William Faulkner Quotes - Page 11

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• 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.

  William Faulkner

  Hate, Envy, Bird

  1956 Interview in Paris Review, Spring.

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• I learned little save that most of the deeds, good and bad both, incurring opprobrium or plaudits or reward either, within the scope of man's abilities, had already been performed and were to be learned about only from books.

  William Faulkner

  Book, Reading, Men

  William Faulkner, Noel Polk (1987). “Absalom, Absalom!, typescript setting copy and miscellaneous material”, Facsimiles-Garl

  4 Copy quote

• All of us have failed to match our dream of perfection. I rate us on the basis of our splendid failure to do the impossible. If I could write all my work again, I'm convinced I could do it better. This is the healthiest condition for an artist. That's why he keeps working, trying again: he believes each time that this time he will do it, bring it off. Of course he won't.

  William Faulkner

  Dream, Believe, Writing

  1956 On his generation of writers. Interview in Paris Review, Spring.

  7 Copy quote

• I'm inclined to think that a military background wouldn't hurt anyone.

  William Faulkner

  Hurt, Military, Thinking

  William Faulkner, Joseph L. Fant, Robert Paul Ashley (1964). “Faulkner at West Point”, p.59, Univ. Press of Mississippi

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• any live man is better than any dead man but no live or dead man is very much better than any other live or dead man

  William Faulkner

  Men, Dead Man

  William Faulkner “The Sound and the Fury”, W. W. Norton & Company

  7 Copy quote

• You must always know the past, for there is no real Was, there is only Is.

  William Faulkner

  Real, Past, History

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• I am trying to say it all in one sentence, between one cap and one period.

  William Faulkner

  Trying, Caps, Periods

  William Faulkner, Joseph Leo Blotner (1978). “Selected letters of William Faulkner”, Vintage

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• Setting an example for your children takes all the fun out of middle age Conditions are never just right. People who delay action until all factors are favorable do nothing.

  William Faulkner

  Fun, Children, People

  8 Copy quote

• Pointless. . . . Like giving caviar to an elephant.

  William Faulkner

  Elephants, Giving, Caviar

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• There is something about jumping a horse over a fence, something that makes you feel good. Perhaps it's the risk, the gamble. In any event it's a thing I need.

  William Faulkner

  Horse, Jumping, Feel Good

  "Visit to Two-Finger Typist". LIFE magazine, July 14, 1961.

  16 Copy quote

• My, my. A body does get around.

  William Faulkner

  Doe, Body

  Jack L. Capps, William Faulkner (1979). “Light in August: a concordance to the novel”

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• The artist is of no importance. Only what he creates is important, since there is nothing new to be said. Shakespeare, Balzac, Homer have all written about the same things, and if they had lived one thousand or two thousand years longer, the publishers wouldn't have needed anyone since.

  William Faulkner

  Art, Creativity, Years

  "William Faulkner, The Art of Fiction No. 12". Interview with Jean Stein, www.theparisreview.org. 1956.

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• The artists who want to be writers, read the reviews; the artists who want to write, don't.

  William Faulkner

  Writing, Artist, Editors

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• Our freedom must be buttressed by a homogeny equally and unchallengeably free, no matter what color they are, so that all the other inimical forces everywhere -- systems political or religious or racial or national -- will not just respect us because we practice freedom, they will fear us because we do.

  William Faulkner

  Religious, Color, Practice

  William Faulkner (2011). “Essays, Speeches & Public Letters”, p.151, Modern Library

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• It is assumed that anyone who makes a million dollars has a unique gift, though he might have made it off some useless gadget.

  William Faulkner

  Unique, Dollars, Gadgets

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• This does not matter. This is not anything yet. It all depends on what you do with it, afterward.

  William Faulkner

  Doe, Matter, Depends

  William Faulkner (1985). “Novels, 1930-1935”, Library of America

  7 Copy quote

• The scattered tea goes with the leaves and every day a sunset dies.

  William Faulkner

  Sunset, Tea, Dies

  William Faulkner (1994). “Novels 1942-1954”

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• The writer in America isn't part of the culture of this country. He's like a fine dog. People like him around, but he's of no use.

  William Faulkner

  Country, Dog, Art

  William Faulkner, Paul Gardner, Eric Mottram (1976). “A Faulkner perspective: a companion-guide to the limited first edition of the Selected letters of William Faulkner”

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• ...and you don't even have to sleep alone, you don't even have to sleep at all; and so, all you have to do is show the stick to the dog now and then and say, 'Thank God for nothing.'

  William Faulkner

  Dog, Sleep, Thank God

  "Uncollected Stories of William Faulkner".

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• I'm bad and I'm going to hell, and I don't care. I'd rather be in hell than anywhere where you are.

  William Faulkner

  Care, Hell, Where You Are

  William Faulkner (2013). “The Sound And The Fury”, p.160, Random House

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• I believe in God, God. God, I believe in God.

  William Faulkner

  Believe, I Believe, Believe In God

  William Faulkner (1946). “The Sound and the Fury: And As I Lay Dying”, New York : The Modern library

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• Just when do men that have different blood in them stop hating one another?

  William Faulkner

  Hate, Men, Blood

  William Faulkner (1985). “Novels, 1930-1935”, Library of America

  6 Copy quote

• A writer is trying to create believable people in credible moving situations in the most moving way he can.

  William Faulkner

  Moving, People, Trying

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• The poets are wrong of course […] But then poets are almost always wrong about facts. That's because they are not really interested in facts: only in truth: which is why the truth they speak is so true that even those who hate poets by simple and natural instinct are exalted and terrified by it.

  William Faulkner

  Hate, Simple, Natural Instinct

  William Faulkner (2011). “Snopes: The Hamlet, The Town, The Mansion”, p.420, Modern Library

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• Life was created in the valleys. It blew up onto the hills on the old terrors, the old lusts, the old despairs. That's why you must walk up the hills so you can ride down.

  William Faulkner

  Lust, Despair, Valleys

  William Faulkner, Eugene O'Neill, John Steinbeck (1971). “William Faulkner, Eugene O'Neill [and] John Steinbeck”

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