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The basic truth of all things, as nearly as we may ever dream of determining and knowing this truth, is form, that which is, as it is. The way and shape of the thing no less than the thing itself.

William Saroyan

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William Saroyan
Age: 72 †
Born: 1908
Born: August 31
Died: 1981
Died: May 18
Dramatist
Novelist
Playwright
Poet
Screenwriter
Songwriter
Writer
Fresno
California
Ever
Basic
Thing
Shapes
Way
Knowing
Things
Less
Dream
Form
Determining
Truth
Nearly
May
Shape

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Nothing good ever ends.
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It takes a lot of rehearsing for a man to be himself.
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You may tend to get cancer from the thing that makes you want to smoke so much, not from the smoking itself.
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I began to write in the first place because I expected everything to change, and I wanted to have things in writing the way they had been. Just a little things, of course. A little of my little.
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You write a hit play the same way you write a flop.
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The purpose of writing is both to keep up with life and to run ahead of it. I am little comfort to myself, although I am the only comfort I have, excepting perhaps streets, clouds, the sun, the faces and voices of kids and the aged, and similar accidents of beauty, innocence, truth and loneliness.
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I have never received a telephone call that justified the excitement and fuss of the electronics involved. If I can't see somebody I love, for instance, such as a daughter, or a son, I would rather receive a letter.
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Of course if you like your kids, if you love them from the moment they begin, you yourself begin all over again, in them, with them, and so there is something more to the world again.
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I always know a lie when I hear it, and the effect it has on me is no good at all. I go berserk just forcing myself not to go berserk, just trying to see truth in the lie, to see it in full context, and in a dimension in which it has got to be more than just a lie, possibly the profoundest kind of truth.
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Each book can make a life or a fragment of it more beautiful.
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You must not be unkind, especially when it happens that you're right.
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The whole world and every human being in it is everybody's business.
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San Francisco itself is art, above all literary art. Every block is a short story, every hill a novel. Every home a poem, every dweller within immortal. That is the whole truth.
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I saw rich beggars and poor beggars, proud beggars and humble beggars, fat beggars and thin beggars, healthy beggars and sick beggars, whole beggars and crippled beggars, wise beggars and stupid beggars. I saw amateur beggars and professional beggars. A professional beggar is a beggar who begs for a living.
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Try to be alive. You will be dead soon enough.
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All I can do is write my stories for mankind, and rest easy.
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Every man is correct in asking God why he is stuck with himself, and his rotten luck.
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Seek goodness everywhere, and when it is found, bring it out of its hiding place and let it be free and unashamed.
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If you’re alive, you can’t be bored in San Francisco. If you’re not alive, San Francisco will bring you to life.
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San Francisco is a world to explore. It is a place where the heart can go on a delightful adventure.
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