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Quote by William Kittredge

“I had discovered a terrible vulnerability I myself which I think of not as cowardliness but as an ability to imagine too much.”

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William Kittredge

William Kittredge, born in 1932, is a renowned American writer known for his depiction of rural life in the American West. His works have won numerous literary awards and have had a profound impact on contemporary literature. more

“We tell stories to talk out the trouble in our lives, trouble otherwise so often so unspeakable. It is one of our main ways of making our lives sensible. Trying to live without stories can make us crazy. They help us recognize what we believe to be most valuable in the world, and help us identify what we hold demonic.”

World Way Trying Believe Helping Stories Our Lives Trouble Crazy Valuable Sensible Unspeakable Demonic

Author:William Kittredge

“They knew bullshit, and they knew about the ruling class; dying for a ruling class cause was almost always bullshit.”

Causes Class Dying Bullshit Ruling

Author:William Kittredge

“Our old pilgrims believed stories in which the West was a promise, a place where decent people could escape the wreckage of failed lives and start over. Come along, the dream whispers, and you can have another chance. We still listen to promises in the wind. This time, we think, we’ll get it right.”

People Thinking Stills Stories Dream Chance Wind Promise West Decent Starting Over Pilgrim Another Chance Wreckage

Author:William Kittredge

“Up there on Huckleberry Mountain, I couldn't sleep ... As the sky broke light over the peaks of Glacier, I found myself deeply moved by the view from our elevation - off west the lights of Montana, Hungry Horse, and Columbia Falls, and farmsteads along the northern edge of Flathead Lake, and back in the direction of sunrise the soft and misted valleys of the parklands, not an electric light showing: little enough to preserve for the wanderings of a great and sacred animal who can teach us, if nothing else, by his power and his dilemma, a little common humility.”

“Writing is a funny business. You sit in your room and listen to voices and write everything down. What kind of a profession is that?”

Writing Kind Voice Rooms Profession Your Room Funny Business

Author:William Kittredge

“We live in stories. What we are is stories. We do things because of what is called character, and our character is formed by the stories we learn to live in.”

Character Stories

Book:Who Owns the West?

Source: Who Owns the West?

“What I wanted was some dreamlike Frank Lloyd Wright bungalow where we could sit on the veranda forever and it would always be twilight in the temperate zones, in the most beautiful house.”

Wanted Beautiful House Forever Zone Frank Twilight

Author:William Kittredge

“It is a skill we learn early, the art of inventing stories to explain away the fearful scared strangeness of the world. Storytelling and make-believe, like war and agriculture, are among the arts of self-defense, and all of them are ways of enclosing otherness and claiming ownership.”

World Way Believe Art War Self Stories Skills Scared Defense Storytelling Fearful Ownership Agriculture Inventing Self Defense Make Believe Strangeness Otherness Inventing Stories

Book:Owning It All: Essays

Source: Owning It All: Essays

“I wonder what my father saw in his most secret sight of the right life. It's my guess he wanted to live out his life surrounded by friends and children and fertile fields of his own designing. I tihnk he wanted to die believing he had been in one the creation of a good sweet place. Those old pilgrims believed stories in which the West was a promise, a far away place where decent people could escape the wreckage of the old world and start over. Come to me, the dream whispers, and you can have one more chance.”

“We challenge our kids to be close around the 2:00 mark. If we can do that we can win games.”

Ifs Kids Games Winning Can Do Challenges Mark

Author:Amy Stephens

Quote by William Kittredge

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