162 quotes
When I write, I aim in my mind not toward New York but toward a vague spot a little to the east of Kansas.
George Plimpton ed Writers at Work' Viking (1976)
Hard to believe God is always listening, never gets bored.
Rabbit at Rest (1990)
That a marriage ends is less than ideal; but all things end under heaven, and if temporality is held to be invalidating, then nothing real succeeds.
Vocations drying up, nobody wants to be selfless any more, everybody wants their fun.
Rabbit at Rest (1990)
Writing criticism is to writing fiction and poetry as hugging the shore is to sailing in the open sea.
Foreword to Hugging the Shore (1983)
Freedom, that he always thought was outward motion, turns out to be this inward dwindling.
Rabbit Redux (1969)
The smell of good advice always makes Rabbit want to run the other way.
Rabbit at Rest (1990)
All men are boys time is trying to outsmart.
Rabbit Redux (1969)
One out of three hundred and twelve Americans is a bore, for instance, and a healthy male adult bore consumes each year one and a half times his own weight in other people's patience.
He could have gone over that night and faced the music but how much music is a man supposed to face?
Rabbit at Rest (1990)
One thing he knows is if he had to give parts of his life back the last thing he'd give back is the fucking.
Rabbit at Rest (1990)
When you're retired, you get into your routines and other people, even so-called loved ones, become a strain.
Rabbit at Rest (1990)
Rabbit feels as if the human race is a vast colourful jostling bristling parade in which he is limping and falling behind.
Rabbit at Rest (1990)
Your children's losing battle with time seems even sadder than your own.
Rabbit at Rest (1990)
"...This is a hideous thing. None of us will ever be the same."
Rabbit at Rest (1990)
There's more to being a human being than having your own way.
Rabbit at Rest (1990)
Who would have thought that the Internet, that's supposed to knit the world into a shining tyranny-proof ball, would be so grubbily adolescent?
Rabbit Remembered (2000)
Life is a hill that gets steeper the more you climb.
Rabbit at Rest (1990)
Time is our element, not a mistaken invader.
Rabbit Redux (1969)
I would especially like to recourt the Muse of poetry, who ran off with the mailman four years ago, and drops me only a scribbled postcard from time to time.