Pearl S. Buck Quotes

American writer (1892–1973)

Pearl Sydenstricker Buck (born Pearl Comfort Sydenstricker; Chinese: 赛珍珠; Pinyin: Sài Zhēnzhū; 26 June 1892 – 6 March 1973), primarily known as Pearl S. Buck, was a prolific American writer. In 1938, she became the first American woman to win the Nobel Prize for Literature.

From: Wikiquote (CC BY-SA 4.0)

Pen Names: John Sedges

Birth Name: Pearl Comfort Sydenstricker

Native Name: Pearl Comfort Sydenstricker Buck Walsh

Alternative Names: Pearl Buck • Pearl Sydenstricker Buck • Pearl Sydenstricker • Sai Zhenzhu • Pearl Comfort Sydenstricker Buck • Pirl Bak

From Wikidata (CC0)

As for New York City, it is a place apart. There is not its match in any other country in the world.

Can such stiff and formal moldings as words capture the spirit-essence of love?

Inside myself is a place where I live all alone, and that's where I renew my springs that never dry up. ~Pearl Buck

Of course imagination is the beginning of creation. Without imagination there can be no creation.

Do not test the measure of his love for you by the way he expresses his body's heat. He is not thinking of you at those times. He is thinking of himself.

Our society must make it right and possible for old people not to fear the young or be deserted by them, for the test of a civilization is the way that it cares for its helpless members.

Hunger makes a thief of any man.

When foreigners come into a nation, the best way is to make them no longer foreign. That is to say, let us marry our young together and let there be children. War is costly, love is cheap.

A man is educated and turned out to work. But a woman is educated — and turned out to grass.

Omul prost se teme de cel deștept și îl urăște. Oricât de bun ar fi cel deștept, trebuie să priceapă că asta nu va cuceri afecțiunea unuia cu mai puțină minte decât el.

It is the highest reward when a writer hears when a book written in doubt and solitude, has reached a human heart with a deeper meaning than even the writer had been aware of, as she wrote. It is something extra, the unexpected return.

You must set forth and find the center of your interest. You are a creator, but you must find your interest and then dedicate yourself to that interest — not to the act of creativity. Merely to want to create will make it impossible for you to do so. You must find an interest greater than yourself — a love, perhaps — and then the power to create will set you on fire.

Well I know I am ugly and cannot be loved —

If life were known one moment ahead, how could it be endured?

"Well, and they must all starve if the plants starve." 'It was true that all their lives depended upon the earth' (Buck, 71).