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It is hopelessness even more than pain that crushes the soul.

— William Styron Darkness Visible (1990)

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More quotes by William Styron

It could be all unwittingly that I wrote in Darkness Visible what amounted to a Rosetta stone for my other work.

Someday I will understand Auschwitz. This was a brave statement but innocently absurd. No one will ever understand Auschwitz.

Sophie's Choice (1979)

The good writing of any age has always been the product of someone's neurosis, and we'd have a mighty dull literature if all the writers that came along were a bunch of happy chuckleheads.

Writers at Work (1958)

Surely mankind has yet to be born. Surely this is true!

The Confessions of Nat Turner (1967)

A great book should leave you with many experiences, and slightly exhausted at the end. You live several lives while reading it.

All William Styron quotes →

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Quote text and notes from Wikiquote: William Styron (page history), available under CC BY-SA 4.0. Source quality and labels are our own summary of what Wikiquote records.