Donald Barthelme Quotes - Page 3

Quotes about:

• Food ... is the topmost taper on the golden candelabrum of existence.

  Donald Barthelme

  Food, Golden, Existence

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• Who among us is not thinking about divorce, except for a few tiny-minded stick-in-the-muds who don't count?

  Donald Barthelme

  Divorce, Thinking, Mud

  Donald Barthelme (1992). “The teachings of Don B.: satires, parodies, fables, illustrated stories, and plays of Donald Barthelme”

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• Faint equivalents can sometimes be found ... . Or it can be rendered obliquely-an adolescent's mental image of his or her parents making love, which must be something on the order of crocodiles mating.

  Donald Barthelme

  Order, Parent, Making Love

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• The not-knowing is crucial to art, is what permits art to be made. Without the scanning process engendered by not-knowing, without the possibility of having the mind move in unanticipated directions, there would be no invention.

  Donald Barthelme

  Art, Moving, Knowing

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• Doubt is a necessary precondition tomeaningful action. Fear is the great mover in the end.

  Donald Barthelme

  Doubt, Action, Ends

  1972 Sadness,'The Rise of Capitalism'.

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• See the moon? It hates us.

  Donald Barthelme

  Hate, Moon

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

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• Capitalism places every man in competition with his fellows for a share of the available wealth. A few people accumulate big piles, but most do not. The sense of community falls victim to this struggle.

  Donald Barthelme

  Fall, Struggle, Men

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

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• The question so often asked of modern painting, "What is it?", contains more than the dull skepticism of the man who is not going to have the wool pulled over his eyes. It speaks of a fundamental placement in relation to the work, that of a voyager in the world coming upon a strange object. The reader reconstitutes the work by his active participation, by approaching the object, tapping it, shaking it, holding it to his ear to hear the roaring within. It is characteristic of the object that it does not declare itself all at once, in a rush of pleasant naïveté.

  Donald Barthelme

  Eye, Men, Vets

  "After Joyce (1964)". "Not-Knowing: The Essays and Interviews of Donald Barthelme". Book by Donald Barthelme, p. 4, 1997.

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• It is difficult to keep the public interested. The public demands new wonders piled on new wonders. Often we don't know where our next marvel is coming from. The supply of strange ideas is not endless.

  Donald Barthelme

  Ideas, Demand, Next

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• MTV has severely compromised surrealism, perhaps ruined it forever.

  Donald Barthelme

  Mtv, Forever, Surrealism

  "Being Bad". "Not-Knowing: The Essays and Interviews of Donald Barthelme". Book by Donald Barthelme, p. 184, 1997.

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• There is no moment that exceeds in beauty that moment when one looks at a woman and finds that she is looking at you in the same way that you are looking at her. The moment in which she bestows that look that says, "Proceed with your evil plan, sumbitch.

  Donald Barthelme

  Evil, Looks, Way

  Donald Barthelme (2008). “Flying to America: 45 More Stories”, p.274, Counterpoint Press

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• The much heaves and palpitates. It is multidirectional and has a mayor.

  Donald Barthelme

  New York, Mayors

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• Best not to anticipate too much ... it jiggles the possibilities.

  Donald Barthelme

  Too Much, Anticipation, Possibility

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• And I sat there getting drunker and drunker and more in love and more in love...And you can never touch a girl in the same way more than once, twice, or another number of times however much you may wish to hold, wrap, or otherwise fix her hand, or look, or some other quality, or incident, known to you previously.

  Donald Barthelme

  Girl, Hands, Numbers

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

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• Will you be wanting to contest the divorce?" I asked Mrs. Davis. "I should think not," she said calmly, "although I suppose on of us should, for the fun of the thing. An uncontested divorce always seems to me contrary to the spirit of divorce.

  Donald Barthelme

  Fun, Divorce, Thinking

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

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• I don't think you can talk about progress in art - movement, but not progress. You can speak of a point on a line for the purpose of locating things, but it's a horizontal line, not a vertical one.

  Donald Barthelme

  Art, Thinking, Progress

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• There's not a strong autobiographical strain in my fiction. A few bits of fact here and there.

  Donald Barthelme

  Strong, Here And There, Fiction

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• Is death that which gives meaning to life?

  Donald Barthelme

  Giving, Meaning Life

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

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• Succeed! It has been done, and with a stupidity that can astound the most experienced.

  Donald Barthelme

  Stupidity, Done, Succeed

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

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• My mother studied English and drama at the University of Pennsylvania, where my father studied architecture. She was a great influence in all sorts of ways, a wicked wit.

  Donald Barthelme

  Mother, Drama, Father

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• Art is not difficult because it wishes to be difficult, rather because it wishes to be art. However much the writer might long to be straightforward, these virtues are no longer available to him. He discovers that in being simple, honest, straightforward, nothing much happens.

  Donald Barthelme

  Art, Simple, Long

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• Painters, especially American painters since the Second World War, have been much more troubled, beset by formal perplexity, than American writers. Theyve been a laboratory for everybody.

  Donald Barthelme

  War, World, Formal

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• Naked girls with the heads of Marx and Malraux prone and helpless in the glare of the headlights, tried to give them a little joie de vivre but maybe it didn't take, their constant bickering and smallness, it's like a stroke of lightning, the world reminds you of its power, tracheotomies right and left, I am spinning, my pretty child, don't scratch, pick up your feet, the long nights, spent most of my time listening, this is a test of the system, this is only a test.

  Donald Barthelme

  Girl, Children, Night

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

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• He is mad about being small when you were big, but no, that's not it, he is mad about being helpless when you were powerful, but no, not that either, he is mad about being contingent when you were necessary, not quite it... he is insane because when he loved you, you didn't notice.

  Donald Barthelme

  Powerful, Mad, Insane

  Donald Barthelme (2014). “The Dead Father”, p.143, Macmillan

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• "I smell fennel," Launcelot said. "That reminds me, I should tell you I have discovered a specific for maims. You take salt, good-quality river mud, and bee urine, and slather it on the maim and hold it there for two days. Works like a charm. Gathering the bee urine is a bit of a bore."

  Donald Barthelme

  Two, Rivers, Smell

  "The King". Book by Donald Barthelme, p. 94, 1990.

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