William H. Gass said this quote

“ Sing of disappointments more repeated than the batter of the sea, of lives embittered by resentments so ubiquitous the ocean’s salt seems thinly shaken, of letdowns local as the sofa where I copped my freshman’s feel, of failures as frequent as first love, first nights, last stands; do not warble of arms or adventurous deeds or shepherds playing on their private fifes, or of civil war or monarchies at swords; consider rather the slightly squinkered clerk, the soul which has become as shabby and soiled in its seat as worn-out underwear, a life lit like a lonely room and run like a laddered stocking. ”

Famous Quotes of William H. Gass

Famous quotes of William H. Gass from the classy quote

See all

Freud thought that a psychosis was a waking dream, and that poets were daydreamers too, but I wonder if the reverse is not as often true, and that madness is a fiction lived in like a rented house

~ William H. Gass

William H. Gass Madness Poetry Poets

It’s not the word made flesh we want in writing, in poetry and fiction, but the flesh made word

~ William H. Gass

William H. Gass Fiction Poetry Word Writing

For me, the short story is not a character sketch, a mouse trap, an epiphany, a slice of suburban life. It is the flowering of a symbol center. It is a poem grafted onto sturdier stock.

~ William H. Gass

William H. Gass Poetry Short Stories Short Story Symbols Writing

The true alchemists do not change lead into gold, they change the world into words.

~ William H. Gass

William H. Gass Alchemy Writing