Quotes by
William Faulkner |
1897-1962 , American writer, Nobel 1949

Major works: The Sound and the Fury (1929), As I Lay Dying (1930), Light in August (1932), Absalom, Absalom! (1936).
22 quotes | 1,356 visits |
Quotations
• | The past is never dead. It's not even past. 5 |
• | If I were reincarnated, I’d want to come back a buzzard. Nothing hates him or envies him or wants him or needs him. He is never bothered or in danger, and he can eat anything. 5 |
• | No battle is ever won ... victory is an illusion of philosophers and fools. 5 |
• | Memory believes before knowing remembers. 4 |
• | Civilization begins with distillation. 3 |
• | Be scared. You can't help that. But don’t be afraid. Ain’t nothing in the woods going to hurt you unless you corner it, or it smells that you are afraid. |
• | People to whom sin is just a matter of words, to them salvation is just words too. |
• | Between grief and nothing I will take grief. |
• | Unless you’re ashamed of yourself now and then, you’re not honest. |
• | To understand the world, you must first understand a place like Mississippi. |
• | If there is a God what the hell is He for? |
• | A mule will labor ten years willingly and patiently for you, for the privilege of kicking you once. |
• | There is no such thing as bad whiskey. Some whiskeys just happen to be better than others. But a man shouldn't fool with booze until he's fifty; then he's a damn fool if he doesn't. |
• | A man is the sum of his misfortunes. One day you’d think misfortune would get tired but then time is your misfortune. |
• | There are some things for which three words are three too many, and three thousand words that many words too less. |
• | I never know what I think about something until I read what I’ve written on it. |
• | It's all now you see: tomorrow began yesterday and yesterday won't be over until tomorrow. |
• | Read, read, read. Read everything —trash, classics, good and bad, and see how they do it. Just like a carpenter who works as an apprentice and studies the master. Read! You'll absorb it. |
• | Perhaps they were right putting love into books. Perhaps it could not live anywhere else. |
• | Dreams have only one owner at a time. That’s why dreamers are lonely. |
• | You don’t love because: you love despite; not for the virtues, but despite the faults. |
• | It begins with a character, usually, and once he stands up on his feet and begins to move, all I can do is trot along behind him with a paper and pencil trying to keep up long enough to put down what he says and does. |