Canadian-American writer (1915-2005)
You have to fight for your life. That's the chief condition on which you hold it.
SAUL BELLOW
Herzog
Being right was largely a matter of explanations.
SAUL BELLOW
Mr. Sammler's Planet
There are those who believe that clumsiness and truthfulness go together. But cumbersomeness does not necessarily imply a sincere heart.
SAUL BELLOW
The Paris Review, winter 1966
It's no small matter to become rich and famous by saying exactly what you think -- to say it in your own words, without compromise.
SAUL BELLOW
Ravelstein
One reason why violence is so popular may be that psychiatric insights have worn us out and we get satisfaction from seeing them blown away with automatic weapons.
SAUL BELLOW
Ravelstein
I've got at least four or five readers. God has not abandoned me. Why the Lord of hosts has let the ranks become so thin, who can say?
SAUL BELLOW
letter to Richard Stern, Mar. 12, 1996
You see kids, little boys, practicing the jeers of their television heroes--they shape themselves on such models. It’s a strange conformity to what’s thrust at them; they adopt it and adapt it and play with it.
SAUL BELLOW
AGNI interview, 1997
Strict seriousness was far more dangerous than any joke.
SAUL BELLOW
Ravelstein
An utterly steady, reliable woman, responsible to the point of grimness. Daisy was a statistician for the Gallup Poll.
SAUL BELLOW
Herzog
Greatness without models? Inconceivable. One could not be the thing itself -- Reality. One must be satisfied with symbols.
SAUL BELLOW
Mr. Sammler's Planet
You become a writer because you are convinced that you have a grip on reality of a certain distinctive kind. It belongs to you and to others who share such a recognition.
SAUL BELLOW
AGNI interview, 1997
I think both optimism and pessimism are very boring outlooks. I like to know what's going on, and I like to tell myself that I can handle the worst, should my observations prove to be negative or unfavorable.
SAUL BELLOW
Q & A at Howard Community College, Feb. 1986
Fidelity is for phonographs.
SAUL BELLOW
Humboldt's Gift
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.
SAUL BELLOW
The Paris Review, winter 1966
Human beings can lose their lives in libraries. They ought to be warned.
SAUL BELLOW
"Him with His Foot in His Mouth", Him with His Foot in His Mouth and Other Stories
Everybody needs his memories. They keep the wolf of insignificance from the door.
SAUL BELLOW
Mr. Sammler's Planet
The earth is literally a mirror of thoughts. Objects themselves are embodied thoughts. Death is the dark backing that a mirror needs if we are to see anything.
SAUL BELLOW
Mr. Sammler's Planet
In every direction, the walls of life are tiled with such facts so that you can never account for them all, only note some of the more conspicuous ones.
SAUL BELLOW
Ravelstein
I didn't want to be ignored. I didn't want my books to be ignored. But I didn't really care to cut such a figure either because ... well, it interferes with the business of writing.
SAUL BELLOW
Q & A at Howard Community College, Feb. 1986
Every human life has a secret essence, it's a secret even to the possessor, because you don't know what to make of it.
SAUL BELLOW
The Guardian, Sep. 10, 1997