I learned little save that most of the deeds, good and bad both, incurring opprobrium or plaudits or reward either, within the scope of man's abilities, had already been performed and were to be learned about only from books. William Faulkner More Quotes by William Faulkner More Quotes From William Faulkner I believe in God, God. God, I believe in God. William Faulkner believe-in-god i-believe believe When my horse is running good, I don't stop to give him sugar. William Faulkner horse writing running Some days in late August at home are like this, the air thin and eager like this, with something in it sad and nostalgic and familiar. William Faulkner august air home They will endure. They are better than we are. Stronger than we are. Their vices are vices aped from white men or that white men and bondage have taught them: improvidence and intemperance and evasion-not laziness: evasion: of what white men had set them to, not for their aggrandizement or even comfort but his own. William Faulkner white-man justice men When the switch fell I could feel it upon my flesh; when it welted and ridged it was my blood that ran, and I would think with each blow of the switch: Now you are aware of me! Now I am something in your secret and selfish life, who have marked your blood with my own for ever and ever. William Faulkner selfish blow thinking Surely heaven must have something of the color and shape of whatever village or hill or cottage of which the believer says, This is my own. William Faulkner cottages color heaven The poets are wrong of course […] But then poets are almost always wrong about facts. That's because they are not really interested in facts: only in truth: which is why the truth they speak is so true that even those who hate poets by simple and natural instinct are exalted and terrified by it. William Faulkner natural-instinct hate simple It was like something you have dreaded and feared and dodged for years until it seemed like all your life, then despite everything it happened to you and all it was was just pain, all it did was hurt and so it was all over, all finished, all right. William Faulkner pain hurt years He thought that it was loneliness which he was trying to escape and not himself. But the street ran on: catlike, one place was the same as another to him. But in none of them could he be quiet. But the street ran on in its moods and phases, always empty: he might have seen himself as in numberless avatars, in silence, doomed with motion, driven by the courage of flagged and spurred despair; by the despair of courage whose opportunities had to be flagged and spurred. William Faulkner silence loneliness opportunity Knowing not grieving remembers a thousand savage and lonely streets. William Faulkner lonely knowing grieving And I will look down and see my murmuring bones and the deep water like wind, like a roof of wind, and after a long time they cannot distinguish even bones upon the lonely and inviolate sand. William Faulkner deep-water lonely wind That which is destroying the Church is not the outward groping of those within it nor the inward groping of those without, but the professionals who control it and who have removed the bells from its steeples. William Faulkner bells inward church One day I was talking to Cora. She prayed for me because she believed I was blind to sin, wanting me to kneel and pray too, because people to whom sin is just a matter of words, to them salvation is just words too. William Faulkner one-day talking people I do not rewrite unless I am absolutely sure that I can express the material better if I do rewrite it. William Faulkner materials i-can ifs It feels almost soft, like something to be caressed. Only gold feels that way. William Faulkner gold feels way Mississippi begins in a lobby of a Memphis, Tennessee hotel and extends south to the Gulf of Mexico William Faulkner memphis mexico tennessee In the South you are ashamed of being a virgin. Boys. Men. They lie about it. Because it means less to women, Father said. He said it was men invented virginity not women. Father said it's like death: only a state in which the others are left and I said, But to believe it doesn't matter and he said, That's what's so sad about anything: not only virginity and I said, Why couldn't it have been me and not her who is unvirgin and he said, That's why that's sad too; nothing is even worth the changing of it. William Faulkner believe father lying Gettysburg. . . . You cant understand it. You would have to be born there. William Faulkner gettysburg born understanding It's always the idle habits you acquire which you will regret. Father said that. That Christ was not crucified: he was worn away by a minute clicking of little wheels. That had no sister. William Faulkner regret littles father A pair of jaybirds came up from nowhere, whirled up on the blast like gaudy scraps of cloth or paper and lodged in the mulberries, where they swung in raucous tilt and recover, screaming into the wind that ripped their harsh cries onward and away like scraps of paper or of cloth in turn. William Faulkner pairs bird wind
