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Babies who have not yet been taught to speak any language are the only race of the earth, the race of man: all the rest is pretence, what we call civilization, hatred, fear, desire for strength.

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
Desire
Civilization
Fear
Baby
Speak
Strength
Earth
Rest
Men
Taught
Call
Pretence
Race
Babies
Language
Hatred

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You write a hit play the same way you write a flop.
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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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Armenag Saroyan was the failed poet, the failed Presbyterian preacher, the failed American, the failed theological student.
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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......San Francisco is a world to explore. It is a place where the heart can go on a delightful adventure. It is a city in which the spirit can know refreshment every day.
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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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The writer who is a real writer is a rebel who never stops.
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I'm no Armenian. I'm an American. Well, the truth is I am both and neither. I love Armenia and I love America and I belong to both, but I am only this: an inhabitant of the earth, and so are you, whoever you are. I tried to forget Armenia but I couldn't do it.
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The bicycle is the noblest invention of mankind.
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What a lonely and silly thing it is to be an Armenian writer in America.
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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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My work has always been the product of my time.
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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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All writers are discontent. That's because they're aware of a potential and believe they're not reaching it.
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Remember that every man is a variation of yourself. No man's guilt is not yours, nor is any man's innocence a thing apart.
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The best that can be said for anybody is probably that you misunderstood him favorably.
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I used to throw things out, saying, 'This isn't great.' It didn't occur to me that it didn't have to be great.
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There could be no extreme vanity in my recognition of myself, if in fact there could be any at all.
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In the time of your life, live-so that in that good time there shall be no ugliness or death for yourself or for any life your life touches.
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It is simply in the nature of Armenian to study, to learn, to question, to speculate, to discover, to invent, to revise, to restore, to preserve, to make, and to give.
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