Canadian-American writer (1915-2005)
Unexpected intrusions of beauty. That is what life is.
SAUL BELLOW
Herzog
I never yet touched a fig leaf that didn't turn into a price tag.
SAUL BELLOW
Humboldt's Gift
As for types like my own, obscurely motivated by the conviction that our existence was worthless if we didn’t make a turning point of it, we were assigned to the humanities, to poetry, philosophy, painting -- the nursery games of humankind, which had to be left behind when the age of science began. The humanities would be called upon to choose a wallpaper for the crypt, as the end drew near.
SAUL BELLOW
The Adventures of Augie March
I am a true adorer of life, and if I can't reach as high as the face of it, I plant my kiss somewhere lower down. Those who understand will require no further explanation.
SAUL BELLOW
Henderson the Rain King
I have become such a solitary, and not in the Aristotelian sense: not a beast, not a god. Rather, a loner troubled by longings, incapable of finding a suitable language and despairing at the impossibility of composing messages in a playable key--as if I no longer understood the codes used by the estimable people who wanted to hear from me and would have so much to reply if only the impediments were taken away.
SAUL BELLOW
Letters
What people called culture was nothing but a fancier term for their ignorance.
SAUL BELLOW
Ravelstein
Live or die but don't poison everything.
SAUL BELLOW
Herzog
And everything soon must change. Men would set their watches by other suns than this.
SAUL BELLOW
Mr. Sammler's Planet
The planet was our mother and our burial ground. No wonder the human spirit wished to leave. Leave this prolific belly. Leave also this great tomb.
SAUL BELLOW
Mr. Sammler's Planet
I've discovered that rejections are not altogether a bad thing. They teach a writer to rely on his own judgment and to say in his heart of hearts, "To hell with you."
SAUL BELLOW
attributed, Putting Your Passion Into Print
A novel is balanced between a few true impressions and the multitude of false ones that make up most of what we call life.
SAUL BELLOW
Nobel lecture, Dec. 12, 1976
I think that when I wrote those early books I was timid. I still felt the incredible effrontery of announcing myself to the world (in part I mean the WASP world) as a writer and an artist. I had to touch a great many bases, demonstrate my abilities, pay my respects to formal requirements. In short, I was afraid to let myself go.
SAUL BELLOW
The Paris Review, winter 1966
When I opened my eyes 82 years ago I found myself suddenly here, in existence, which struck me as marvellous, tremendously moving and energising. I'm here, this is my life! And these people coming at me, these strange, beautiful, marvellous people! You want to get a grip on that, to clutch that sense of what it is to be in the world.
SAUL BELLOW
The Guardian, Sep. 10, 1997
Conquered people tend to be witty.
SAUL BELLOW
Mr. Sammler's Planet
Anyone who wants to govern the country, has to entertain it.
SAUL BELLOW
Ravelstein
From my earliest days I had a conviction that I was here to write certain things and so from the age of 13, I kept working at that. I was always very busy with my "project" so I'm afraid that I didn't notice much. Much of life has escaped me.
SAUL BELLOW
The Guardian, Sep. 10, 1997
Human character is smaller now, people don't have durable passions; they've replaced passions with excitement.
SAUL BELLOW
The Guardian, Sep. 10, 1997
We mustn't forget how quickly the visions of genius become the canned goods of intellectuals.
SAUL BELLOW
Herzog
You have to fight for your life. That's the chief condition on which you hold it.
SAUL BELLOW
Herzog
Goodness is achieved not in a vacuum, but in the company of other men, attended by love.
SAUL BELLOW
Dangling Man