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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

“The object of art is not to make salable pictures. It is to save yourself. The fools who write articles about me think that one morning I suddenly decided to write and began to produce masterpieces. There is no special trick about writing or painting either. I wrote constantly for 15 years before I produced anything with any solidity to it.... The thing of course, is to make yourself alive. Most people remain all of their lives in a stupor. The point of being an artist is that you may live.... You won't arrive. It is an endless search.”

Life Writing Art Practice Living Meaning Artists

Author:Sherwood Anderson

“The fools who write articles about me think that one morning I suddenly decided to write and began to produce masterpieces. There is no special trick about writing, or painting either. I wrote constantly for 15 years before I produced anything with any solidity to it.”

Thinking Writing Years Morning Special Produce Painting Fool Decided Experience Tricks Articles Masterpiece Solidity

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

“I am constantly amazed at how little painters know about painting, writers about writing, merchants about business, manufacturers about manufacturing. Most men just drift.”

Knows Men Writing Littles Knowledge Painting Painter Amazed Manufacturing Merchants

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

“If you are to become a writer you'll have to stop fooling with words.”

Ifs Writing

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)

“I think the whole glory of writing lies in the fact that it forces us out of ourselves and into the lives of others.”

Thinking Writing Whole Facts Lying Force Glory Lives Of Others

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

“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.”

“I have seldom written a story, long or short, that I did not have to write and rewrite. There are single stories of mine that have taken me ten or twelve years to get written.”

Writing Years Long Stories Taken Written Mines Ten Crafts Twelve

Book:THE

Source: THE

“When a man publishes a book, there are so many stupid things said that he declares he'll never do it again. The praise is almost always worse than the criticism.”

Men Writing Said Book Stupid Criticism Praise Publish Stupid Things

Author:Sherwood Anderson

“I feel that I am writing out of a full life. I am a rich man, rich in men known, in adventures had. I am rich with living.”

Men Feels Writing Wealth Money Known Rich Adventure Rich Man Full Life

Book:Sherwood Anderson's memoirs: a critical edition

Source: Sherwood Anderson's memoirs: a critical edition

“If I can write everything out plainly, perhaps I will myself understand better what has happened.”

Ifs Writing I Can Happened

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)

“The writing of words can lead to all sorts of absurdities.”

Writing Absurdity

Book:Sherwood Anderson's memoirs: a critical edition

Source: Sherwood Anderson's memoirs: a critical edition