William Saroyan Quotes

"Future?" Homer said. He was a little embarrassed because all his life, from day to day, he had been busy mapping out a future, even if it was only a future for the next day. "Well," he said, "I don't know for sure, but I guess I'd like to be somebody some day."

Remember that in the midst of that which is most tragic there is always the comic and in the midst that which is most evil there is always much good.

There is a small area of land in Asia Minor that is called Armenia, but it is not so. It is not Armenia. It is a place. There are only Armenians, and they inhabit the earth, not Armenia, since there is no Armenia. There is no America and there is no England, and no France, and no Italy. There is only the earth.

If I have any desire at all, it is to show the brotherhood of man. This is a big statement and it sounds al little precious. Generally a man is ashamed to make such a statement. He is afraid sophisticated people will laugh at him. But I don't mind. I'm asking sophisticated people to laugh. That is what sophistication is for. I do not believe in races. I do not believe in governments. I see life as one life at one time, so many million simultaneously, all over the earth. Babies who have not yet been taught to speak any language are the only race of the earth, the race of man: all the rest is pretense, what we call civilization, hatred, fear, desire for strength... but a baby is a baby. And the way they cry, there you have the brotherhood of man, babies crying.

My birthplace was California, but I couldn't forget Armenia, so what is one's country? Is it land of the earth, in a specific place? Rivers there? Lakes? The sky there? The way the moon comes up there? And the sun? Is one's country the trees, the vineyards, the grass, the birds, the rocks, the hills and summer and winter? Is it the animal rhythm of the living there? The huts and houses, the streets of cities, the tables and chairs, and the drinking of tea and talking? Is it the peach ripening in summer heat on the bough? Is it the dead in the earth there?

What a lonely and silly thing it is to be an Armenian writer in America.

Writing is the hardest way of earning a living with the possible exception of wrestling alligators.

Morning is best when it begins with the last hours of night. ...Enough of culture's hours. I am a peasant. Enough of feasting. I want hunger. Enough of fat. I want muscle. Enough of pity. I want humor. Enough of vanity. I want pride.

Their singing wasn’t particularly good, but the feeling with which they sang was not bad at all.

When I began to wait to live I really began to wait to die.

Now, what is food? Why is food so important? Why do human beings need so much of it - three times a day, every day, year after year? Why do they live on food instead of on something else? Wouldn't it be better if human beings didn't need food at all? Wouldn't it be better if they could live on air, for instance? Get stronger and bigger by breathing sea air, or the air of the mountains, or the forests, or the meadows, or the vineyards and orchards, the wheat fields, the gardens all over the world? Wouldn't that be a better way for men to stay alive?
(spoken by 10-year-old Aram Saroyan)

Կարծում էի, որ մարդ երբեք լաց չի լինի, երբ մեծանա, չափահաս դառնա, բայց թվում է, որ հենց այդ ժամանակ է մարդը սկսում լաց լինել, որովհետև այդ ժամանակ է, որ նա սկսում է հասկանալ ամեն ինչ:

He's finding out, he's doing all right, he'll go to school but nobody's going to teach him anything.

I don't think my writing is sentimental, although it is a very sentimental thing to be a human being.

This is what drives a young writer out of his head, this feeling that nothing is being said.