When audiences come to see us authors lecture, it is largely in the hope that we’ll be funnier to look at than to read.
SINCLAIR LEWISGood Lord, I don’t know what ‘rights’ a man has! And I don’t know the solution of boredom. If I did, I’d be the one philosopher that had the cure for living. But I do know that about ten times as many people find their lives dull, and unnecessarily dull.
More Sinclair Lewis Quotes
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Writers kid themselves-about themselves and other people. Take the talk about writing methods.
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Intellectually I know that America is no better than any other country.
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Under a tyranny, most friends are a liability. One quarter of them turn “reasonable” and become your enemies.
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Fortune has dealt with me rather too well. I have known little struggle, not much poverty, many generosities.
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My objection to the church isn’t that the preachers are cruel, hypocritical, actually wicked, though some of them are that, too .
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To live in Carlsbad is seemly and to loaf at San Remo healing to the soul, but to get from Carlsbad to San Remo is of the devil.
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I’ve heard of their curing syphilis by giving the patient malaria, but I’ve never heard of their curing malaria by giving the patient syphilis.
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Advertising is a valuable economic factor because it is the cheapest way of selling goods, particularly if the goods are worthless.
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What are these unheard of sins you condemn so much – and like so well?
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Men die, but the plutocracy is immortal; and it is necessary that fresh generations should be trained to its service.
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Writing is just work-there’s no secret. If you dictate or use a pen or type or write with your toes-it’s still just work.
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It is the irritation of getting tickets, packing, finding trains, lying in bouncing berths, washing without water, digging out passports, and fighting through customs.
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Winter is not a season in the North Middlewest; it is an industry.
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The cocktail filled him with a whirling exhilaration behind which he was aware of devastating desires-to rush places in fast motors, to kiss girls, to sing, to be witty. … He perceived that he had gifts of profligacy which had been neglected. -chapter 8
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In other countries, art and literature are left to a lot of shabby bums living in attics and feeding on booze and spaghetti, but in America the successful writer or picture-painter is indistinguishable from any other decent businessman.
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