English En
  • Deutsche De
  • English En
  • Français Fr
  • Русский Ru

We use cookies to personalise content and ads, to provide social media features and to analyse our traffic. We also share information about your use of our site with our marketing and analytics partners who may combine it with other information you've provided to them or which they've separately collected from you. You also may to see our Privacy Policy. By clicking the OK button below, you accept our cookies.

Authors:

Don DeLillo quotes about fear

American Novelist November 20, 1936

Cite this Page: Citation

Quotes

How strange it is. We have these deep terrible lingering fears about ourselves and the people we love. Yet we walk around, talk to people, eat and drink. We manage to function. The feelings are deep and real. Shouldn't they paralyze us? How is it we can survive them, at least for a little while? We drive a car, we teach a class. How is it no one sees how deeply afraid we were, last night, this morning? Is it something we all hide from each other, by mutual consent? Or do we share the same... Don DeLillo
The only private language I know is self-exaggeration. I think I've grown a second self in this room. It's the self-important fool that keeps the writer going. I exaggerate the pain of writing, the pain of solitude, the failure, the rage, the confusion, the helplessness, the fear, the humiliation. The narrower the boundaries of my life, the more I exaggerate myself. If the pain is real, why do I inflate it? Maybe this is the only pleasure I'm allowed. Don DeLillo
Doesn't our knowledge of death make life more precious?' What good is a preciousness based on fear and anxiety? It's an anxious quivering thing Don DeLillo
When I think of highly plotted novels I think of detective fiction or mystery fiction, the kind of work that always produces a few dead bodies. But these bodies are basically plot points, not worked-out characters. The book's plot either moves inexorably toward a dead body of flows directly from it, and the more artificial the situation the better. Readers can play off their fears by encountering the death experience in a superficial way. A mystery novel localizes the awesome force of the... Don DeLillo
Fear is unnatural. Lightning and thunder are unnatural. Pain, death, reality, these are all unnatural. We can't bear these things as they are. We know too much. So we resort to repression, compromise and disguise. This is how we survive the universe. This is the natural language of the species. Don DeLillo
Do you think I'm somehow healthier because I don't know how to repress? Is it possible that constant fear is the natural state of man and that by living close to my fear I am actually doing something heroic, Murray?"Do you feel heroic?"No."Then you probably aren't. Don DeLillo
People in free societies don't have to fear the pathology of the state. We create our own frenzy, our own mass convulsions, driven by thinking machines that we have no final authority over. The frenzy is barely noticeable most of the time. It's simply how we live. Don DeLillo
There's always a period of curious fear between the first sweet-smelling breeze and the time when the rain comes cracking down. Don DeLillo
Don DeLillo quote: "Helpless and fearful people are drawn to magical figures,..."
Helpless and fearful people are drawn to magical figures, mythic figures, epic men who intimidate and darkly loom. Don DeLillo
There's a connection between the advances that are made in technology and the sense of primitive fear people develop in response to it. Don DeLillo
Don DeLillo quote: "As technology advances in complexity and scope, fear becomes..."
As technology advances in complexity and scope, fear becomes more primitive. Don DeLillo
Don DeLillo quote: "That which we fear to touch is often the very fabric of our..."
That which we fear to touch is often the very fabric of our salvation. Don DeLillo
Don DeLillo quote: "The greater the scientific advance, the more primitive the fear."
The greater the scientific advance, the more primitive the fear. Don DeLillo
Don DeLillo quote: "Fear is self-awareness raised to a higher level."
Fear is self-awareness raised to a higher level. Don DeLillo

Popular Author

Related Authors