Quote

I believe that because I had obtained a wife who was made up of wife-signs (beauty, charm, softness, perfume, cookery) I had found love.

Donald Barthelme

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Donald Barthelme
Age: 58 †
Born: 1931
Born: April 7
Died: 1989
Died: July 23
Author
Journalist
Novelist
Philosopher
Reporter
Writer
Philadelphia
Pennsylvania
Charm
Wife
Beauty
Found
Cookery
Made
Softness
Believe
Obtained
Love
Perfume
Signs

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And I sat there getting drunker and drunker and more in love and more in love.
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I think writers like old cities and are made very nervous by new cities.
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He is mad about being small when you were big, but no, that's not it, he is mad about being helpless when you were powerful, but no, not that either, he is mad about being contingent when you were necessary, not quite it... he is insane because when he loved you, you didn't notice.
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Is it permitted to differ with Kierkegaard? Not only permitted but necessary. If you love him.
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Goals incapable of attainment have driven many a man to despair, but despair is easier to get to than that -- one need merely look out of the window, for example.
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The death of God left the angels in a strange position.
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The self cannot be escaped, but it can be, with ingenuity and hard work, distracted.
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There's not a strong autobiographical strain in my fiction. A few bits of fact here and there.
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Succeed! It has been done, and with a stupidity that can astound the most experienced.
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The not-knowing is crucial to art, is what permits art to be made. Without the scanning process engendered by not-knowing, without the possibility of having the mind move in unanticipated directions, there would be no invention.
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Best not to anticipate too much ... it jiggles the possibilities.
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Food ... is the topmost taper on the golden candelabrum of existence.
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The aim of literature ... is the creation of a strange object covered with fur which breaks your heart.
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Capitalism places every man in competition with his fellows for a share of the available wealth. A few people accumulate big piles, but most do not. The sense of community falls victim to this struggle.
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Well chaps first I'd like to say a few vile things more or less at random, not only because it is expected of me but also because I enjoy it.
Donald Barthelme
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I am never needlessly obscure - I am needfully obscure, when I am obscure.
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Is death that which gives meaning to life? And I said, no, life is that which gives meaning to life.
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Now, here is the point about the self: it is insatiable. It is always, always hankering. It is what you might call rapacious to a fault. The great flaming mouth to the thing is never in this world going to be stuff full.
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Will you be wanting to contest the divorce? I asked Mrs. Davis. I should think not, she said calmly, although I suppose on of us should, for the fun of the thing. An uncontested divorce always seems to me contrary to the spirit of divorce.
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Who among us is not thinking about divorce, except for a few tiny-minded stick-in-the-muds who don't count?
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