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Wilfrid Sheed Quotes - Page 2

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Beware the fictionist writing his own life. Even candor becomes a strategy.

Beware the fictionist writing his own life. Even candor becomes a strategy.

Wilfrid Sheed
Writing, Strategy, Candor
Wilfrid Sheed (1978). “The good word & other words”, Dutton Adult

Mushy reviews are a breach of faith

Wilfrid Sheed
Reviews, Breach
Wilfrid Sheed (1990). “Essays in Disguise”, Alfred A. Knopf

It is possible that the malice of writers has been overrated (by myself among others). Reading their ruminations on their craft, one sees why this writer could not possibly like that one, would indeed consider him a menace. Literature is a battleground of conflicting faiths, and nobler passions than envy are involved.

Wilfrid Sheed
Reading, Passion, Envy
Wilfrid Sheed (1978). “The good word and other words”, Penguin (Non-Classics)

As things now stand, the office is a slightly meaner battleground than the home. Male bosses seem to dominate their women underlings as they would never dominate their wives.

Wilfrid Sheed
Home, Wife, Office
Wilfrid Sheed (1978). “The good word and other words”, Penguin (Non-Classics)

Every writer is a writer of the generation before.

Wilfrid Sheed
Generations

As you approach the presidency, no one seems worthy of it, since it wasn't designed for a human in the first place.

Wilfrid Sheed
Firsts, Worthy, Approach
Wilfrid Sheed (1978). “The good word & other words”, Dutton Adult

The 1930s - a Golden Age for American humor, mainly because everything else was going so badly. The wisecrack was the basic American sentence because there were so many things that could not be said any other way.

Wilfrid Sheed
Age, Golden, Way
Wilfrid Sheed (1978). “The good word & other words”, Dutton Adult

For Catholics before Vatican II, the land of the free was pre-eminently the land of Sister Says-except, of course, for Sister, for whom it was the land of Father Says.

Wilfrid Sheed
Father, Land, Catholic
Wilfrid sheed (1986). “FRANK MAISIE”, p.92, Simon and Schuster

The spiritual life becomes very simple when you're sick.

Wilfrid Sheed
Spiritual, Simple, Sick
Wilfrid Sheed (1999). “In Love with Daylight: A Memoir of Recovery”

Scott Fitzgerald is a sound you like to hear at certain times of the day, say at four in the afternoon and again late at night, and at other times it makes you slightly sick.

Wilfrid Sheed
Night, Sick, Scott Fitzgerald
Wilfrid Sheed (1978). “The good word & other words”, Dutton Adult

People talk about talent as though it were some neutral substance that can be applied to anything. But talent is narrow and only functions with a very few subjects, which it is up to the writer to find.

Wilfrid Sheed
People, Substance, Talent
Wilfrid Sheed (1978). “The good word & other words”, Dutton Adult

Of course, history is only a muddle of facts and a fuddle of professors, and anyone who thinks it is one clear voice saying "Arise, sir Knight" deserves a life sentence in Camelot.

Wilfrid Sheed
Thinking, Knights, Voice
"Essays in Disguise" by Wilfrid Sheed, Knopf, (p. 156), 1990.

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