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William Faulkner

William Faulkner Quotes

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Famous William Faulkner Quotes

“Get it down. Take chances. It may be bad, but that's the only way you can do anything really good.”

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Author:William Faulkner
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“We must be free not because we claim freedom, but because we practice it.”

ChoicesFreedomHealingLibertyPracticeClaimsIndependencePositivityPatrioticFourthTeensDeep Thought4th Of JulyJulyFreedom And LibertyFreedom LibertyFreedom Of ChoiceIndependence DayAmerican PatrioticAmerican PatriotismCaste SystemIndependence Day PatrioticJuly 4th 1776Patriotism In AmericaUsa PatrioticIndependence And FreedomHappy Independence Day Usa4th Of July InspirationalHappy Independence DayFourth Of July Inspirational4th Of July WishesInspiring Independence DayUs Independence DayHappy 4th Of JulyInspirational FreedomFunny 4th Of JulyPatriotism And FreedomAmerican Independence DayProud To Be An American
Book:Essays, Speeches & Public Letters
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“...I would think how words go straight up in a thin line, quick and harmless, and how terribly doing goes along the earth, clinging to it, so that after a while the two lines are too far apart for the same person to straddle from one to the other; and that sin and love and fear are just sounds that people who never sinned nor loved nor feared have for what they never had and cannot have until they forget the words.”

PeopleThinkingPersonsTwoEarthSoundLinesSinForgetAnd LoveClingingStraight UpLove And FearSin And Love
Book:Novels, 1930-1935
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“No one is without Christianity, if we agree on what we mean by that word. It is every individual's individual code of behavior by means of which he makes himself a better human being than his nature wants to be, if he followed his nature only. Whatever its symbol - cross or crescent or whatever - that symbol is man's reminder of his duty inside the human race.”

IfsMenWantHumansMeanIndividualHuman BeingsRaceChristianityDutyBehaviorCrossesAgreeSymbolsCodeHuman RaceRemindersCrescent
Author:William Faulkner
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“He thought that it was loneliness which he was trying to escape and not himself. But the street ran on: catlike, one place was the same as another to him. But in none of them could he be quiet. But the street ran on in its moods and phases, always empty: he might have seen himself as in numberless avatars, in silence, doomed with motion, driven by the courage of flagged and spurred despair; by the despair of courage whose opportunities had to be flagged and spurred.”

TryingMightOpportunitySilenceStreetsLonelinessQuietDespairEmptyDrivenMoodRanPhasesDoomed
Book:Novels, 1930-1935
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“When something is new and hard and bright, there ought to be something a little better for it than just being safe, since the safe things are just the things that folks have been doing so long they have worn the edges off and there's nothing to the doing of them that leaves a man to say, That was not done before and it cannot be done again.”

MenLittlesLongHas BeensHardDoneOughtSafeFolksEdgesWornJust Being
Book:William Faulkner, Eugene O'Neill [and] John Steinbeck
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“Let the writer take up surgery or bricklaying if he is interested in technique. There is no mechanical way to get the writing done, no shortcut. The young writer would be a fool to follow a theory. Teach yourself by your own mistakes; people learn only by error. The good artist believes that nobody is good enough to give him advice. He has supreme vanity. No matter how much he admires the old writer, he wants to beat him.”

PeopleIfsWayWantGivingWritingBelieveMatterDoneEnoughWould BeYoungArtistMistakeTeachAdviceTheoryFoolBeatsErrorsTechniqueSupremeAdmireVanityGood EnoughSurgeryWriting AdviceShortcutsYoung WritersGood ArtistBricklaying
Author:William Faulkner
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“Because there is something in the touch of flesh with flesh which abrogates, cuts sharp and straight across the devious intricate channels of decorous ordering, which enemies as well as lovers know because it makes them both:---touch and touch of that which is the citadel of the central I-Am's private own: not spirit, soul; the liquorish and ungirdled mind is anyone's to take in any any darkened hallway of this earthly tenement. But let flesh touch with flesh, and watch the fall of all the eggshell shibboleth of caste and color too.”

KnowsMindWellsSoulSpiritFallEnemyWatchesCuttingColorLoversFleshIntricateCastesHallwaysDeviousCitadelsEggshellsTenements
Author:William Faulkner
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“The writer's only responsibility is to his art. He will be completely ruthless if he is a good one. He has a dream. It anguishes him so much he must get rid of it. He has no peace until then. Everything goes by the board: honor, pride, decency, security, happiness, all, to get the book written. If a writer has to rob his mother, he will not hesitate; the 'Ode on a Grecian Urn' is worth any number of old ladies.”

IfsArtBookDreamMotherNumbersResponsibilityWrittenSecurityPrideHonorMotherhoodBoardsAnguishDecencyRuthlessOld LadyOdes
Author:William Faulkner
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“Sometimes I aint so sho who's got ere a right to say when a man is crazy and when he aint. Sometimes I think it aint none of us pure crazy and aint none of us pure sane until the balance of us talks him that-a-way. It's like it aint so much what a fellow does, but it's the way the majority of folks is looking at him when he does it.”

ThinkingMenWayDoeSometimesCrazyBalancePureFellowsMajorityFolksSane
Book:Faulkner's county: tales of Yoknapatawpha county
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“I could smell the curves of the river beyond the dusk and I saw the last light supine and tranquil upon tideflats like pieces of broken mirror, then beyond them lights began in the pale clear air, trembling a little like butterflies hovering a long way off.”

WayLittlesLongLightLastsClearSawsPiecesAirBrokenRiversMirrorsSmellButterflyPaleCurvesLong WayTremblingTranquilDuskHoveringLike A Butterfly
Book:The Sound and the Fury (Third International Edition) (Norton Critical Editions)
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“The poet's, the writer's, duty is to write about these things. It is his privilege to help man endure by lifting his heart, by reminding him of the courage and honor and hope and pride and compassion and pity and sacrifice which have been the glory of his past. The poet's voice need not merely be the record of man, it can be one of the props, the pillars to help him endure and prevail.”

MenNeedsWritingHeartHas BeensHelpingPastHopeVoiceCompassionRecordsSacrificePoetDutyPrideHonorGloryEndurePrivilegePityLiftingPillarsRemindingProps
Author:William Faulkner
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