More by John Barth
A book is what gets me off: something with heft to it, that you can take in two hands and spread like a woman. Mnyum!
The Tidewater Tales (1987)
More history's made by secret handshakes than by battles, bills, and proclamations.
The Sot-Weed Factor (1960)
'Tis e'er the wont of simple folk to prize the deed and o'erlook the motive, and of learned folk to discount the deed and lay open the soul of the doer.
The Sot-Weed Factor (1960)
The story of our life is not our life. It is our story.
The Tidewater Tales (1987)
Women thought me charmingly shy, and sometimes stopped at nothing to “penetrate the disdainful shell of my fear,” as one of their number put it. Often as not, it was they who got penetrated.
The Floating Opera (1956)
[N]othing is intrinsically valuable; the value of everything is attributed to it, assigned to it, from outside, by people.
The Floating Opera (1956)
[T]here is no will-o'-the-wisp so elusive as the cause of any human act.
The Floating Opera (1956)
I don't think it's a good idea, as a rule, for artists to explain their art, even if they can. Jorge Luis Borges puts it arrogantly: God shouldn't stoop to theology. A modern painter put it more politely and poetically: Birds have no need of ornithology.
The Friday Book (1984)
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