Quotes from E.L. Doctorow

I feel such stillness, the stillness of listening to a story whose end I know. I am looking at times when people had a story to enact and the streets they walked upon were narrative passages. What kind of word is infrastructure ? It is a word that proves we have lost our city. Our streets are for transit. Our stories are disassembled, the skyscrapers crowding us scoff at the idea of a credible culture.

The theory for admitting accomplice testimony that is uncorroborated is that conspiracy is by its nature secretive and that only the parties to it can know it occurred. But in practice this means the accomplice's guilt is modified to the degree that he can convict the defendant.

if a good sign is so important you can just as soon make one up and fool yourself that way.

Therefore the radical wastes his opportunity if he seriously considers the issues of his trial. If he is found guilty it is the ruling power's decision that he cannot be tolerated. If he is found innocent it is the ruling power's decision that he need not be feared. The radical must not argue his innocence, for the trial is not of his making; he must argue his ideas.

Writing is a socially acceptable form of schizophrenia.

Writing is] like driving a car at night: you never see further than your headlights, but you can make the whole trip that way.

Writing is like driving at night in the fog. You can only see as far as your headlights, but you can make the whole trip that way.

There is music in words, and it can be heard you know, by thinking.

I am often asked the question How can the masses permit themselves to be exploited by the few. The answer is By being persuaded to identify with them.

Writing is an exploration. You start from nothing.

I am telling you what I know—words have music and if you are a musician you will write to hear them.

Planning to write is not writing. Outlining, researching, talking to people about what you're doing, none of that is writing. Writing is writing.

The difference between Socrates and Jesus is that no one had ever been put to death in Socrates' name. And that is because Socrates' ideas were never made law. Law, in whatever name, protects privilege.

It was evident to him that the world composed and recomposed itself constantly in an endless process of dissatisfaction.

Writers are not just people who sit down and write. They hazard themselves. Every time you compose a book your composition of yourself is at stake.

A novelist is a person who lives in other people's skins.

We are all good friends. Friendship is what endures. Shared ideals, respect for the whole character of a human being.

Someone dying asks if there is life after death. Yes, comes the answer, only not yours.

Because like all whores you value propriety. You are creature of capitalism, the ethics of which are so totally corrupt and hypocritical that your beauty is no more than the beauty of gold, which is to say false and cold and useless.

Writing is like driving a car at night. You can only see as far as your headlights, but you can make the whole trip that way.

Stories distribute the suffering so that it can be borne.

The writer isn't made in a vacuum. Writers are witnesses. The reason we need writers is because we need witnesses to this terrifying century.

I asked this question: How can I think about my brain when it's my brain doing the thinking? So is this brain pretending to be me thinking about it?

You're nothing more than a clever prostitute. You accepted the conditions in which you found yourself and you triumphed.