E.L. Doctorow

Quotes

• “Poor Father, I see his final exploration. He arrives at the new place, his hair risen in astonishment, his mouth and eye...”
• “Because like all whores you value propriety. You are creature of capitalism, the ethics of which are so totally corrupt ...”
• “The difference between Socrates and Jesus is that no one had ever been put to death in Socrates' name. And that is becau...”
• “Somehow he had catapulted himself beyond the world's value system. But this very fact lay upon him an awesome responsibi...”
• “It proposed that human beings, by the act of making witness, warranted times and places for their existence other than t...”
• “Satire's nature is to be one-sided, contemptuous of ambiguity, and so unfairly selective as to find in the purity of rid...”
• “I am often asked the question How can the masses permit themselves to be exploited by the few. The answer is By being pe...”
• “[Freud] "sat in his quiet cozy study in Vienna, glad to be back. He said to Ernest Jones, America is a mistake, a gigant...”
• “Good writing is supposed to evoke sensation in the reader–not the fact that it is raining, but the feeling of being rain...”
• “Writing is like driving a car at night. You can only see as far as your headlights, but you can make the whole trip that...”
• “The three most important documents a free society gives are a birth certificate, a passport, and a library card.”
• “Happiness consists of living in the dailyness of life and not knowing how happy you are.”
• “Someone dying asks if there is life after death. Yes, comes the answer, only not yours.”
• “The marriage seemed to flourish on Father’s extended absences. ” Ragtime”
• “There is music in words, and it can be heard you know, by thinking.”
• “A novelist is a person who lives in other people's skins.”
• “The images of things are not the things in themselves.”
• “A book is not complete until it’s read”