Quotes from William Saroyan

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.

You know the look: genius gone to pot, and ready to join the Communist Party

My uncle Khosrove became very irritated and shouted, It's no harm. What is the loss of a horse? Haven't we all lost the homeland? What is this crying over a horse?

I thought a fellow would never cry when he got to be grown up, but it seems as if that's when a fellow starts, because that's when a fellow starts finding out about things.

Vy ale nejste mrtvá, Lauro. Ale ano, jdem. Lauro! vykÃ…â"¢íkl Tracy. Pro boha živého, Lauro, já vás miluju. Promi?te, omlouvala se Laura. Promi?te, ale myslím, že budu radÅ¡i mrtvá.

When I think of the good things still to be written I am glad, for there is no end to them, and I know I myself shall write some of them.

The person of a man may go, but the best part of him stays. It stays forever.

At the corner she looked suddenly far away and saw the street go straight out to the sky. She looked up to the sky and saw it go everywhere, and my, she thought, how large it is, what a large place it is. What a large world. So many different people, so many different places, close by and far away, people everywhere, places everywhere. What a fine place to be in.

Tú hablas sin palabras. Todos estamos siempre hablando sin palabras. —¿Y para qué valen las palabras, entonces? —No valen para mucho, casi nunca. La mayor parte de las veces, únicamente para ocultar aquello que realmente quieres decir, o algo que quieres saber.

All I can say is that there is indeed a crisis here. We cannot speak to one another in a meaningful way, every one of us is a leader, a general of the army, a king, a president, the greatest thinker of all time, and so on and so forth. This is the curse of the Armenian race.

Of the unchanging things, the town in which you first saw the light is one of the most unchanging. It is always a place of monotony but at the same time, as you grow, change, go away, remember, return, and go away again, it is one of the most inexhaustibly rich places. And yet what it is is so nearly nothing, except for the dull, drab, lonely, lost objects of it, that you never know, each time you return to it, what it is that holds you so strongly to it.

Mi sueño es agitado. Mis nervios están desquiciados. Mi piel está seca. Mi cabello cae. Mis ojos están apagados. Las uñas de mis manos y mis pies están quebradizas. Estoy envejeciendo. Comienzo a no encontrar gusto en cosa alguna. Empiezo a aburrirme de las cosas buenas, como me aburro de las malas. Estoy muriendo. Estoy muriendo y no tengo hijos.

The person of a man may leave—or be taken away—but the best part of a good man stays. It stays forever. Love is immortal and makes all things immortal. But hate dies every minute.

I don't expect you to understand anything I'm telling you. But I know you will remember this—that nothing good ever ends. If it did, there would be no people in the world—no life at all, anywhere. And the world is full of people and full of wonderful life.

De qué serviría presentar objeciones? Un huracán es un acto de Dios. Quizá la guerra también lo sea... todavía no lo sé. Por ahora mi opinión es que la guerra es un acto de los hombres. No me gusta. La odio con todas mis fuerzas. Pero cuando su furia me arrastra, no veo que pueda hacer nada... excepto desear que pueda salir con vida de ella, y te aseguro que es lo que estoy esperando.

Singers are the happiest horses' asses.

El hombre es un documento, objeto de poemas malos.

I thought a fellow would never cry when he got to be a grown up, but it seems as if that's when a fellow starts, because that's when a fellow starts finding out things.

Good people are good because they've come to wisdom through failure. We get very little wisdom from success, you know…

En todo lo que hace el hombre hay una imitación, y en el hecho de escapar a la soledad, la imitación resulta estridente.

Try to learn to breathe deeply, really to taste food when you eat, and when you sleep, really to sleep. Try as much as possible to be wholly alive with all your might, and when you laugh, laugh like hell. And when you get angry, get good and angry. Try to be alive. You will be dead soon enough.

If the truth were known, he was half starved, and yet there was still no end of books he ought to read before he died.

ednoho záÃ…â"¢ijového dne si uvÄ›domil, že už se definitivne musí rozhodnout. Pro jedno nebo pro druhé. Bu? z?stat a j?šte hloubÄ›ji upadnout do tísnivé ne?innosti a zoufalství, anebo si najít cestu, která vede ke svÄ›tu tam venku...

Chci sou?asnÄ› obývat malé, bezvýznamné tÄ›lo a ohromný nezbadatelný vesmír. Chci si odžít svuj nezbadatelný ?as a chci se pokusit žít v??ne. Chci jíst a spát a pracovat a založit si rodinu a umÃ…â"¢ít, ale zárove? nechci být nikdy víc tÄ›lem nežli duchem.