Donald Barthelme Quotes - Page 2

Quotes about:

• I keep wondering if, say, there is intelligent life on other planets, the scientists argue that something like two percent of the other planets have the conditions, the physical conditions, to support life in the way it happened here, did Christ visit each and every planet, go through the same routine, the Agony in the Garden, the Crucifixion, and so on.

  Donald Barthelme

  Intelligent, Garden, Agony

  Donald Barthelme (2008). “Flying to America: 45 More Stories”, p.71, Counterpoint Press

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• Yes, success is everything. Failure is more common. Most achieve a sort of middling thing, but fortunately one's situation is always blurred, you never know absolutely quite where you are.

  Donald Barthelme

  Success, Common, Achieve

  Donald Barthelme (1982). “Sixty stories”, Plume

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• The world is sagging, snagging, scaling, spalling, pilling, pinging, pitting, warping, checking, fading, chipping, cracking, yellowing, leaking, stalling, shrinking, and in dynamic unbalance.

  Donald Barthelme

  Sagging, Shrinking, Fading

  1974 Guilty Pleasures,'Down the Line with the Annual'.

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• And I sat there getting drunker and drunker and more in love and more in love.

  Donald Barthelme

  Sat

  Donald Barthelme (1982). “Sixty stories”, Plume

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• Take me home," Snow White said. "Take me home instantly. If there is anything worse than being home, it is being out.

  Donald Barthelme

  Home, White, Snow

  Donald Barthelme (2013). “Snow White”, p.123, Simon and Schuster

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• Instant gratification is not as good as that gratification which comes dripping slow, over the sere seasons.

  Donald Barthelme

  Dripping, Instant Gratification, Seasons

  "The Bed". "Flying to America: 45 More Stories". Book by Donald Barthelme, 2007.

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• Now, here is the point about the self: it is insatiable. It is always, always hankering. It is what you might call rapacious to a fault. The great flaming mouth to the thing is never in this world going to be stuff full.

  Donald Barthelme

  Self, World, Mouths

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• --Why are we fighting them? --They're mad. We're sane. --How do we know? --That we're sane? --Yes. --Am I sane? --To all appearances. --And you, do you consider yourself sane? --I do. --Well, there you have it. --But don't they also consider themselves sane? --I think they know. Deep down. That they're not sane. --How must that make them feel? --Terrible, I should think. They must fight ever more fiercely, in order to deny what they know to be true. That they are not sane.

  Donald Barthelme

  Fighting, Thinking, Order

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• Some people', Miss R. said,'run to conceits or wisdom but I hold to the hard, brown, nutlike word. I might point out that there is enough aesthetic excitement here to satisfy anyone but a damned fool.

  Donald Barthelme

  Running, People, Missing

  1968 Unspeakable Practices, Unnatural Acts,'The Indian Uprising'.

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• Anathematization of the world is not an adequate response to the world.

  Donald Barthelme

  World, Adequate, Response

  Donald Barthelme (2013). “Snow White”, p.184, Simon and Schuster

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• Can the life of the time be caught in an advertisement? Is that how it is, really, in the meadows of the world?

  Donald Barthelme

  World, Advertising, Meadows

  Donald Barthelme (1982). “Sixty stories”, Plume

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• As Jules Renard said, no matter how much care an author takes to write as few books as possible, there will be people who haven't heard of some of them.

  Donald Barthelme

  Book, Writing, People

  Donald Barthelme (2008). “Flying to America: 45 More Stories”, p.208, Counterpoint Press

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• I don’t think you can talk about progress in art—movement, but not progress.

  Donald Barthelme

  Art, Thinking, Progress

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• The center will not hold if it has been spot-welded by an operator whose deepest concern is not with the weld but with his lottery ticket.

  Donald Barthelme

  Tickets, Spots, Lottery Ticket

  Donald Barthelme (1981). “Sixty stories”, Putnam Adult

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• Maybe writing can't be taught, but editing can be taught—prayer, fasting and self-mutilation.

  Donald Barthelme

  Prayer, Writing, Editing

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• I think writers like old cities and are made very nervous by new cities.

  Donald Barthelme

  Thinking, Cities, Nervous

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• The writer is one who, emnbarking upon a task, does not know what to do.

  Donald Barthelme

  Doe, Tasks, Crafts

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• Let me point out, if it has escaped your notice, that what an artist does, is fail.

  Donald Barthelme

  Artist, Doe, Failing

  1972 Sadness,'The Sandman'.

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• Now it is necessary to court her, and win her, and put on this clean dressing gown, and cut my various nails, and drink something that will kill the millions of germs in my mouth, and say something flattering, and be witty and bonny, and hale and kinky, all just to ease this wrinkle in the groin. It seems a high price.

  Donald Barthelme

  Witty, Cutting, Winning

  "Snow White (play)". "The Teachings of Don. B: Satires, Parodies, Fables, Illustrated Stories, and Plays of Donald Barthelme". Book by Donald Barthelme, p. 309, 1992.

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• Well chaps first I'd like to say a few vile things more or less at random, not only because it is expected of me but also because I enjoy it.

  Donald Barthelme

  Firsts, Enjoy, Chaps

  Donald Barthelme (2013). “Snow White”, p.79, Simon and Schuster

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• "How does one conquer fear, Don B.?"
  "One takes a frog and sews it to one's shoe," he said.
  "The left or the right?"
  Don B. gave me a pitying look.
  "Well, you'd look mighty funny going down the street with only one frog sewed to your shoes, wouldn't you?" he said. "One frog on each shoe."

  Donald Barthelme

  Shoes, Doe, Looks

  "The Teachings of Don. B: Satires, Parodies, Fables, Illustrated Stories, and Plays of Donald Barthelme". Book by Donald Barthelme, 1992.

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• The death of God left the angels in a strange position. They were overtaken suddenly by a fundamental question. One can attempt to imagine the moment. How did they look at the instant the question invaded them, flooding the angelic consciousness, taking hold with terrifying force? The question was, "What are angels?" New to questioning, unaccustomed to terror, unskilled in aloneness, the angels (we assume) fell into despair.

  Donald Barthelme

  Angel, Despair, Fundamentals

  Donald Barthelme (1982). “Sixty stories”, Plume

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• No man's plenum, Mr. Quistgaard, is impervious to the awl of God's will.

  Donald Barthelme

  Men, Impervious, God's Will

  Donald Barthelme (2013). “Snow White”, p.51, Simon and Schuster

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• Is it permitted to differ with Kierkegaard? Not only permitted but necessary. If you love him.

  Donald Barthelme

  Ifs

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• His examiner said severely: "Baskerville, you blank round, discursiveness is not literature."
  "The aim of literature," Baskerville replied grandly, "is the creation of a strange object covered with fur which breaks your heart."

  Donald Barthelme

  Heart, Fur, Literature

  "Florence Green is 81". "Come Back, Dr. Caligari". Book by Donald Barthelme, 1964.

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