162 quotes
To be President of the United States, sir, is to act as advocate for a blind, venomous, and ungrateful client; still, one must make the best of the case, for the purposes of Providence.
Buchanan Dying : A Play (1974)
It is not difficult to deceive the first time, for the deceived possesses no antibodies; unvaccinated by suspicion, she overlooks latenesses, accepts absurd excuses, permits the flimsiest patchings to repair great rents in the quotidian.
Couples (1968)
He learned this much selling cars: offer the customer something he doesn't want, to make what he half-wants look better.
Rabbit at Rest (1990)
A woman you've endured such a gnawing of desire for, you can't help bearing a little grudge against, when the ache is gone.
Rabbit at Rest (1990)
You can't say anything honest to women, they have minds like the FBI.
Rabbit at Rest (1990)
The difficulty with humorists is that they will mix what they believe with what they don't; whichever seems likelier to win an effect.
Rabbit, Run (1960)
Women are actresses, tuning their part to each little audience.
Rabbit at Rest (1990)
These dysfunctionals make him aware of how functional he is.
Rabbit Remembered (2000)
Halfway isn't all the way, but it's better than no way.
Rabbit Redux (1969)
For male and female alike, the bodies of the other sex are messages signaling what we must do — they are glowing signifiers of our own necessities.
When you feel irresistable, you're hard to resist.
Rabbit at Rest (1990)
His voice is hurrying, to keep up with his brain.
Rabbit Remembered (2000)
At last, small witches, goblins, hags,
And pirates armed with paper bags,
Their costumes hinged on safety pins,
Go haunt a night of pumpkin grins.
The great thing about the dead, they make space.
Rabbit is Rich (1981)
Late in the game as it is, you keep trying.
Rabbit at Rest (1990)
Like water, blood must run or grow scum.
Rabbit Redux (1969)
Each morning my characters greet me with misty faces willing, though chilled, to muster for another day's progress through the dazzling quicksand the marsh of blank paper.
It rots a writer’s brain, it cretinises you. You say the same thing again and again, and when you do that happily you’re well on the way to being a cretin. Or a politician.
I love my government not least for the extent to which it leaves me alone.
If society is the prison, families are the cells, with no time off for good behavior. Good behavior in fact tends to lengthen the sentence.
Rabbit Remembered (2000)