One of the reasons the English got through all their falls and the loss of their empire, all their disasters, their strikes, their difficulties, their wars through the years was they had Shakespeare to fall back on. And they speak well in England. Norman Mailer More Quotes by Norman Mailer More Quotes From Norman Mailer The horror of the Twentieth Century was the size of each new event, and the paucity of its reverberation. Norman Mailer size events literature America has an almost obscene infatuation with itself. Has there ever been a big, powerful country that is as patriotic as America? And patriotic in the tinniest way, with so much flag waving? You'd really think we were some poor little republic, and that if one person lost his religion for one hour, the whole thing would crumble. America is the real religion in this country. Norman Mailer powerful real country I don't trust a man who uses the word evil eighteen times in ten minutes. If you're half evil, nothing soothes you more than to think the person you are opposed to is totally evil. Norman Mailer humility men thinking The private terror of the liberal spirit is invariably suicide, not murder. Norman Mailer violence suicide spirit We are all so guilty at the way we have allowed the world around us to become more ugly and tasteless every year that we surrender to terror and steep ourselves in it. Norman Mailer ugly world years In such places as Greenwich Village, a menage-a-trois was completed- the bohemian and the juvenile delinquent came face-to-face with the Negro, and the hipster was a fact in American life. Norman Mailer hipster village faces Great hope has no real footing unless one is willing to face into the doom that may also be on the way. p.207 Norman Mailer real may way The natural role of twentieth-century man is anxiety. Norman Mailer anxiety roles men A political convention is after all not a meeting of a corporation's board of directors; it is a fiesta, a carnival, a pig-rooting, horse-snorting, band-playing, voice-screaming medieval get-together of greed, practical lust, compromised idealism, career-advancement, meeting, feud, vendetta, conciliation, of rabble-rousers, fist fights (as it used to be), embraces, drunks (again as it used to be) and collective rivers of animal sweat. Norman Mailer horse fighting fear The only faithfulness people have is to emotions they're trying to recapture Norman Mailer emotion trying people There is probably no heterosexual alive who is not preoccupied with his latent homosexuality. Norman Mailer homosexuality latent alive Culture's worth huge, huge risks. Without culture we're all totalitarian beasts. Norman Mailer beast risk culture For what does it mean to be a hero? It requires you to be Norman Mailer hero doe mean In my day the library was a wonderful place.... We didn't have visual aids and didn't have various programs...it was a sanctuary.... So I tend to think the library should remain a center of knowledge. Norman Mailer library sanctuary thinking I'm hostile to men, I'm hostile to women, I'm hostile to cats, to poor cockroaches, I'm afraid of horses. Norman Mailer women horse cat There is one expanding horror in American life. It is that our long odyssey toward liberty, democracy and freedom-for-all may be achieved in such a way that utopia remains forever closed, and we live in freedom and hell, debased of style, not individual from one another, void of courage, our fear rationalized away. Norman Mailer freedom long america I don't want to retire. I'm not that good at crossword puzzles Norman Mailer crosswords retiring want There's a subterranean impetus towards pornography so powerful that half the business world is juiced by the sort of half sex that one finds in advertisements. Norman Mailer powerful business sex I always start a book for money. If you're married five times you have to. Norman Mailer married writing book There are days when I'll wake up and think, oh, I've really been something. You know, it won't be the same without me. And then there are days when I wake up and I say, 'Don't kid yourself. Your contribution was minimal. You changed very little. Everything you hated prospered'. Norman Mailer life kids thinking
