The only imaginative fiction being written today is income tax returns. Herman Wouk More Quotes by Herman Wouk More Quotes From Herman Wouk Income tax returns are the most imaginative fiction being written today. Herman Wouk incomebookfiction I try to write a certain amount each day, five days a week. A rule sometimes broken is better than no rule. Herman Wouk brokenwritingtrying Human life cannot be formless. We live by patterns. We move in comradeships. Conformity is evil when it distorts, flattens, and erases fruitful ways, strong ideas, natural identities; it is evil when it is a steamroller. But a man cannot escape being part of a milieu - and a recognizable part - unless he flees naked to a cave, never to return. The sensible thing is to use hard thinking to find the right way to live and then to live that way. What matters is living with dignity, with decency, and without fear. Herman Wouk strongmenmoving The door available to everyone that can lead to happiness & success is the modest door of the public library. I found it to be so in my own life and work. Herman Wouk libraryfounddoors Some people think that all the equipment you need to discuss religion is a mouth. Herman Wouk peoplereligionthinking When in trouble or in doubt, run in circles, scream and shout. Herman Wouk circlesdoubtrunning Peace, if it ever exists, will not be based on the fear of war, but on the love of peace. It will not be the abstaining from an act, but the coming of a state of mind. Herman Wouk statesmindwar The only true non-conformists are in the asylums; the only radically free spirits are in the death house awaiting the chair. We live by patterns. Herman Wouk free-spiritpatternshouse This life is slow suicide, unless you read. Herman Wouk this-lifesuicidelife-is The Talmud is to this day the circulating heart's blood of the Jewish religion. Whatever laws, customs or ceremonies we observe-whether we are orthodox, conservative, reform or merely spasmodic sentimentalists-we follow the Talmud. It is our common Law. Herman Wouk lawheartblood A writer is nothing but a gray dirt-covered root. The works he sends up into the sunlight are his fruits, and only those are worthy of attention. Herman Wouk dirtrootsattention The Navy is a master plan designed by geniuses for execution by idiots. If you are not an idiot, but find yourself in the Navy, you can only operate well by pretending to be one. All the shortcuts and economies and common-sense changes that your native intelligence suggests to you are mistakes. Learn to quash them. Constantly ask yourself, "How would I do this if I were a fool?" Throttle down your mind to a crawl. Then you will never go wrong. Herman Wouk finding-yourselfcommon-sensemistake The Navy is a master plan designed by geniuses for execution by idiots. If you're not an idiot, but find yourself in the Navy, you can only operate well by pretending to be one. Herman Wouk navyfinding-yourselfgenius I think it's a bit like coming to the end of a book. The plot's in its thickest, all the characters are in a mess, but you can see that there aren't fifty pages left, and you know that the finish can't be far off. Herman Wouk characterbookthinking We are in the black theater of nonexistence. In an eye blink the curtain is up, the stage ablaze, for the vast drama of ourselves. Herman Wouk blackeyedrama The films of The Caine Mutiny and Marjorie Morningstar always seemed to me mere thin skims of the story lines, and I never did see a meager Hollywood caper called Youngblood Hawke, vaguely based on my 800-page novel. So it was that I opted for television, with its much broader time limits, for The Winds of War. Herman Wouk mutinywindwar Strange, isn't it, that warfare has come down to fencing with complicated toys that only a few seedy scholars can make or understand. Herman Wouk toysstrangewar Write a page a day. It will add up. Herman Wouk pageswritingadd War is a business in which a lot of people watch a few people get killed and are damn glad it wasn't them. Herman Wouk warwatchespeople This is an excellent martini — sort of tastes like it isn't there at all, just a cold cloud. Herman Wouk coldtasteclouds
