Quotessence
Home / Authors / Nat Hentoff
Nat Hentoff

Nat Hentoff Quotes

Historian

Filter quotes by topic

AllPeopleBarackBillsKnowsThinkingSaidYearsIfsBookKind

Famous Nat Hentoff Quotes

“At the time there was a hospital strike in New York and the Catholic hospitals were part of a general consortium, and the head of the consortium had decided that they were finally going to replace some of the striking workers. And I hear [John] O'Connor yelling, `Over my dead body will you replace any of those workers! They have a right to strike.' So I figured, `This is interesting.'”

BodyInterestingNew YorkDecidedCatholicWorkersStrikesHospitalsYelling
Author:Nat Hentoff
Create image

“My favorite story about O'Connor - one of them - is I was in Toronto at a pro-life conference.I had a session before he was to come on,I thought very moderately - that not have unwanted abortions was to have much more research on contraception. Two true-faith people came out of the audience, wrested the microphone out of my hand and said, `That is im - inappropriate, improper. Pro-lifers do not believe in contraception.' [John] O'Connor's watching this said,`I want to tell you I'm delighted that Nat is not a member of the Catholic Church. We have enough trouble as it is.'”

PeopleWantBelieveSaidTwoEnoughStoriesHandsChurchAudienceTroubleMembersResearchCatholicMy FavoriteAbortionConferencesSessionDelightedCatholic ChurchPro LifeInappropriateMicrophonesTorontoUnwantedContraceptionTrue Faith
Author:Nat Hentoff
Create image

“The book that really, really shaped my politics and has forever is Arthur Koestler's "Darkness at Noon," which is a novel based on terrible fact about what it was like in Russia during Stalin's time when people actually believed that to get to the point where the Proletariat would triumph, anything that was necessary to be done should be done; the means didn't count.”

PeopleShouldMeanBookDoneFactsDarknessNovelForeverTerribleRussiaTriumphNoonArthurProletariatDarkness At Noon
Author:Nat Hentoff
Create image

“Sandra Day O'Connor - once she said that there are - there were no public schools in America until the 18th century, and she overlooked my alma mater because we started - I say we - in 1635. And among the people who went there - and they're on - the walls in the auditorium, the names are: Ralph Waldo Emerson and Cotton Mather, Benjamin Franklin, except he split when he was 10 years old to go to work.”

PeopleYearsSaidSchoolAmericaNamesCenturyWallSplitsPublic SchoolFranklinCottonOverlooked18th CenturyAuditoriumsSandra Day O ConnorAlma MaterWaldo EmersonRalph Waldo
Author:Nat Hentoff
Create image

“It was a competitive examination [in Boston Latin School]. Poor kids, Brahmans, middle-class kids. The masters, as the teachers were called, didn't give a damn about - how we felt, what was - things like at home. I mean, this goes against the current grain. All they thought about was: `You're here. You made the exam. You can do the work. And if you can't, we'll throw you out.'”

IfsGivingMeanMadeHomeKidsSchoolFeltCan DoPoorClassTeacherMiddleMastersCurrentsDamnMiddle ClassLatinGrainBostonExaminationExam
Author:Nat Hentoff
Create image

“I was very much against the Vietnam War, and Max Askeli was visiting Lyndon Johnson in the White House cheering him on, writing editorials. And in The Voice one day I once referred to him as Commander Askeli. And I called in to The Reporter to go over the galleys of a music piece I had written, and the editor whispered to me, `It's not gonna run. You're not gonna run. Max Askeli has fired you because of what you said about him.'”

WritingSaidWarRunningHouseVoiceWhitePiecesWrittenOne DayWhite HouseEditorsCheerVietnamReportersJohnsonCommandersVietnam WarMaxVisitingEditorials
Author:Nat Hentoff
Create image

“I've - that I regret. That was stupid and ignorant on my part. I went to a party as a guest of a friend of mine, a lawyer. And he had a client who I didn't know, except - maybe I'm pretending I didn't know, but he was a big investor in The New Yorker. And as I found out later in a book about The New Yorker, this guy was very unhappy about [Bill] Shawn.He thought Shawn was spending out - spending too much money on writers.”

KnowsBookBigsGuyFoundPartyToo MuchStupidMinesRegretBillsSpendingLawyerUnhappyIgnorantPretendingInvestorsGuestsClientsThis GuyNew YorkersI Regret
Author:Nat Hentoff
Create image

“I told [a big investor in The New Yorker] - I was complaining the way writers complain.I said`[Bill Shawn] pays very well, but a lot of my pieces don't get in,' and that was true of most of the writers there.But he pays you for them, that was very nice of him. This guy didn't think it was very nice. He figured, `Oh, my God, that's more of my investment gone,' and paying money to writers for not printing them. That became, apparently, one of his weapons against Shawn when he - in the corporate skirmishes that went on. It was a bad mistake on my part.”

ThinkingWayWellsSaidBigsGuyPayMistakeGonePiecesNiceWeaponsBillsInvestmentComplainingCorporateInvestorsThis GuyVery NiceNew YorkersPrintingBad Mistake
Author:Nat Hentoff
Create image

“After [Bill Shawn] was fired, I was going to the YMHA [Young Men's Hebrew Association] on the Upper East Side to do a talk on free speech.I went into a coffee shop to get a piece of pie and a coffee, and I was reading a paper and I hear a voice. And it was -it was not a voice I was familiar with, but I looked across the table and I saw Lilian Ross.And sitting next to her was William Shawn - no tie, needed a shave. His voice was kind of coarse and rather loud. He wasn't drunk, but I was just stunned.”

MenKindYoungReadingNextSidesVoiceSawsPiecesNeededSpeechPaperSittingTablesBillsEastCoffeeFamiliarDrunkLoudTiesYoung ManShopsAssociationFree SpeechPieHebrewStunnedCoarseCoffee ShopEast SideUpper East Side
Author:Nat Hentoff
Create image