Leslie Fiedler quotes

I long for the raised voice, the howl of rage or love. (Leslie Fiedler)
There are things in American culture that want to wipe the class distinction. Blue jeans. Ready-made clothes. Coca-Cola. View quote
Leslie Fiedler
Henry Miller wrote novels, but he calls his protagonist Henry, often Henry Miller, and his books are in this gray area between memoir and novel. View quote
Leslie Fiedler
I gave up writing blurbs because you make one friend and 200 enemies. View quote
Leslie Fiedler
Of the female black authors, I really like Morrison's early books a lot. But she's really become so much a clone of Faulkner. He did it better. View quote
Leslie Fiedler
Faulkner sat in our living room and read from Light in August. That was incredible. View quote
Leslie Fiedler
I think Henry Miller has had huge influence not because he wrote about sex, but because the memoir or the nonfiction novel has become such a monumental force in American publishing, if not in literature. View quote
Leslie Fiedler
The black situation has changed. They finally realized they're Americans. View quote
Leslie Fiedler
I have, I admit, a low tolerance for detached chronicling and cool analysis. View quote
Leslie Fiedler
All good criticism should be judged the way art is. You shouldn't read it the way you read history or science. View quote
Leslie Fiedler
I liked Camille Paglia. I liked her even better when I heard her talk. (Leslie Fiedler)
When all of us are forgotten, people will still be remembering Stephen King. View quote
Leslie Fiedler
Faulkner turned out to be a great teacher. When a student asked a question ineptly, he answered the question with what the student had really wanted to know. View quote
Leslie Fiedler
I think the pattern of my essays is, A funny thing happened to me on my way through Finnegans Wake. View quote
Leslie Fiedler
When I was 12 years old, someone took me to see Martha Graham. It was nothing like what I thought of as serious dancing and even then I knew I was having a great experience. It was as if somebody was moving through space like no one ever did before. View quote
Leslie Fiedler
I've had a tough time with Pynchon. I liked him very much when I first read him. I liked him less with each book. He got denser and more complex in a way that didn't really pay off. View quote
Leslie Fiedler
Kafka is still unrecognized. He thought he was a comic writer. View quote
Leslie Fiedler
My assignment is what every writer's assignment is: tell the truth of his own time. View quote
Leslie Fiedler
Cooper wrote a novel which is absolutely indistinguishable from Austen, completely from a female point of view, completely English, no sense that he was an American. View quote
Leslie Fiedler
I used to be fond of Indian arm wrestling. View quote
Leslie Fiedler
Anybody in the next centuries wanting to know what it was like to be a poet in the middle of the 20th century should read Kaddish. (Leslie Fiedler)
Jane Austen is at the end of the line that begins with Samuel Richardson, which takes wonder and magic out of the novel, treats not the past but the present. View quote
Leslie Fiedler
I never met anybody in my life who says, I want to be a critic. People want to be a fireman, poet, novelist. View quote
Leslie Fiedler
One more recent novelist to come along is Cormac McCarthy. Him, I like. View quote
Leslie Fiedler
I've been writing about James Fenimore Cooper. He was not a writer. Here was a man who was 30 years old and had never put anything more than his signature on paper. View quote
Leslie Fiedler

Leslie Fiedler

Occupation: American Critic
Born: March 8, 1917
Died: January 29, 2003
Quotes count: 48