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Quote by Richard Yates

“In avoiding specific goals he had avoided specific limitations. For the time being the world, life itself, could be his chosen field.”

Quote by Richard Yates

Author

Richard Yates
Richard Yates

Richard Yates (1926-1992) was an American novelist renowned for his unflinching portrayals of suburban American life and the disillusionment of the post-war middle class. His debut novel "Revolutionary Road" (1961) is now considered a classic of American literature. A World War II veteran, Yates wrote with raw honesty about the broken American Dream and the quiet desperation of ordinary lives. Though underappreciated during his lifetime, his work influenced generations of writers and gained recognition after his death. more

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“Look... we're getting to be old men, and we've spent our lives looking for the weaknesses in one another's systems. I can see through Eastern values just as you can see through our Western ones. Both of us, I am sure, have experienced ad nauseam the technical satisfactions of this wretched war. But now your own side is going to shoot you. Don't you think it's time to recognise that there is as little worth on your side as there is on mine?”

“But I have had enough melodrama in this life, and would willingly give my five senses if they could ensure us our present peace and security. Happiness is not a possession to be prized, it is a quality of thought, a state of mind. Of course we have our moments of depression; but there are other moments too, when time, unmeasured by the clock, runs on into eternity and, catching his smile, I know we are together, we march in unison, no flash of thought or opinion makes a barrier between us.”

“If half an onion is black with rot, it is a rotten onion. A man is good or he is evil. (Melisandre of Asshai)”