William Gaddis

There is nothing more distressing or tiresome than a writer standing in front of an audience and reading his work.

If you want to make a million you don’t have to understand money, what you have to understand is people’s fears about money.

Power doesn’t corrupt people; people corrupt power.

The painters could be identified by dirty fingernails; the writers by conversation in labored monosyllables and aggressive vulgarities which disguised their minds.

Let them look up in the sky then…! if they must be so blind, that cannot see the truth in broad daylight, but must have the whole world in darkness to see the conceit of the stars…

I see the player piano as the grandfather of the computer, the ancestor of the entire nightmare we live in, the birth of the binary world where there is no option other than yes or no and where there is no refuge.

I was a great student. I was good at everything.

You can’t learn in school what the world is going to do next year.

But before any great things are accomplished, a memorable change must be made in the system of Education and knowledge must become so general as to raise the lower ranks of Society nearer to the higher. The Education of a Nation, instead of being confined to a few schools & Universities, for the instruction of the few, must become the National Care and expence, for the information of the Many.

[On his donation of $100 million to UCLA in 2012 adding to the $200 million he donated in 2002] The cost of a world-class medical education should not deter our future innovators, doctors and scientists from the path they hope to pursue. We need the students at this world-class institution to be driven by determination and the desire to do their best work and not by the fear of crushing debt. I hope in doing this that others will be inspired to do the same.

Because of the flexibility that community colleges afford, many students do not have to choose between an education and fulfilling other responsibilities – they can do both.

We believe, that is, you and I, that education is not an expense. We believe it is an investment.

It is a truism that education is no longer a luxury. Education in this day and age is a necessity.

To educate the peasantry, three things are needed: schools, schools and schools.

A man who has never gone to school may steal from a freight car, but if he has a university education he may steal the whole railroad.

I have never met a man so ignorant that I couldn’t learn something from him.

As precious as knowledge itself is the learning. As precious as any reward is the earning.

As a community college professor for over twenty years, I’ve seen the determination, resilience and dedication of countless students. Regardless of circumstances, they show up. They work hard. They believe anything is possible.

… because in the United States of America, no one should go broke because they chose to go to college.

I just am not good at math.

An education obtained with money is worse than no education at all.