William Faulkner Quotes - Page 8

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• Tell about the South. What's it like there. What do they do there. Why do they live there. Why do they live at all.

  William Faulkner

  South

  William Faulkner (2013). “Absalom, Absalom!”, p.174, Random House

  8 Copy quote

• Well, between Scotch and nothin', I suppose I'd take Scotch. It's the nearest thing to good moonshine I can find.

  William Faulkner

  Scotch, Moonshine, Wells

  National Observer, February 3, 1964.

  59 Copy quote

• People need trouble - a little frustration to sharpen the spirit on, toughen it.

  William Faulkner

  Frustration, People, Needs

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• There is no such thing as was - only is. If was existed, there would be no grief or sorrow.

  William Faulkner

  Grief, Sorrow, Would Be

  "William Faulkner, The Art of Fiction No. 12". Interview with Jean Stein, www.theparisreview.org. 1956.

  17 Copy quote

• Read, read read. Read everything.

  William Faulkner

  Writing, Famous Writers, Writers Reading

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• The only environment the artist needs is whatever peace, whatever solitude, and whatever pleasure he can get at not too high a cost.

  William Faulkner

  Writing, Artist, Solitude

  21 Copy quote

• I took out my watch and listened to it clicking away, not knowing it couldn't even lie

  William Faulkner

  Lying, Knowing, Not Knowing

  William Faulkner (2011). “FAULKNER READER”, p.168, Modern Library

  6 Copy quote

• Now she hates me. I have taught her that, at least.

  William Faulkner

  Hate, Taught, Hate Me

  William Faulkner (1985). “Light in August”, Vintage

  11 Copy quote

• It feels almost soft, like something to be caressed. Only gold feels that way.

  William Faulkner

  Gold, Way, Feels

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• She forced herself once more to think of nothing, to keep her consciousness immersed, as a little dog that one keeps under water until he has stopped struggling

  William Faulkner

  Dog, Struggle, Thinking

  4 Copy quote

• Caddy smelled like trees.

  William Faulkner

  Tree

  William Faulkner (2016). “The Sound and the Fury (Third International Edition) (Norton Critical Editions)”, p.321, W. W. Norton & Company

  4 Copy quote

• This is a free country. Folks have a right to send me letters, and I have a right not to read them.

  William Faulkner

  Country, Letters, Reading Books

  18 Copy quote

• Man performs and engenders so much more than he can or should have to bear. That's how he finds that he can bear anything.

  William Faulkner

  Broken Heart, Giving Up, Kindness

  Light in August ch. 13 (1932)

  13 Copy quote

• Be scared. You can't help that. But don't be afraid. Ain't nothing in the woods going to hurt you unless you corner it, or it smells that you are afraid. A bear or a deer, too, has got to be scared of a coward the same as a brave man has got to be.

  William Faulkner

  Courage, Hurt, Men

  William Faulkner (2011). “Uncollected Stories of William Faulkner”, p.364, Vintage

  6 Copy quote

• Then Ben wailed again, hopeless and prolonged. It was nothing. Just sound. It might have been all time and injustice and sorrow become vocal for an instant by a conjunction of planets.

  William Faulkner

  Sorrow, Sound, Might

  William Faulkner (2016). “The Sound and the Fury (Third International Edition) (Norton Critical Editions)”, p.142, W. W. Norton & Company

  4 Copy quote

• Ever since then I have believed that God is not only a gentleman and a sport; he is a Kentuckian too.

  William Faulkner

  Sports, Gentleman, Kentuckians

  William Faulkner (2011). “FAULKNER READER”, p.92, Modern Library

  10 Copy quote

• Nothing can injure a man's writing if he's a first-rate writer. If a man is not a first-rate writer, there's not anything can help it much. The problem does not apply if he is not first rate because he has already sold his soul for a swimming pool.

  William Faulkner

  Writing, Swimming, Men

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• That's sad too, people cannot do anything that dreadful they cannot do anything very dreadful at all they cannot even remember tomorrow what seemed dreadful today

  William Faulkner

  People, Today, Tomorrow

  William Faulkner (2011). “FAULKNER READER”, p.82, Modern Library

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• To me, all human behavior is unpredictable and, considering man's frailty... and... the ramshackle universe he functions in, it's... all irrational.

  William Faulkner

  Art, Men, Hollywood

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• The writer's only responsibility is to his art...If a writer has to rob his mother, he will not hesitate; the 'Ode on a Grecian Urn' is worth any number of old ladies.

  William Faulkner

  Mother, Art, Responsibility

  Quoted in Paris Review, Spring 1956

  84 Copy quote

• Good art can come out of thieves, bootleggers, or horse swipes. People really are afraid to find out just how much hardship and poverty they can stand. They are afraid to find out how tough they are. Nothing can destroy the good writer. The only thing that can alter the good writer is death. Good ones don't have time to bother with success or getting rich. Success is feminine and like a woman; if you cringe before her, she will override you. So the way to treat her is to show her the back of your hand. Then maybe she will do the crawling.

  William Faulkner

  Art, Horse, Hands

  1956 Interview in Paris Review, Spring.

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• I don't suppose anybody ever deliberately listens to a watch or a clock. You don't have to. You can be oblivious to the sound for a long while, then in a second of ticking it can create in the mind unbroken the long diminishing parade of time you didn't hear.

  William Faulkner

  Time, Long, Mind

  William Faulkner (2013). “The Sound And The Fury”, p.63, Random House

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• I'm a failed poet. Maybe every novelist wants to write poetry first, finds he can't, and then tries the short story, which is the most demanding form after poetry. And, failing at that, only then does he take up novel writing.

  William Faulkner

  Writing, Trying, Novelists

  "William Faulkner, The Art of Fiction No. 12". Interview with Jean Stein, www.theparisreview.org. 1956.

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• The best job that was ever offered to me was to become a landlord in a brothel. In my opinion it's the perfect milieu for an artist to work in.

  William Faulkner

  Jobs, Artist, Best Job

  "William Faulkner, The Art of Fiction No. 12". Interview with Jean Stein, www.theparisreview.org. 1956.

  86 Copy quote

• To the man grown the long crowded mile of his boyhood becomes less than the throw of a stone.

  William Faulkner

  Men, Long, Childhood

  William Faulkner (1951). “Absalom, Absalom!”

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