Mailer's Law: A thing either gets better or it costs more to run it the way it was. Norman Mailer More Quotes by Norman Mailer More Quotes From Norman Mailer Crude thoughts and fierce forces are my state. I do not know who I am. Nor what I was. I cannot hear a sound. Pain is near that will be like no pain felt before. Norman Mailer painwho-i-amsound The novelist ... must live in paranoia and seek to be one with the world; he must be terrified of experience and hungry for it; he must think himself nothing and believe he is superior to all. Norman Mailer believeworldthinking Writing can wreck your body. You sit there on the chair hour after hour and sweat your guts out to get a few words. Norman Mailer after-hourssweatwriting MIke Lee writes with honesty, penetration, wit and the ability to surprise the reader with an unexpected turn from time to time that enriches the experience. Norman Mailer unexpectedhonestywriting You do not really wish to hear more of the Battle of Kadesh. Let me say only that human fat, gorged in considerable quantity, has an intoxicating effect. I became ... drunk. Norman Mailer drunkbattlewish I would introduce myself if it were not useless. The name I had last night will not be the same as the name I have tonight. For the moment, then, let me say that I am thinking of Sam Slovoda. Norman Mailer namesnightthinking A high church for the true mediocre. Norman Mailer syndicatemediocrechurch The sole virtue of losing your short-term memory is that it does free you to be your own editor. Norman Mailer editorsdoememories Movies are more likely than literature to reach deep feelings in people. Norman Mailer literaturefeelingspeople When a novel comes, it's a grace. Something in the cosmos has forgiven you long enough so that you can start. Norman Mailer cosmosgracelong The sense of a long last night over civilization is back again. Norman Mailer nightcivilizationlong No physical activity is so vain as boxing. A man gets into the ring to attract admiration. In no sport, therefore, can you be more humiliated. Norman Mailer boxingsportsmen Dying can't be all that difficult-up to now everyone has managed to do it. Norman Mailer difficultdying Only another writer can know how much damage writing a novel can do to you. It's an unnatural activity to sit at a desk and squeeze words out of yourself. Norman Mailer desksdamagewriting Television is coitus interruptus brought into aesthetics. Norman Mailer aestheticstelevision To know what you want to say is not the best condition for writing a novel. Novels go happiest when you discover something you did not know you knew: an insight into one of your opaque characters, a metaphor that startles you... a truth... that used to elude you. Norman Mailer elude-youwritingcharacter The way you write affects what you say. Norman Mailer writingway Patterned after an Italian Renaissance palace, it is 88 times as large and one millionth as valuable to the continuation of man. that Pentagon of traveling salesmen. Norman Mailer palacesitalianmen The greater the power of any subjective state, the more total is a Romantic's assumption that everyone understands exactly what he is about to do, therefore waste not a moment by stopping to tell them. Norman Mailer stoppingassumptionwaste What's the use of being a writer if you can't irritate a great many people? Norman Mailer great-menusepeople
