William Saroyan quotes - page 4

I care so much about everything that I care about nothing. (William Saroyan)
To remember something or to invent something, it comes to the same thing. View quote
William Saroyan
Art can no longer afford to be contemptuous of politics, and it appears to be time politics took a little instruction from art. View quote
William Saroyan
Remember that every man is a variation of yourself. View quote
William Saroyan
Each book can make a life or a fragment of it more beautiful. View quote
William Saroyan
You may tend to get cancer from the thing that makes you want to smoke so much, not from the smoking itself. View quote
William Saroyan
Sometimes the most intelligent thing is not to do anything, certainly nothing loaded with the imbecility of emotionality. View quote
William Saroyan
What can I tell you, except the stupid little I know? View quote
William Saroyan
At his best, things do not happen to the artist; he happens to them. View quote
William Saroyan
In order to write all a man needs is paper and a pencil. Furthermore, when a thing has been written, it is written forever. When it is printed, nothing can stop it from being printed again and again if the thing wants to be printed again and again. I must therefore be a writer. View quote
William Saroyan
A man cannot write a poem or a story that will transform the whole nature of man, his reality and his truth, making them greater and nobler. (William Saroyan)
My superficial manners stink and my profound manners are almost as bad. View quote
William Saroyan
What I intended to do was to burn a half dozen of my books and keep warm, so that I could write my story, but when I looked around for titles to burn, I couldn't find any. View quote
William Saroyan
Now, having a play on the same bill with a play by the one and only, the good and great, the impish and noble, the man and superman, George Bernard Shaw, is for me an honor, and I think a most fitting thing. View quote
William Saroyan
It is the heart of man that I am trying to imply in this work. View quote
William Saroyan
A writer wants what he has to say to be heard again and again. He wants it to be heard after he is dead. View quote
William Saroyan
I loved the theaters, and even though I was hungry, I never spent money for food. View quote
William Saroyan
Babies who have not yet been taught to speak any language are the only race of the earth, the race of man: all the rest is pretence, what we call civilization, hatred, fear, desire for strength. View quote
William Saroyan
There was a touch of anxiety in the whole human race about its future. View quote
William Saroyan
My uncle jumped up from the desk, loving him more than he loved any other man in the world, and through him loving the lost nation, the multitude dead, and the multitude living in every alien corner of the world. View quote
William Saroyan
I myself, as a person, have been influenced by many writers and many things, and my writing has felt the impact of the writing of many writers, some relatively unknown and unimportant, some downright bad. But probably the greatest influence of them all when an influence is most effective - when the man being influenced is nowhere near being solid in his own right - has been the influence of the great tall man with the white beard, the lively eyes, the swift wit and the impish chuckle. (William Saroyan)
What the hell are they all looking for? A way out. A way to the right way out. A way to leave. A way to go. A way to have had it, to have had enough of it, to be done with it. A decent way to give it all over to the giver of it all. View quote
William Saroyan
The streets made me, and the streets stink, but I love them, for I was born in them out of flesh and I was born in them out of spirit. View quote
William Saroyan
I had long known that there was something about me that was either violent or frightening for some reason. In certain three-sided clothing store images I had for some years come upon myself, with shock and disbelief, regret, and shame, disappointment and despair, for I am indeed clearly violent, mad, and ugly, all because of intensity of some kind, a tension, an obsession with getting everything that there was to be got, a passion, an insanity. View quote
William Saroyan
The purpose of my life is to put off dying as long as possible. View quote
William Saroyan