Alfred Kazin Quotes

The writer writes in order to teach himself, to understand himself, to satisfy himself; the publishing of his ideas, though it brings gratification, is a curious anticlimax.

One writes to make a home for oneself, on paper, in time, in others' minds.

We never know how much has been missing from our lives until a true writer comes along.

To have a sense of history one must consider oneself a piece of history.

What happens whenever we convert a writer into a symbol is that we lose the writer himself in all his indefeasible singularity, his particular inimitable genius.

A classic is a book that survives the circumstances that made it possible yet alone keeps those circumstances alive.

When a writer talks about his work, he's talking about a love affair.

History has become more important than ever because of the to unprecedented ability of the historical sciences to take in man's life on earth as a whole.

Art changes all the time, but it never "improves." It may go down, or up, but it never improves as technology and medicine improve.

If we practiced medicine like we practice education, wed look for the liver on the right side and left side in alternate years.

A year after Hemingway died on the front page, Faulkner went off after a binge, as if dying was nobody's business but his own.

Only power can get people into a position where they may be noble.

Altogether beautiful in the power of its feeling. As beautiful as anything in Thoreau or Hemingway.

One writes to make a home for oneself, on paper, in time and in others' minds.