Saul Bellow
Birth Name: Solomon Bellows
Birthdate: June 10, 1915
Birthplace: Lachine, Quebec, Canada
Date of Death: April 5, 2005
Occupation: Actor and Author
Profile: Awarded the Nobel Prize for Literature in 1976.
Website: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Saul_Bellow
Number of Quotes: 45
A fool can throw a stone in a pond that 100 wise men can not get out.
A good novel is worth more than the best scientific study.
A great deal of intelligence can be invested in ignorance when the need for illusion is deep.
To Jerusalem and Back (1976).
A man is only as good as what he loves.
Seize the Day (1956).
A novel is balanced between a few true impressions and the multitude of false ones that make up most of what we call life.
All a writer has to do to get a woman is to say he's a writer. It's an aphrodisiac.
Any artist should be grateful for a naive grace which puts him beyond the need to reason elaborately.
California is like an artificial limb the rest of the country doesn't really need. You can quote me on that.
Conquered people tend to be witty.
Everybody knows there is no fineness or accuracy of suppression; if you hold down one thing, you hold down the adjoining.
Everybody needs his memories. They keep the wolf of insignificance from the door.
Mr. Sammler's Planet (1970).
Goodness is achieved not in a vacuum, but in the company of other men, attended by love.
Happiness can only be found if you can free yourself of all other distractions.
Hate was a disease. The enemy was disease. One despised the sickness but not the sick.
Herzog (1964).
I am alive, so I have hopes for myself. I want to break out of this limited circle of self.
The Victim (1947).
I think that New York is not the cultural centre of America, but the business and administrative centre of American culture.
I'm glad I haven't lived in vain.
I've never turned over a fig leaf yet that didn't have a price tag on the other side.
If God made the world, then the soul is His breath, and we are His thoughts.
More Die of Heartbreak (1987).
If women are expected to do the same work as men, we must teach them the same things.
In an age of madness, to expect to be untouched by madness is a form of madness.
Humboldt's Gift (1975).
In expressing love we belong among the undeveloped countries.
In Los Angeles all the loose objects in the country were collected, as if America had been
tilted and everything that wasn't tightly screwed down had slid into Southern California.
It is dangerous to be right when the government is wrong.
The Dean's December (1982).
Life is a terminal illness, and it is sexually transmitted.
The Bellarosa Connection (1989).
Man is the only creature who knows he must die, and who laughs anyway.
Henderson the Rain King (1959).
Never have children, only grandchildren.
Humboldt's Gift (1975).
No realistic, sane person goes around Chicago without protection.
People can lose their lives in libraries. They ought to be warned.
Herzog (1964).
Psychoanalysis pretends to investigate the Unconscious. The Unconscious by definition is what you are not
conscious of. But the Analysts already know what's in it—they should, because they put it all in beforehand.
Retirement is an illusion. Not a reward but a mantrap. The bankrupt underside
of success. A shortcut to death. Golf courses are too much like cemetries.
She was what we used to call a suicide blonde—dyed by her own hand.
Suffering is the only reliable teacher.
Dangling Man (1944).
The body is a device to calculate the astronomy of the spirit.
Humboldt's Gift (1975).
The universe is like a safe to which there is a combination. But the combination is locked up in the safe.
Herzog (1964).
There are evils that have the ability to survive identification and go on for ever... money, for instance, or war.
There is an immense, painful longing for a broader, more flexible, fuller, more coherent,
more comprehensive account of what we human beings are, who we are and what this life is for.
There is no fineness or accuracy of suppression. If you hold down one thing, you hold down the adjoining.
The Adventures of Augie March (1953).
We are always looking for the book it is necessary to read next.
We are funny creatures. We don’t see the stars as they are, so why do we love them? They are not small gold objects, but endless fire.
Henderson the Rain King (1959).
What is art but a way of seeing?
When we ask for advice, we are usually looking for an accomplice.
Mr. Sammler's Planet (1970).
Whoever wants to reach a distant goal must take small steps.
With a novelist, like a surgeon, you have to get a feeling that you've fallen into
good hands - someone from whom you can accept the anesthetic with confidence.
You never have to change anything you got up in the middle of the night to write.
Paris Review (1966).
You think history is the history of loving hearts? You fool! Look at these millions
of dead. Can you pity them? Feelfor them? You can nothing! There were too many.
Herzog (1964).
Last on Earth
