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Sherwood Anderson Quotes

Novelist

American novelist known for his profound insights into the lives of the American middle class. Anderson's works often focus on the inner world and social status of ordinary people, and his style is concise and direct, which has had a profound impact on American literature.

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All Men People Knows Littles Thinking Writing Ifs Art Life Mean World Long Made Moments Tree Trying Want Apples Father Feels

Famous Sherwood Anderson Quotes

“Draw things that have some meaning to you. An apple, what does it mean? The object drawn doesn't matter so much. It's what you feel about it, what it means to you. A masterpiece could be made of a dish of turnips.”

Feels Mean Doe Made Matter Objects Draws Apples Dishes Masterpiece Turnips

Book:Letters: selected and edited with an introd. and notes by Howard Mumford Jones, in association with Walter B. Rideout

Source: Letters: selected and edited with an introd. and notes by Howard Mumford Jones, in association with Walter B. Rideout

“Father was made for romance. For him there was no such thing as a fact.”

Made Facts Romance Father

Book:A Story Teller's Story: The Tale of an American Writer's Journey Through His Own Imaginative World and Through the World of Facts, with Many of His Experiences and Impressions Among Other Writers--told in Many Notes--in Four Books--and an Epilogue

Source: A Story Teller's Story: The Tale of an American Writer's Journey Through His Own Imaginative World and Through the World of Facts, with Many of His Experiences and Impressions Among Other Writers--told in Many Notes--in Four Books--and an Epilogue

“From the place by the railing at the edge of the tracks on the summer evening I return across the city to my own room. I am vividly aware of my own life that escaped the winter on the boat. How many such lives I have lived. Then I only made a dollar and a half a day and now I sometimes make more than that in a few minutes. How wonderful to be able to write words. ... Again I begin the endless game of reconstructing my own life, jerking it out of the shell that dies, striving to breathe into it beauty and meaning. ... I wonder why my life, why all lives, are not more beautiful.”

“In the beginning when the world was young there were a great many thoughts but no such thing as truth. Man made the truths himself and each truth was a composite of a great many vague thoughts. All about in the world were truths and they were all beautiful.”

People Men World Made Moments Young Falsehood Vague Grotesque Composites

Author:Sherwood Anderson

“Love is like a wind stirring the grass beneath trees on a black night,' he had said. 'You must not try to make love definite. It is the divine accident of life. If you try to be definite and sure about it and to live beneath the trees, where soft night winds blow, the long hot day of disappointment comes swiftly and the gritty dust from passing wagons gathers upon lips inflamed and made tender by kisses.”

Source: Winesburg, Ohio

“I know about her, although she has never crossed my path," he said softly. "I know about her struggles and her defeats. It is because of her defeats that she is to me the lovely one. Out of her defeats she has been born a new quality in woman. I have a name for it. I call it Tandy. I made up the name when I was a true dreamer and before my body became vile. It is the quality of being strong to be loved. It is something men need from women and that they do not get.”

Knows Men Needs Has Beens Made Said Body Names Strong Born Quality Struggle Path Defeat Lovely Dreamer

Book:Sherwood Anderson: Collected Stories: Winesburg, Ohio / The Triumph of the Egg / Horses and Men / Death in the Woods / Uncollected Stories (Library of America #235)

Source: Sherwood Anderson: Collected Stories: Winesburg, Ohio / The Triumph of the Egg / Horses and Men / Death in the Woods / Uncollected Stories (Library of America #235)