J. P. Donleavy Quotes

• Electronic books are a bad thing because they cannot be accumulated on shelves to remind you of your past, to impress your neighbors and colleagues, and to help prevent divorces thanks to the sheer bother of arguing over who owns what.

  J. P. Donleavy

  Book, Divorce, Past

  52 Copy quote

• When I die, I want to decompose in a barrel of porter and have it served in all the pubs in Dublin. I wonder would they know it was me?

  J. P. Donleavy

  Funny, Death, Beer

  Ginger Man (1955) ch. 31

  25 Copy quote

• Writing is turning one's worst moments into money.

  J. P. Donleavy

  Writing, Worst Moments, Writing Fiction

  Quoted in Playboy, May 1979

  22 Copy quote

• On Being Old. It's not nice but take comfort that you won't stay that way for ever.

  J. P. Donleavy

  Nice, Comfort, Way

  "The Unexpurgated Code". Book by J. P. Donleavy, 1975.

  24 Copy quote

• Expect the worst and that's what you'll get only it will be much worse.

  J. P. Donleavy

  Worst

  "Are you listening Rabbi Löw". Book by J. P. Donleavy, 1987.

  13 Copy quote

• I remember one letter from a girl in a midwestern town who read one of my books and thought she had discovered it- that no one had ever read it or knew about it. Then one day in her local library she found cards for one or two of my other books. They were full of names- the books were borrowed all the time. She resented this a bit and then walked around the town looking in everybody's face and wondering if they were the ones who were reading my books. That is someone I write for.

  J. P. Donleavy

  Girl, Reading, Book

  14 Copy quote

• Blessed are they who in this sea of frailty,
  climb aboard a piece of ass as it floats by.

  J. P. Donleavy

  Blessed, Sea, Pieces

  10 Copy quote

• I'm starved for love. Not ordinary love but real love. The love that's like music or something.

  J. P. Donleavy

  Real, Real Love, Ordinary

  J. P. Donleavy (2010). “The Ginger Man”, p.149, Grove/Atlantic, Inc.

  17 Copy quote

• Food Throwers: Begun usually by estranged couples, once this victual flinging starts, everyone will do it...Should your dinner party have become an out of control concussion match with opponents catapulting croutons and petits pois across the mahogany, don't fight it, go with it. And when you have the desire to quell the uprising approach the original perpetrator from behind. There, slowly crown her with the contents of the fresh fruit salad bowl. But be warned. Although this immobilizes and rivits everyone's attention it also gives them new ideas.

  J. P. Donleavy

  Couple, Party, Fighting

  13 Copy quote

• Rid the mind of knowledge when looking for pleasure. Or start thinking and find a lot of pain.

  J. P. Donleavy

  Pain, Thinking, Mind

  "The Saddest Summer of Samuel S". Book by J. P. Donleavy, 1966.

  9 Copy quote

• When you don't have any money, the problem is food. When you have money, it's sex. When you have both, it's health. If everything is simply jake, then you're frightened of death

  J. P. Donleavy

  Money, Sex, Healthy

  The Ginger Man ch. 5 (1955)

  7 Copy quote

• I got disappointed in human nature as well and gave it up because I found it too much like my own.

  J. P. Donleavy

  Too Much, Human Nature, Found

  J. P. Donleavy (2007). “A Fairy Tale of New York”, p.183, Grove/Atlantic, Inc.

  11 Copy quote

• The inhabitants will always see both sides of an argument so long as it can result in a fight.

  J. P. Donleavy

  Fighting, Long, Sides

  "An Author and his Image: The Collected Short Pieces". Book by J. P. Donleavy, 1997.

  8 Copy quote

• The purpose of writing is to make your mother and father drop dead with shame.

  J. P. Donleavy

  Mother, Father, Writing

  12 Copy quote

• I'm all for Christianity, but insolence must be put down.

  J. P. Donleavy

  Christianity, Insolence

  J. P. Donleavy (2010). “The Ginger Man”, p.26, Grove/Atlantic, Inc.

  9 Copy quote

• Dear Mr Skully, I have caught my neck in a mangle and will be indisposed for eternity. Yours in death S.D.

  J. P. Donleavy

  Necks, Eternity, Caught

  J. P. Donleavy (2010). “The Ginger Man”, p.158, Grove/Atlantic, Inc.

  13 Copy quote

• Revenge is what I want. Nothing but pure unadulterated revenge. But my mother brought me up to be a lady.

  J. P. Donleavy

  Mother, Revenge, Want

  9 Copy quote

• Sometimes you write and you find yourself almost wondering how it will turn out. I don't think every writer sort of almost admits that at some stage his books can take on their own kind of life it selves and simply lead away into directions that they're not kind of prepared for.

  J. P. Donleavy

  Book, Writing, Thinking

  4 Copy quote

• To marry the Irish is to look for poverty.

  J. P. Donleavy

  Looks, Poverty, Marry Me

  J. P. Donleavy (2010). “The Ginger Man”, p.12, Grove/Atlantic, Inc.

  7 Copy quote

• And no. I must not go on thinking. For the pain will never go away. You just go on and live. In the dust of desertion. Still falling where last I loved.

  J. P. Donleavy

  Pain, Lost Love, Fall

  J. P. Donleavy (2007). “The Beastly Beatitudes of Balthazar B”, p.299, Grove/Atlantic, Inc.

  7 Copy quote

• You know, there must be happiness somewhere, when a lawyer dies.

  J. P. Donleavy

  Lawyer, Knows, Dies

  J. P. Donleavy (2007). “A Fairy Tale of New York”, p.214, Grove/Atlantic, Inc.

  8 Copy quote

• If you're going to love somebody, love somebody who needs it.

  J. P. Donleavy

  Needs, Ifs

  4 Copy quote

• See all the women seated, youth in their face lifts, old age in their hands.

  J. P. Donleavy

  Hands, Age, Faces

  7 Copy quote

• At the age of 18 I don't think that I thought very differently than I did at the age of 25. I think we instinctively have the knowledge and adapt the knowledge we need.

  J. P. Donleavy

  Thinking, Age, Needs

  5 Copy quote

• The best book of the year, Grobel's writing is quite marvelous. The Hustons reads vividly, just like one of John Huston's great films.

  J. P. Donleavy

  Book, Writing, Years

  7 Copy quote

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