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Authors:

Saul Bellow quotes about life

American Novelist June 10, 1914 – April 5, 2005

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Quotes

Towards the end of your life you have something like a pain schedule to fill out—a long schedule like a federal document, only it's your pain schedule. Endless categories. First, physical causes—like arthritis, gallstones, menstrual cramps. New category, injured vanity, betrayal, swindle, injustice. But the hardest items of all have to do with love. The question then is: So why does everybody persist? If love cuts them up so much.... Saul Bellow
Is love supposed to ruin you? It seems to me you shouldn't destroy yourself out of life for purposes of love--or what good is it? Saul Bellow
And I said to myself that unless you conceive Death to be a violent guerrilla and kidnaper who snatches those you love, and if you are not cowardly and cannot submit to such terrorism as civilized people now do in every department of life, you must pursue and inquire and explore every possibility and seek everywhere and try everything. Saul Bellow
Well, I need a job. Something that'll leave me the free time I want."I like the way you arrange your life. What do you intend to do with this free time?"I intend to use it." I didn't like the implication of this. Why should he need his time free and I be questioned? Saul Bellow
Saul Bellow quote: "You can spend the entire second half of your life recovering..."
You can spend the entire second half of your life recovering from the mistakes of the first half. Saul Bellow
Saul Bellow quote: "You have to fight for your life. That's the chief condition on..."
You have to fight for your life. That's the chief condition on which you hold it. Saul Bellow
He believed that he must, that he could and would recover the good things, the happy things, the easy tranquil things of life. He had made mistakes, but he could overlook these. He had been a fool, but that could be forgiven. The time wasted--must be relinquished. What else could one do about it? Things were too complex, but they might be reduced to simplicity again. Recovery was possible. Saul Bellow
Life, said Samuel Butler, is like giving a concert on the violin while learning to play the instrument—that, friends, is real wisdom. Saul Bellow
With one long breath, caught and held in his chest, he fought his sadness over his solitary life. Don’t cry, you idiot! Live or die, but don’t poison everything… Saul Bellow
Saul Bellow quote: "Unexpected intrusions of beauty. This is what life is."
Unexpected intrusions of beauty. This is what life is. Saul Bellow
I have begun in old age to understand just how oddly we all are put together. We are so proud of our autonomy that we seldom if ever realize how generous we are to ourselves, and just how stingy with others. One of the booby traps of freedom--which is bordered on all sides by isolation--is that we think so well of ourselves. I now see that I have helped myself to the best cuts at life's banquet. Saul Bellow
External life being so mighty, the instruments so huge and terrible, the performances so great, the thoughts so great and threatening, you produce a someone who can exist before it. You invent a man who can stand before the terrible appearances. This way he can't get justice and he can't give justice, but he can live. And this is what mere humanity always does. It's made up of these inventors or artists, millions and millions of them, each in his own way trying to recruit other people to play... Saul Bellow
Saul Bellow quote: "The lesson of an American life like my father's... is that..."
The lesson of an American life like my father's... is that achievements are compatible with decency (112). Saul Bellow
Saul Bellow quote: "Guys like you make life easy for some women."
Guys like you make life easy for some women. Saul Bellow
There is an immense, painful longing for a broader, more flexible, fuller, more coherent, more comprehensive account of what we human beings are, who we are and what this life is for. Saul Bellow

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