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The American myth is of free will in its simple, primary sense. One can choose oneself and will oneself and this absurdly optimistic assumption so dominates the republic that it has bred all its gross social injustices.

John Fowles

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John Fowles
Age: 79 †
Born: 1926
Born: March 31
Died: 2005
Died: November 5
Essayist
Novelist
Screenwriter
Teacher
Writer
Leigh-on-Sea
Essex
Simple
Republic
Free
Optimistic
Absurdly
Social
Assumption
Dominates
Sense
Myth
Injustices
Injustice
Bred
Oneself
Gross
Choose
Primaries
American
Primary

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Liking other people is an illusion we have to cherish in ourselves if we are to live in society.
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Just those three words, said and meant. I love you. They were quite hopeless. He said it as he might have said, I have cancer. His fairy story.
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There are some men who are consoled by the idea that there are women less attractive than their wives and others who are haunted by the knowledge that there are more attractive.
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His statement to himself should have been, 'I possess this now, therefore I am happy', instead of what it so Victorianly was: I cannot possess this for ever, and therefore am sad.
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There is only one good definition of God: the freedom that allows other freedoms to exist.
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I have a strange illusion quite often. I think I've become deaf. I have to make a little noise to prove I'm not. I clear my throat to show myself that everything is normal. It's like the little Japanese girl they found in the ruins of Hiroshima. Everything dead and she was singing to her doll.
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Stained glass, engraved glass, frosted glass give me plain glass.
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We chase the reward, we get the reward and then we discover that the true reward is always the next reward. Buying pleasure is a false end.
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Content is a word unknown to life it is also a word unknown to man.
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The most important questions in life can never be answered by anyone except oneself.
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There are only two races on this planet - the intelligent and the stupid.
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Wolves don't hunt singly, but always in pairs. The lone wolf was a myth.
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I think we are just insects, we live a bit and then die and that’s the lot. There’s no mercy in things. There’s not even a Great Beyond. There’s nothing.
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We all write poems it is simply that poets are the ones who write in words.
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I do not plan my fiction any more than I normally plan woodland walks I follow the path that seems most promising at any given point, not some itinerary decided before entry.
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Wealth is a monster. It takes a month to learn to control it financially. And many years to learn to control it psychologically.
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And I just can't live in this present. I would go mad if I did.
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Baseball and cricket are beautiful and highly stylized medieval war substitutes, chess made flesh, a mixture of proud chivalry and base-in both senses-greed.
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Thomas Beecham was a pompous little band-master who stood against everything creative in the art of his time.
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All novelists should live in two different worlds: a real one and an unreal one.
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