124 quotes
There is probably no sensitive heterosexual alive who is not preoccupied with his latent homosexuality.
Advertisements for Myself (1959)
When I read it, I don't wince, which is all I ever ask for a book I write.
The difference between writing a book and being on television is the difference between conceiving a child and having a baby made in a test tube.
Women think of being a man as a gift. It is a duty. Even making love can be a duty. A man has always got to get it up, and love isn't always enough.
Obsession is the single most wasteful human activity, because with an obsession you keep coming back and back and back to the same question and never get an answer.
You're contending with a genius, D.J. is his name, only American alive who could outtalk Cassius Clay, that's lip.
Witches have no wit, said the magician who was weak. Hula, hula, said the witches.
An American Dream (1965)
Chicago was a town where nobody could ever forget how the money was made. It was picked up from floors still slippery with blood.
Miami and the Siege of Chicago (1968)
This is D.J., Disc Jockey to America turning off. Vietnam, hot dam.
I think it's bad to talk about one's present work, for it spoils something at the root of the creative act. It discharges the tension.
The Writer's Quotation Book : A Literary Companion (1980)
Masculinity is not something given to you, but something you gain. And you gain it by winning small battles with honor. Because there is very little honor left in American life, there is a certain built-in tendency to destroy masculinity in American men.
Cannibals and Christians (1966)
I'm hostile to men, I'm hostile to women, I'm hostile to cats, to poor cockroaches, I'm afraid of horses.
The Presidential Papers (1963)
In tranquility one recollects them with affection, their instinct is good, crazy family good.
Superman Comes to the Supermarket (1960)
All too often men with physical courage are disappointing in their moral imagination.
Superman Comes to the Supermarket (1960)
The twentieth century may yet be seen as that era when civilized man and underprivileged man were melted together into mass man.
Superman Comes to the Supermarket (1960)
The highest prize in a world of men is the most beautiful woman available on your arm and living there in her heart loyal to you.
God like Us suffers the ambition to make a destiny more extraordinary than was conceived for Him, yes God is like Me, only more so.
Advertisements for Myself (1959)
One can indeed be restored, by an exceptional demonstration of love.
Superman Comes to the Supermarket (1960)
I had a quick grasp of the secret to sanity — it had become the ability to hold the maximum of impossible combinations in one's mind.
An American Dream (1965)
Love was love, one could find it with anyone, one could find it anywhere. It was just that you could never keep it. Not unless you were ready to die for it.
An American Dream (1965)