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A man's ethnic identity has more to do with a personal awareness than with geography.

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
Identity
Awareness
Personal
Men
Ethnic
Geography

More quotes by William Saroyan

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The Tax Collector's letters are invariably mimeographed, and all they say is that you still haven't paid him.
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Chance acquaintances are sometimes the most memorable, for brief friendships have such definite starting and stopping points that they take on a quality of art, of a whole thing, which cannot be broken or spoiled.
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In the end, today is forever, yesterday is still today, and tomorrow is already today.
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What a lonely and silly thing it is to be an Armenian writer in America.
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No enemy is so annoying as one who was a friend, or still is a friend,and there are many more of these than one would suspect.
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I love the bicycle. I always have. I can think of no sincere, decent human being, male or female, young or old, saintly or sinful, who can resist the bicycle.
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All writers are discontent. That's because they're aware of a potential and believe they're not reaching it.
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The mad also laugh, or is that what Freud and the others discovered perhaps, that only the mad laugh?
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Christmas is sights, especially the sights of Christmas reflected in the eyes of a child.
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The whole world and every human being in it is everybody's business.
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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.
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Cowards are nice, they're interesting, they're gentle, they wouldn't think of shooting down people in a parade from a tower. They want to live, so they can see their kids. They're very brave.
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I do not know what makes a writer, but it probably isn't happiness.
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Whoever the kid had been, whoever had had the grand attitude, has finally heeded the admonishment of parents, teachers, governments, religions, and the law: )You just change your attitude now please, young man.
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You must not be unkind, especially when it happens that you're right.
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I'm not the kind of guy to knock at a door and then when the door is opened not go in.
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The writer is a spiritual anarchist, as in the depth of his soul every man is. He is discontented with everything and everybody. The writer is everybody's best friend and only true enemy-the good and great enemy. He neither walks with the multitude nor cheers with them. The writer who is a writer is a rebel who never stops
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Every artist is in everything he creates, and indeed if the truth is told, every person is in his life, in his work, whatever his work may be, and this is visible in his face, figure, stance, movement, and totality.
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I became a writer because during several of the most important years of my life, writing seemed to me to be the most unreal, unattractive, and unecessary idea ever imposed upon the human race.
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The writer who is a real writer is a rebel who never stops.
William Saroyan