William Saroyan Quotes

A play is a world, with its own inhabitants and its own laws and its values.

Art comes from the world, belongs to it, can never escape from it.

It is better to be a good human being than to be a bad one. It is just naturally better.

I believe in my work and am eager for others to know about it.

Nothing has ever been more sure-fire than truth and integrity.

There is only good and bad art.

I believe that time, with its infinite understanding, will one day forgive me.

Go ahead. Fire your feeble guns. You won't kill anything. There will always be poets in the world.

I have made a fiasco of my life, but I have had the right material to work with.

I am deeply opposed to violence in all its forms, and yet I myself am violent in spirit, in my quarrel with the unbeatable: myself, my daemon, God, the human race, the world, time, pain, disorder, disgrace and death.

Poetry must be read to be poetry. It may be that one reader is all that I deserve. If this is so, I want that reader to be you.

The purpose of writing is both to keep up with life and to run ahead of it. I am little comfort to myself, although I am the only comfort I have, excepting perhaps streets, clouds, the sun, the faces and voices of kids and the aged, and similar accidents of beauty, innocence, truth and loneliness.

The purpose of my life is to put off dying as long as possible.

The business of polishing my shoes satisfies my soul.

My superficial manners stink and my profound manners are almost as bad.