William Saroyan quotes - page 6

If the great one found out about my fight with Death, and came to be near me, what good things we might all expect from being in the world. and then around daybreak I knew I had come through, and now at last fell into real sleep - alone, and proud, and alive - now more alive than ever. (William Saroyan)
I am out here in the far West, in San Francisco, in a small room on Carl Street, writing a letter to common people, telling them in simple language what they already know. View quote
William Saroyan
Mrs. Sandoval," Homer said swiftly, "your son is dead. Maybe it's a mistake. Maybe it wasn't your son. Maybe it was somebody else. The telegram says it was Juan Domingo. But maybe the telegram is wrong. View quote
William Saroyan
I do not believe in races. I do not believe in governments. View quote
William Saroyan
The race was over. I was last, by ten yards. Without the slightest hesitation I protested and challenged the runners to another race, same distance, back. They refused to consider my proposal, which proved, I knew, that they were afraid to race me. I told them they knew very well I could beat them. View quote
William Saroyan
I was never interested in the obvious, or in the details one takes for granted, and everybody seemed to be addicted to the obvious, being astonished by it, and forever harping about the details which I had long ago weighted, measured, and discarded as irrelevant and useless. If you can measure it, don't. If you can weigh it, it isn't worth the bother. It isn't what you're after. It isn't going to get it. My wisdom was visual and as swift as vision. I looked, I saw, I understood, I felt, "That's that, where do we go from here?" View quote
William Saroyan
If I have any desire at all, it is to show the brotherhood of man. View quote
William Saroyan
A man must pretend not to be a writer. View quote
William Saroyan
Nothing has ever been more sure-fire than truth and integrity. View quote
William Saroyan
Love of the streets is the love out of which I see deeply I love God, how near I come to the truth. View quote
William Saroyan
I have been to the place, Armenia. There is no nation there, but that is all the better. But I have been to that place, and I know this: that there is no nation in the world, no England and France and Italy, and no nation whatsoever. (William Saroyan)
Everything begins with inhale and exhale, and never ends. View quote
William Saroyan
I believe there are ways whose ends are life instead of death. View quote
William Saroyan
I began to visit Armenia as soon as I had earned the necessary money. View quote
William Saroyan
The world was my home and I was glad to be in it. View quote
William Saroyan
I have read Schopenhauer at the age of twelve with no bewilderment and no contempt of his contempt for the world and its strange inhabitants, and no contempt for the strange inhabitant himself. View quote
William Saroyan
Art and religion would not be able to stop the war any more than they would be able to stop tomorrow. View quote
William Saroyan
This was such bad writing that it was good. View quote
William Saroyan
He knew the truth and was looking for something better. View quote
William Saroyan
Poetry must be read to be poetry. It may be that one reader is all that I deserve. If this is so, I want that reader to be you. View quote
William Saroyan
Many friendships are swift and accidental, the result of a chance meeting, followed by a permanent separation. (William Saroyan)
Merely to survive is to keep the hope greatness, accuracy, and the grace alive. View quote
William Saroyan
The business of polishing my shoes satisfies my soul. View quote
William Saroyan
The only thing I can talk about is the cold because it is the only thing going on today. View quote
William Saroyan
The boy on the Oakland porch goes to sleep upon the universe of ice and wakes up and remembers the death of his father and mother, and sees the sun. View quote
William Saroyan