J. Raymond Quotes

I was as hollow and empty as the spaces between stars.

The gap between our feelings and our social observation is dangerously wide.

In everything that can be called art there is a quality of redemption.

Something’s died in me,” she goes. “It took a long time for it to do it, but it’s dead. You’ve killed something, just like you’d took an axe to it. Everything is dirt now.

I dressed and went for a walk - determined not to return until I took in what Nature had to offer.

The value of an ad is in inverse ratio to the number of times it has been used.

Manhattan is a narrow island off the coast of New Jersey devoted to the pursuit of lunch.

I'm in a wild mood tonight. I want to go dance in the foam. I hear the banshees calling.

Happiness. It comes on unexpectedly. And goes beyond, really, any early morning talk about it.

Why are young adults so self-centered and always seeking instant gratification? Because older adults, often in positions of power, paint them that way.

As honest as you could expect a man to be in a world where it's out of style.

Only the inner vision of God, only the God-blindedness of unreservedly dedicated souls, only the utterly humble ones can bow and break the raging pride of a power-mad world.

A man without hands came to the door to sell me a photograph of my house. Except for the chrome hooks, he was an ordinary-looking man of fifty or so.

Some days I feel like playing it smooth. Some days I feel like playing it like a waffle iron.

Mostly I just kill time," he said, "and it dies hard.

Mirror the reader to himself and then show him afterward how your product fits his needs.

Show me a man or woman who cannot stand mysteries and I will show you a fool, a clever fool - perhaps - but a fool just the same.

Religions tend to disappear with man's good fortune.

Very often, (in near-death experiences) the person encounters a divine or angelic being. This may be described as Christ, an angel, even God.

A sense of humor has been linked with longevity. It is a possibility that the mental attitude reflected in a lively sense of humor is an important factor predisposing some people toward long life.

But for the most part, love is a recognition, an opportunity to say, 'There is something about you I cherish.

Listening to the eternal involves a silence within us.

Recently, someone asked me if I believed in astrology. He seemed somewhat puzzled when I explained that the reason I don't is that I'm a Gemini.

I believe most in educated intuition, in what you get through profound experience.

In short, everything about his life was different for him at the bottom of that well.

I'm moving to Nevada. Either there or kill myself.

The faster I write the better my output. If I'm going slow, I'm in trouble. It means I'm pushing the words instead of being pulled by them.

My fame will outshine that of Victor Hugo or Napoleon

You hold in your hands the future of the world.

Prototype, then polish. Get it working before you optimize it

Anyone can express himself or herself, but what writers and poets want to do in their work, more than simply express themselves, is communicate.

I think a little menace is fine to have in a story. For one thing, it's good for the circulation.

It is not primarily ideas that have a history; it is societies. And then what often seem opposed ideas can in the end be seen as parts of a single social process.

A really good detective never gets married.

It is always the minorities that hold the key of progess; it is always through those who are unafraid to be different that advance comes to human society.

Metaphysical problems about "mind" versus "matter" arise only from epistemological confusions.

We are here to do a great work because the mind that created us knew what it wanted us to do when it created us.

Dashiell Hammett took murder out of theVenetian vase and dropped it into the alley.

Most love stories are nocturnal. That's what makes them so fascinating.

An age which is incapable of poetry is incapable of any kind of literature except the cleverness of a decadence.

The most durable thing in writing is style, and style is the single most valuable investment a writer can make with his time.

There was this funny thing of anything could happen now that we realized everything had.

Police business is a hell of a problem. It's a good deal like politics. It asks for the highest type of men, and there's nothing in it to attract the highest type of men.

A contrast between country and city, as fundamental ways of life, reaches back into classical times.

Evangelical faith without Christian ethics is a travesty on the gospel.

Plato compared the intellect to a charioteer guiding the powerful horses of the passions, i.e., he gave it both the power of perception and the power of control.

Technique alone is never enough. You have to have passion. Technique alone is just an embroidered potholder.

Faith makes the uplook good, the outlook bright, the inlook favorable, and the future glorious.

You can only look forward as far as you can look back.

Don't see a thing working-see it finished!