Gertrude Stein Quotes

American author (1874–1946)

Gertrude Stein (3 February 1874 – 27 July 1946) was an American expatriate writer, poet, feminist, and playwright, who lived most of her life in Europe. She is remembered for her "flow-of-thought" and sometimes "cyclical" or "circular" manner of expressing things.

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Alternative Names: Gertruda Stein • Gertruda Staĭn

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She always says she dislikes the abnormal, it is so obvious. She says the normal is so much more simply complicated and interesting.

There ain't no answer.
There ain't gonna be any answer.
There never has been an answer.
There's your answer.

Think of anything, of cowboys, of movies, of detective stories, of anybody who goes anywhere or stays at home and is an American and you will realize that it is something strictly American to conceive a space that is filled with moving.

The painter does not conceive himself as existing in himself, he conceives himself as a reflection of the objects he has put into his pictures and he lives in the reflections of his pictures, a writer, a serious writer, conceives himself as existing by and in himself, he does not at all live in the reflection of his books, to write he must first of all exist in himself, but for a painter to be able to paint, the painting must first of all be done.

It is funny that men who are supposed to be scientific cannot get themselves to realize the basic principle of physics, that action and reaction are equal and opposite, that when you persecute people you always rouse them to be strong and stronger.

I have always noticed that in portraits of really great writers the mouth is always firmly closed.

One must dare to be happy.