Norman Mailer Quotes

American - Novelist | January 31, 1923 - November 10, 2007

In America all too few blows are struck into flesh. We kill the spirit here, we are experts at that. We use psychic bullets and kill each other cell by cell.

Norman Mailer

AmericaSpiritHereBulletsPsychic

It's not a good idea to put your wife into a novel; not your latest wife anyway.

Norman Mailer

GoodWifeGood IdeaIdeaYourNovel

The horror of the Twentieth Century was the size of each new event, and the paucity of its reverberation.

Norman Mailer

NewHorrorSizeEventCenturyEach

Culture's worth huge, huge risks. Without culture we're all totalitarian beasts.

Norman Mailer

CultureRisksWorthWithoutBeasts

Tough guys don't dance. You had better believe it.

Norman Mailer

DanceToughBelieveBetterYouGuys

I think it's bad to talk about one's present work, for it spoils something at the root of the creative act. It discharges the tension.

Norman Mailer

WorkCreativeThinkPresentBadAct

A modern democracy is a tyranny whose borders are undefined; one discovers how far one can go only by traveling in a straight line until one is stopped.

Norman Mailer

DemocracyTyrannyGoBordersLine

In America few people will trust you unless you are irreverent.

Norman Mailer

TrustPeopleAmericaYouWillFew

Revolutions are the periods of history when individuals count most.

Norman Mailer

HistoryCountMostIndividuals

We can never know for certain where our prayers are likely to go, nor from whom the answers will come. Just when we think we are at our nearest to God, we could be assisting the Devil.

Norman Mailer

GodThinkDevilGoKnowNever

When I read it, I don't wince, which is all I ever ask for a book I write.

Norman Mailer

BookWriteAskReadEverI Write

Giving a camera to Diane Arbus is like putting a live grenade in the hands of a child.

Norman Mailer

LiveChildGivingCameraHandsLike

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