Quote

The essence of spirit ... was to choose the thing which did not better one's position but made it more perilous. That was why the world he knew was poor, for it insisted morality and caution were identical.

Norman Mailer

Change background

T
T
T

Change font

TAGS & TOPICS

Norman Mailer
Age: 84 †
Born: 1923
Born: January 31
Died: 2007
Died: November 10
Actor
Biographer
Essayist
Film Director
Film Editor
Film Producer
Historian
Journalist
Novelist
Playwright
Poet
Screenwriter
Stage Actor
Long Branch
New Jersey
Norman Kingsley Mailer
Andreas Wilson
Poor
Insisted
Spirit
Caution
Better
Identical
Thing
Morality
Made
Essence
World
Choose
Position
Knew
Perilous

More quotes by Norman Mailer

Image
The century would seek to dominate nature as it had never been dominated, would attack the idea of war, poverty and natural catastrophe as never before. The century would create death, devastation and pollution as never before. Yet the century was now attached to the idea that man must take his conception of life out to the stars.
Norman Mailer
Image
Television is coitus interruptus brought into aesthetics.
Norman Mailer
Image
When I read it [Tough Guys Don't Dance], I don't wince, which is all I ever ask for a book I write.
Norman Mailer
Image
I always start a book for money. If you're married five times you have to.
Norman Mailer
Image
The function of socialism is to raise suffering to a higher level.
Norman Mailer
Image
Los Angeles is a constellation of plastic.
Norman Mailer
Image
Part of the oncoming demise (of New York during its terrible fiscal crisis) is that none of us can simply believe it. We were always the best and the strongest of cities, and our people were vital to the teeth. Knock them down eight times and they would get up with that look in the eye which suggests the fight has barely begun.
Norman Mailer
Image
I respect most boxers because they're violent people who learned to discipline themselves ... a good boxer is an artist ... Boxing is existential - some fights are better than others.
Norman Mailer
Image
Indeed the early history of rocket design could be read as the simple desire to get the rocket to function long enough to give an opportunity to discover where the failure occurred. Most early debacles were so benighted that rocket engineers could have been forgiven for daubing the blood of a virgin goat on the orifice of the firing chamber.
Norman Mailer
Image
I did like Robert Vavra's book not only for its so very good photographs but for the text as well. He's no ordinary fellow, obviously.
Norman Mailer
Image
Writers don't have lifestyles. They just sit in little rooms and write.
Norman Mailer
Image
Giving a camera to Diane Arbus is like putting a live grenade in the hands of a child.
Norman Mailer
Image
MIke Lee writes with honesty, penetration, wit and the ability to surprise the reader with an unexpected turn from time to time that enriches the experience.
Norman Mailer
Image
Left-wingers are incapable of conspiring because they are all egomaniacs.
Norman Mailer
Image
It all comes down to who does the dishes.
Norman Mailer
Image
I hate everything which is not in myself.
Norman Mailer
Image
You never do find out what makes you tick, and after a while it's unimportant.
Norman Mailer
Image
The Irish are the only men who know how to cry for the dirty polluted blood of all the world.
Norman Mailer
Image
Masculinity is not something given to you, but something you gain. And you gain it by winning small battles with honor.
Norman Mailer
Image
Alimony is the curse of the writing class.
Norman Mailer