Quote

Every compulsion is put upon writers to become safe, polite, obedient, and sterile. In protest, I declined election to the National Institute of Arts and Letters some years ago, and now I must decline the Pulitzer Prize.

Sinclair Lewis

Change background

T
T
T

Change font

TAGS & TOPICS

Sinclair Lewis
Journalist
Novelist
Playwright
Writer
Sauk Centre
Minnesota
Harry Sinclair Lewis
Become
Arts
Institute
Must
Letters
Obedient
Every
Election
Compulsion
Years
Writers
Polite
National
Decline
Safe
Protest
Pulitzer
Upon
Propaganda
Declined
Art
Prize
Sterile

More quotes by Sinclair Lewis

Image
Unhappy women are given to protecting their sensitiveness by cynical gossip, by whining, by high-church and new-thought religions, or by a fog of vagueness.
Sinclair Lewis
Image
We'd get sick on too many cookies, but ever so much sicker on no cookies at all.
Sinclair Lewis
Image
Winter is not a season in the North Middlewest it is an industry.
Sinclair Lewis
Image
It is, I think, an error to believe that there is any need of religion to make life seem worth living.
Sinclair Lewis
Image
When fascism comes to the United States it will be wrapped in the American flag and will claim the name of 100-percent Americanism
Sinclair Lewis
Image
Except for half a dozen in each town the citizens are proud of that achievement of ignorance which is so easy to come by. To be 'intellectual' or 'artistic' or, in their own word, to be 'highbrow,' is to be priggish and of dubious virtue.
Sinclair Lewis
Image
You, Said Dr. Yavitch, are a middle-road liberal, and you haven't the slightest idea what you want. I, being a revolutionist, know exactly what I want -- and what I want now is a drink.
Sinclair Lewis
Image
The cocktail filled him with a whirling exhilaration behind which he was aware of devastating desires—to rush places in fast motors, to kiss girls, to sing, to be witty. ... He perceived that he had gifts of profligacy which had been neglected. —chapter 8
Sinclair Lewis
Image
That nation is proudest and noblest and most exalted which has the greatest number of really great men.
Sinclair Lewis
Image
Sleep with me sleep with my dogs-
Sinclair Lewis
Image
Think how much better it is to criticize conventional customs if you yourself live up to them, scrupulously.
Sinclair Lewis
Image
Thus Carol hit upon the tragedy of old age, which is not that it is less vigorous than youth, but that it is not needed by youth.
Sinclair Lewis
Image
What are these unheard of sins you condemn so much - and like so well?
Sinclair Lewis
Image
Funny how the world always praises its opera-singers so much and pays 'em so well and then starves its shoemakers, and yet it needs good shoes so much more than it needs opera--or war or fiction.
Sinclair Lewis
Image
I must say I'm not very fond of oratory that's so full of energy it hasn't any room for facts.
Sinclair Lewis
Image
Pugnacity is a form of courage, but a very bad form.
Sinclair Lewis
Image
A man takes a drink, the drink takes another, and the drink takes the man.
Sinclair Lewis
Image
What is Love? Listen! It is the rainbow that stands out, in all its glorious many-colored hues, illuminating and making glad again the dark clouds of life. It is the morning and the evening star, that in glad refulgence, there on the awed horizon, call Nature's hearts to an uplifted rejoicing in God's marvelous firmament!
Sinclair Lewis
Image
Damn the great executives, the men of measured merriment, damn the men with careful smiles, damn the men that run the shops, oh, damn their measured merriment.
Sinclair Lewis
Image
He loved the people just as much as he feared and detested persons.
Sinclair Lewis