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The real story can never be told. It is untellable. The real (as real) is inaccessible, being gone in time. There is no point in glancing at the past, in summoning it up, in re-examining it, except on behalf of art — that is, the meaningful-real.

— William Saroyan The Bicycle Rider In Beverly Hills (1952)

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More quotes by William Saroyan

I don't like to see kids throw away their truth just because it isn't worth a dime in the open market.

The Flashing Dragonfly (1973)

Everybody has to die, but I always believed an exception would be made in my case. Now what?

He wanted to be a passenger on anything that was going anywhere, but most of all on a ship.

The writer is a spiritual anarchist, as in the depth of his soul every man is.

The William Saroyan Reader (1958)

I believe there are ways whose ends are life instead of death.

Inhale and Exhale (1936)

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Attribution

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