Top E. L. Doctorow Quotes - Quotesmemo.com

E. L. Doctorow Biography

Edgar Lawrence "E. L." Doctorow (January 6, 1931 – July 21, 2015) was an American novelist, editor, and professor, best known internationally for his works of historical fiction. He has been described as one of the most important American novelists of the 20th century.

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E. L. Doctorow Quotes

The poem is a cry of the unborn heart. Yes, because the poem perfectly embodies the world, there is no world without poem.

Cry, Heart, Unborn, World

We are able to walk on air, but only as long as our illusion supports us.

Air, Illusion, Long, Support

Writing is like driving at night in the fog. You can only see as far as your headlights, but you can make the whole trip that way.

Headlights, Journey, Night, See, Way, Writing

I have been everywhere because I don't know what I'm looking for.

Everywhere, Has Beens, Know, Knows, Looking

An Animated Cartoon Theology: 1. People are animals. 2. The body is mortal and subject to incredible pain. 3. Life is antagonistic to the living. 4. The flesh can be sawed, crushed, frozen, stretched, burned, bombed, and plucked for music. 5. The dumb are abused by the smart and the smart destroyed by their own cunning. 6. The small are tortured by the large and the large destroyed by their own momentum. 7. We are able to walk on air, but only as long as our illusion supports us.

Animal, Flesh, Pain, Smart, Stretched

The philosophical conservative is someone willing to pay the price of other people s suffering for his principles.

Conservative, Pay The Price, People, Philosophical, Price, Willing

Movies are too literal.

Movie, Literal, Movies

I try to avoid experience if I can. Most experience is bad.

Avoid, Bad, Experience, I Can, Ifs, Trying

We dress them [children] in the presumptions of the world. They are the bright small face of hope. They are the last belief we have, the belief in making them believe.

Believe, Children, Dress, Dresses, Hope

The three most important documents a free society gives are a birth certificate, a passport, and a library card.

Documents, Giving, Important, Library, Passport, Society

We're always attracted to the edges of what we are, out by the edges where it's a little raw and nervy.

Attracted, Edges, Littles, Nervy, Raw

Facts are the images of history, just as images are the facts of fiction.

Facts, Fiction, History, Images

It was evident to him that the world composed and recomposed itself constantly in an endless process of dissatisfaction.

Evident, Process, Ragtime, World

There is really no fiction or non-fiction; there is only narrative. One mode of perception has no greater claim on the truth than the other; that the distance has perhaps to do with distance - narrative distance - from the characters; it has to do with the kind of voice that is talking, but it certainly hasn't to do with the common distribution between fact and imagination.

Character, Distance, Greater, Kind, Talking, Voice

Writers are not just people who sit down and write. They hazard themselves. Every time you compose a book your composition of yourself is at stake.

Book, Hazard, People, Sit, Stake, Writing

When I'm writing, I like to seal everything off and face the wall, not to look outside the window. The only way out is through the sentences.

Everything, Like, Looks, Seal, Wall, Writing

The images of things are not the things in themselves.

Images, Things

A book begins as a private excitement of the mind.

Begins, Book, Excitement, Mind

A writer of books has to admit that film is the enemy, and that in my case I have been sleeping with the enemy.

Admit, Book, Books, Enemy, Film, Sleep

A writer's life is so hazardous that anything he does is bad for him. Anything that happens to him is bad: failure's bad, success is bad; impoverishment is bad, money is very, very bad. Nothing good can happen. . . Except the act of writing.

Doe, Good, Life Is, Nothing, Success, Writing

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