Saul Bellow Quotes

Art is order, made out of the chaos of life.

The two real problems in life are boredom and death.

Let the enemies of life step down.

But a man's character is his fate... and in the end there isn't any way to disguise the nature of the knocks by acoustical work on the door or gloving the knuckles.

You have to fight for your life. That's the chief condition on which you hold it.

The best argument is an undeniably good book.

My face too blind, my mind too limited, my instincts too narrow. But this intensity, doesn't it mean anything?

Myself is thus and so, and will continue thus and so. And why fight it? My balance comes from instability.

The writer cannot make the seas of distraction stand still, but he [or she] can at times come between the madly distracted and the distractions.

She's very pretty but she's honey from the icebox, if you know what I mean. Cold sweets won't spread.

A man may say, "From now on I'm going to speak the truth." But the truth hears him and runs away and hides before he's even done speaking.

Language is a spiritual mansion in which you live and nobody has the right to evict you.

I would like to explain that I consider prayer above all an act of gratitude for existence.

Socrates said the unexamined life is not worth living. But the over-examined life makes you wish you were dead. Given the alternative, I'd rather be living.

I feel that art has something to do with the achievement of stillness in the midst of chaos.

When I didn't argue he was satisfied he had persuaded me, and was not the first to make that mistake.

To tell the truth I never had it so good. But I lacked the strength of character to bear such joy.

I am moneys medium. It passes through me- taxes, insurance, mortgage, child support, rent, legal fees. All this dignified blundering costs plenty.

I want to tell you, don't marry suffering. Some people do. They get married to it, and sleep and eat together, just as husband and wife. If they go with joy they think it's adultery.

Here we write well when we expose frauds and hypocrites. We are great at counting warts and blemishes and weighting feet of clay. In expressing love, we belong among the underdeveloped countries.

I am a true adorer of life, and if I can't reach as high as the face of it, I plant my kiss somewhere lower down. Those who understand will require no further explanation.

I labor, I spend, I strive, I design, I love, I cling, I uphold, I give way, I envy, I long, I scorn, I die, I hide, I want. Faster, much faster than any man could make the tally.

The soul has to find and hold its ground against hostile forces, sometimes embodied in ideas which frequently deny its very existence, and which indeed often seem to be trying to annul it altogether.

I don't like to write from a flat, cold position. You must like what you're doing very much or like the people -- either like them or hate them. You can't be indifferent.

At moments I dislike having a face, a nose, lips, because he has them.

Do we always, always to the point of misery, do a thing?

Is love supposed to ruin you? It seems to me you shouldn't destroy yourself out of life for purposes of love--or what good is it?

Fun comes hard - like, alas, its prarens, pleasure and happiness, whom we have to pursue.

But she's a nut, and nuts win.

The more realistic you are the more you threaten the grounds of your own art.

A good novel is worth more then the best scientific study.

I'm afraid there's nothing we can do about the journalists; we can only hope that they will die off as the deerflies do towards the end of August.

Only self-hatred could lead him to ruin himself because his heart was "broken.

It would not be practical for her to hate herself. Luckily, God sends a substitute, a husband.

The hour that burst the spirit's sleep.

... unless you made your life a turning point, there was no reason for existing.

Americans must be the most sententious people in history. Far too busy to be religious, they have always felt that they sorely needed guidance.

For God's sake,' the dog is saying, 'open the universe a little more!

O Lord! he concluded, forgive all these trespasses. Lead me not into Penn Station.

Art -- the fresh feeling, new harmony, the transforming magic which by means of myth brings back the scattered distracted soul from its modern chaos -- art, not politics, is the remedy.

I must play the instrument I've got.

... a fellow can't predict what he will pick up in the form of influence.

Ninety per cent of life is a nightmare, do you think I am going to get it rounded up to hundred per cent?

If I'm out of my mind, it's all right with me, thought Moses Herzog.

Every treasure is guarded by dragons. That's how you can tell it's valuable.

The flesh would shrink and go, the blood would dry, but no one believes in his mind of minds or heart of hearts that the pictures do stop.

I am more stupid about some things than others; not equally stupid in all directions; I am not a well-rounded person.

Is our species crazy? Plenty of evidence.

An exchange occurs between man and woman. Love and thought complete each other in the human pair, and something like an exchange of souls takes place, according to the divine plan.

I don’t actually take much stock in the collapsing culture bit. I’m beginning to see it instead as the conduct of life without input from your soul.