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William Saroyan Quotes

Dramatist

William Saroyan was an American playwright and novelist known for his humorous and satirical style. His works often explored social and human issues from the perspective of Armenian-American individuals.

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All Men World Ifs Writing People Knows Humans Littles Way Armenians Life Alive Art Race Earth Every Man Goodness Heart I Can Kids

Famous William Saroyan Quotes

“There is little pride in writers. They know they are human and shall some day die and be forgotten. Knowing all this a writer is gentle and kindly where another man is severe and unkind.”

Knows Men Humans Littles Dies Knowing Pride Forgotten Gentle Severe Another Man Unkind

Book:The Man with the Heart in the Highlands & Other Early Stories

Source: The Man with the Heart in the Highlands & Other Early Stories

“I don't think my writing is sentimental, although it is a very sentimental thing to be a human being.”

Thinking Writing Humans Human Beings Sentimental

Book:He flies through the air with the greatest of ease: a William Saroyan reader

Source: He flies through the air with the greatest of ease: a William Saroyan reader

“I love the bicycle. I always have. I can think of no sincere, decent human being, male or female, young or old, saintly or sinful, who can resist the bicycle.”

Thinking Humans I Can Young Human Beings Female Males Decent Sincere Bicycle

Book:He flies through the air with the greatest of ease: a William Saroyan reader

Source: He flies through the air with the greatest of ease: a William Saroyan reader

“The whole world and every human being in it is everybody's business.”

World Humans Whole Human Beings Whole World

Book:I used to believe I had forever, now I'm not so sure

Source: I used to believe I had forever, now I'm not so sure

“I became a writer because during several of the most important years of my life, writing seemed to me to be the most unreal, unattractive, and unecessary idea ever imposed upon the human race.”

Writing Years Humans Important Ideas Race Human Race Unreal Unattractive

Book:I used to believe I had forever, now I'm not so sure

Source: I used to believe I had forever, now I'm not so sure

“I never knew teachers are human beings like everybody else-- and better too!”

Humans Human Beings Teacher

Author:William Saroyan

“I am interested in madness. I believe it is the biggest thing in the human race, and the most constant. How do you take away from a man his madness without also taking away his identity? Are we sure it is desirable for a man's spirit not to be at war with itself, or that it is better to be serene and ready to go to dinner than to be excited and unwilling to stop for a cup of coffee, even?”

Men Believe Humans War Spirit I Believe Race Identity Ready Madness Constant Excited Dinner Coffee Cups Human Race Desirable Unwilling Serene Coffee Cup

Author:William Saroyan

“Human greatness is a rather difficult thing to account for, and more often than not one is mistaken in one's hunches about somebody one has met.”

Humans Difficult Greatness Mets Accounts Mistaken Difficult Things Hunches

Book:I used to believe I had forever, now I'm not so sure

Source: I used to believe I had forever, now I'm not so sure

“Kids are always the only future the human race has.”

Life Humans Kids Race Human Race

Author:William Saroyan

“All comedians are people who really deeply consider the human experience not only a dirty trick perpetrated by a totally meaningless procedure of accidents, but an unbearable ordeal every day, which can be made tolerable only by mockery in one form or another.”

People Humans Made Form Accidents Tricks Comedian Dirty Meaningless Human Experience Unbearable Procedures Mockery Tolerable Ordeals Really Deep

Author:William Saroyan

“Human memory works its own wheel, and stops where it will, entirely without reference to the last stop, and with no connection with the next.”

Humans Lasts Next Memories Connections Wheels

Author:William Saroyan

About the Author

Born: August 31, 1908
Died: May 18, 1981
Known for: Dramatist
Quotes: 180

Books & Sources

Places Where I've Done TimeRelated source material

I used to believe I had forever, now I'm not so sureRelated source material

He flies through the air with the greatest of ease: a William Saroyan readerRelated source material

Sons come and go, mothers hang in foreverRelated source material

The Time of Your LifeRelated source material

Madness in the FamilyRelated source material

My Name Is AramRelated source material

The Daring Young Man on the Flying Trapeze, and Other StoriesRelated source material

The New Saroyan Reader: A Connoisseur's Anthology of the Writings of William SaroyanRelated source material

The bicycle rider in Beverly HillsRelated source material

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