant. It seemed a shame to stay inside. John Cheever vacantsavagesshame I was here on earth because I chose to be. John Cheever earth
