No man kills himself unless there is something wrong with his life.
AL ALVAREZDespite the hundreds of attempts, police terror and the concentration camps have proved to be more or less impossible subjects for the artist.
More Al Alvarez Quotes
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Since what happened in them was beyond the imagination, it was therefore also beyond art and all those human values on which art is traditionally based.
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Divorce transforms habit into drama.
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It is easy to smile at an insult and pretend it’s funny when the person insulting you is hosing you with money.
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Despite the hundreds of attempts, police terror and the concentration camps have proved to be more or less impossible subjects for the artist.
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The better the artist, the more vulnerable he seems to be.
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In the possibility of control over what seems essentially uncontrollable, in the coherence of the inchoate, and in its ability to create its own values.
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I absolutely don’t believe in anything. Full stop. Including luck.
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In [The New Poetry] I had attacked the British poets’ nervous preference for gentility above all else, and their avoidance of the uncomfortable, destructive truths both of the inner life and of the present time.
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It puts domestic problems back into proportion and adds an element of seriousness to your drab, routine life.
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Each sporadic burst of work, each minor success and disappointment, each moment of calm and relaxation.
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To put yourself into a situation where a mistake cannot necessarily be recouped, where the life you lose may be your own, clears the head wonderfully.
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Twentieth-century art may start with nothing, but it flourishes by virtue of its belief in itself.
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I’m good at reading people.
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Hold’em is a game of calculated aggression. If your cards are good enough for you to call a bet, they are good enough to raise with.
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You pause and attend: the heart beats in your chest; outside, the trees are thick with new leaves, a swallow dips over them, the light moves, people are going about their business.
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