I think there is a sense of last things in my work that probably... by Don DeLillo

I think there is a sense of last things in my work that probably comes from a Catholic childhood.

Don DeLillo

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Categorized in : Thinking Catholic Childhood

[I]n the American soul there is a lonely individual standing in a vast landscape.  He is either on a horse or driving a car, depending, and either way he’s carrying a gun.  This is one of the essential images in American mythology.

horse gun lonely

Everything is barely weeks. Everything is days. We have minutes t... by Don DeLillo

Everything is barely weeks. Everything is days. We have minutes to live.

American writers ought to stand and live in the margins, and be m... by Don DeLillo

American writers ought to stand and live in the margins, and be more dangerous.

bedtime dangerous reality

I watch movies occasionally, and I watch documentaries. Virtually... by Don DeLillo

I watch movies occasionally, and I watch documentaries. Virtually nothing else.

watch-movie documentaries watches

Silence, exile, cunning and so on... it's my nature to keep quiet about most things. Even the ideas in my work.

silence literature ideas

The future belongs to crowds. by Don DeLillo

The future belongs to crowds.

crowds future literature

A Catholic is raised with the idea that he will die any minute now and if he doesn't live his life in a certain way, this death is an introduction to an eternity of pain.

catholic pain ideas

The greater the scientific advance, the more primitive the fear. by Don DeLillo

The greater the scientific advance, the more primitive the fear.

white-noise primitive greater

The term itself--my life--is a desperate overstatement. by Don DeLillo

The term itself--my life--is a desperate overstatement.

desperate term life-is

Off-camera lives are unverifiable. by Don DeLillo

Off-camera lives are unverifiable.

Explain me to myself, you’ll make me choke on my lunch. Feel sympathy for me, I’ll puke monkey blood on your understated shoes.

shoes lunch blood

He said, "The word for moonlight is moonlight. by Don DeLillo

He said, "The word for moonlight is moonlight.

The power of the dead is that we think they see us all the time. The dead have a presence. Is there a level of energy composed solely of the dead? They are also in the ground, of course, asleep and crumbling. Perhaps we are what they dream.

energy dream thinking

When I read obituaries I always note the age of the deceased. Automatically I relate this figure to my own age. Four years to go, I think. Nine more years. Two years and I'm dead. The power of numbers is never more evident than when we use them to speculate on the time of our dying.

death years thinking

Doesn't our knowledge of death make life more precious?' What good is a preciousness based on fear and anxiety? It's an anxious quivering thing

anxiety anxious

This is the whole point of technology. It creates an appetite for immortality on the one hand. It threatens universal extinction on the other. Technology is lust removed from nature. - Murray (WN 285)

technology lust hands

Do people still shoot at presidents? I thought there were more st... by Don DeLillo

Do people still shoot at presidents? I thought there were more stimulating targets.' (20)

target president people

Money has lost its narrative quality the way painting did once upon a time. Money is talking to itself.

quality once-upon-a-time talking

There are dead stars that still shine because their light is trapped in time. Where do I stand in this light, which does not strictly exist? (155)

stars shining light

Eye contact was a delicate matter. A quarter second of a shared glance was a violation of agreements that made the city operational.

eye cities agreement