What would Chaucer have written about if men were perfect? Pete Hamill More Quotes by Pete Hamill More Quotes From Pete Hamill The goal is to be both disciplined and loose, so that the writing does not turn into a task or a chore. To leave myself behind, along with the mechanics, and disappear into the lives of my characters. Pete Hamill goalwritingcharacter What libraries give you is all three tenses - the past tense - the present tense in which we live and the future that we can only imagine. These places have teachers who are living and dead and we are lucky to have them. If I sit here and read Aristotle, he is speaking to me across a thousand years - more than a thousand years. That sense that I am in the company of the great greatest people who ever lived is a humbling experience but a liberating experience. Pete Hamill teacherpastyears This is truly marvelous work full of mystery, nostalgia, joy, The Color of Whimsy. Pete Hamill whimsycolorjoy Frank Sinatra was the voice of the 20th-century American city. Pete Hamill centuryvoicecities Say what you will about him Ed Koch is still the best show in town. Pete Hamill townsstillsshows Today there are a lot of novelists who seem to be writing to be reviewed, not read. Pete Hamill novelistswritingtoday Vietnam should have taught us that mindless anti-Communism is not a cause worth killing or dying for in a world in which Communism is hardly a monolithic force. Pete Hamill worthforcecommunismworld I usually wake up at 7, 7:15, without an alarm. I hate the sound of an alarm. Pete Hamill withoutwake-uphatesound The Mafia exists in the American imagination because we want it to exist. Pete Hamill americanmafiaimaginationwant If it's a beautiful day, I love taking walks. The walks are always aimless. Pete Hamill dayalwaysbeautifullove For those without money, the road to that treasure house of the imagination begins at the public library. Pete Hamill roadlibrarymoneyimagination In my experience, growing up in Brooklyn and all that, the real tough guys didn't act tough. They didn't talk tough. They were tough, you know? I think about these politicians who try to pose as tough guys - it makes me laugh. Pete Hamill laughmeyouexperience Confession alone is not necessarily good for the soul. Pete Hamill alonegoodconfessionsoul It's easy to be a tough guy when no one's going to come knocking on your door. Pete Hamill dooryourtougheasy The Anarchists set off World War I with a gunshot in Sarajevo - but they faded away. It wasn't that the police drove them out of business. The ideology had nowhere to go except into permanent negativity. Pete Hamill policebusinesswarworld Bootleggers were romanticized by people like F. Scott Fitzgerald, for example. Gatsby is a bootlegger. And they were not thought of as evil criminals in the newspapers, either. There was a certain amount of affection for them. Pete Hamill thoughtaffectionevilpeople The Huffingtonpost.com does not pay its writers. Tina Brown's thedailybeast.com does pay its writers. You have to be paid because this is not a hobby. You have to keep that standard. You can't ask grandpa to loan you money because you have to go to Afghanistan. I walked the picket line for that to continue. Pete Hamill hobbygoyoumoney Everybody who went to Vietnam carries his or her own version of the war. Only 10 percent engaged in combat; the American elephant, pursuing the Vietnamese grasshopper, was extraordinarily heavy with logistical support. Pete Hamill elephantownsupportwar Vietnam should have taught us that nationalism, with its engines of independence and self-determination, is a more powerful force by far than Marxism and must be understood and respected. Pete Hamill usnationalismindependencepowerful The replenishing thing that comes with a nap - you end up with two mornings in a day. Pete Hamill enddayyoutwo
