William Gaddis

That’s what I can’t stand. I know I’ll bounce back, and that’s what I can’t stand.

The Mona Lisa, the Mona Lisa….Leonardo had eye trouble….Art couldn’t explain it….But now we’re safe, since science can explain it. Maybe Milton wrote Paradise Lost because he was blind? And Beethoven wrote the Ninth Symphony because he was deaf…

What you seek in vain for, half your life, one day you come full upon, all the family at dinner. You seek it like a dream, and as soon as you find it, you become its prey.

I’ll tell you why yes, because why people lie is, because when people stop lying you know they’ve stopped caring.

What is it they want from a man that they didn’t get from his work? What do they expect? What is there left of him when he’s done his work? What’s any artist, but the dregs of his work? the human shambles that follows it around. What’s left of the man when the work’s done but a shambles of apology.

Merry Christmas! the man threatened.

While we ourselves are the living graves of murdered beasts, how can we expect any ideal conditions on this earth?

Don’t be afraid. Be focused. Be determined. Be hopeful. Be empowered.

What is read twice is usually remembered more than what is once written.

Noise proves nothing. Often a hen who has merely laid an egg cackles as if she laid an asteroid.

A sudden bold and unexpected question does many times surprise a man and lay him open.

Do not be too moral. You may cheat yourself out of much life so. Aim above morality. Be not simply good;be good for something.All fables, indeed, have their morals; but the innocent enjoy the story. Let nothing come between you and the light. Respect men and brothers only. When you travel to the Celestial City, carry no letter of introduction. When you knock, ask to see God,

Light is the first of painters. There is no object so foul that intense light will not make it beautiful.

To succeed in the other trades, capacity must be shown; in the law, concealment of it will do.

I pay the schoolmaster, but it is the school boys who educate my son.

The end of the human race will be that it will eventually die of civilization.

Nakedness is uncomely, as well in mind as body, and it addeth no small reverence to men’s manners and actions if they be not altogether open. Therefore set it down: That a habit of secrecy is both politic and moral.

In order to fully realize how bad a popular play can be, it is necessary to see it twice.

In the name of God, stop a moment, cease your work, look around you.

Promise, large promise, is the soul of an advertisement.

Sir, they are a race of convicts, and ought to be thankful for anything we allow them short of hanging.