Quote

Endings are elusive, middles are nowhere to be found, but worst of all is to begin, to begin, to begin.

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
Elusive
Nowhere
Begin
Worst
Found
Writing
Middles
Endings

More quotes by Donald Barthelme

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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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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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Best not to anticipate too much ... it jiggles the possibilities.
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His examiner said severely: Baskerville, you blank round, discursiveness is not literature. The aim of literature, Baskerville replied grandly, is the creation of a strange object covered with fur which breaks your heart.
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I don’t think you can talk about progress in art—movement, but not progress.
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Doubt is a necessary precondition tomeaningful action. Fear is the great mover in the end.
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Is death that which gives meaning to life?
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The death of God left the angels in a strange position.
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Food ... is the topmost taper on the golden candelabrum of existence.
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Succeed! It has been done, and with a stupidity that can astound the most experienced.
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Now it is necessary to court her, and win her, and put on this clean dressing gown, and cut my various nails, and drink something that will kill the millions of germs in my mouth, and say something flattering, and be witty and bonny, and hale and kinky, all just to ease this wrinkle in the groin. It seems a high price.
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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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People always like to hear that they're under stress, makes them feel better. You can imagine what they'd feel if they were told they weren't under stress.
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Is it permitted to differ with Kierkegaard? Not only permitted but necessary. If you love him.
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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?
Donald Barthelme
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The self cannot be escaped, but it can be, with ingenuity and hard work, distracted.
Donald Barthelme
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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.
Donald Barthelme
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The aim of literature ... is the creation of a strange object covered with fur which breaks your heart.
Donald Barthelme
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There was no particular point at which I stopped being promising.
Donald Barthelme