WIST Quotations

Bellow, Saul -- “Ralph Ellison in Tivoli” (1998)

Dave — Wed, 05 Oct 2022 21:13:41 +0000

I have begun in old age to understand just how oddly we are all 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 (1915–2005) Canadian-American writer
“Ralph Ellison in Tivoli” (1998)

Originally printed in News from the Republic of Letters, No. 3 (1998). Reprinted in the Los Angeles Times (10 May 1998).

Bellow, Saul -- “The Art of Fiction: Saul Bellow,” interview by Gordon Lloyd Harper, The Paris Review (Winter 1966)

Dave — Thu, 13 Jul 2023 16:31:24 +0000

I feel that art has something to do with the achievement of stillness in the midst of chaos. A stillness that characterizes prayer, too, and the eye of the storm. I think that art has something to do with an arrest of attention in the midst of distraction.

Saul Bellow (1915–2005) Canadian-American writer
“The Art of Fiction: Saul Bellow,” interview by Gordon Lloyd Harper, The Paris Review (Winter 1966)

Reprinted in Gloria Cronin and Ben Siegel, ed., Conversations with Saul Bellow (1994).

Bellow, Saul -- Henderson the Rain King, ch. 18 [King Dahfu] (1959)

Dave — Thu, 18 Jul 2024 15:42:27 +0000

All human accomplishment has the same origin, identically. Imagination is a force of nature. Is this not enough to make a person full of ecstasy? Imagination, imagination, imagination. It converts to actual. It sustains, it alters, it redeems!

Saul Bellow (1915–2005) Canadian-American writer
Henderson the Rain King, ch. 18 [King Dahfu] (1959)

Bellow, Saul -- Herzog (1964)

Dave — Wed, 20 May 2020 20:05:42 +0000

Unexpected intrusions of beauty. This is what life is.

Saul Bellow (1915–2005) Canadian-American writer
Herzog (1964)

Bellow, Saul -- Seize the Day (1956)

Dave — Sun, 01 Feb 2004 16:00:00 +0000

A man is only as good as what he loves.

Saul Bellow (1915–2005) Canadian-American writer
Seize the Day (1956)

Bellow, Saul -- The Adventures of Augie March (1953)

Dave — Wed, 14 Apr 2021 16:25:47 +0000

Boredom therefore can arise from the cessation of habitual functions, even though these may be boring too. It is also the shriek of unused capacities, the doom of serving no great end or design, or contributing to no master force.

Saul Bellow (1915–2005) Canadian-American writer
The Adventures of Augie March (1953)

Bellow, Saul -- To Jerusalem and Back (1976)

Dave — Sun, 01 Feb 2004 16:00:00 +0000

A great deal of intelligence can be invested in ignorance when the need for illusion is deep.

Saul Bellow (1915–2005) Canadian-American writer
To Jerusalem and Back (1976)