The deep joy we take in the company of people with whom we have just recently fallen in love is undisguisable. 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 doughnut tvs goes-on I do not understand the capricious lewdness of the sleeping mind. John Cheever mind dream sleep I believe that writing is an account of the powers of extrication. John Cheever i-believe writing believe 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 battle writing fiction I dream that my face appears on a postage stamp. John Cheever dream faces fame Only the opium eater truly understands the pain of death. John Cheever opium pain Avoid kneeling in unheated stone churches. Ecclesiastical dampness causes prematurely grey hair. John Cheever church stones hair 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 crux drug death 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 irony mystery heart 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 kings mean children 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 tire nuts sex 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 smell light friendship 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 beautiful men children 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 nuclear roles writing 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 smell prayer spiritual 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 organization perfection men To be an American and unable to play baseball is comparable to being a Polynesian and unable to swim. John Cheever baseball softball play 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 destiny imagination evil 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 vacant savages shame I was here on earth because I chose to be. John Cheever earth
