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William Faulkner Quotes - Page 3

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Always dream and shoot higher than you know you can do.

Always dream and shoot higher than you know you can do.

William Faulkner
Dream, Positive Thinking, Excellence
"William Faulkner, The Art of Fiction No. 12". Interview with Jean Stein, www.theparisreview.org. 1956.

An artist is a creature driven by demons. He don't know why they choose him and he's usually too busy to wonder why.

William Faulkner
Inspiring, Art, Wonder
"William Faulkner, The Art of Fiction No. 12". Interview with Jean Stein, www.theparisreview.org. 1956.

At one time I thought the most important thing was talent. I think now that the young man must possess or teach himself, training himself, in infinite patience, which is to try and to try until it comes right. He must train himself in ruthless intolerance-that is to throw away anything that is false no matter how much he might love that page or that paragraph. The most important thing is insight, that is to be-curiosity-to wonder, to mull, and to muse why it is that man does what he does, and if you have that, then I don't think the talent makes much difference, whether you've got it or not.

William Faulkner
Writing, Thinking, Men

Civilization begins with distillation

William Faulkner
Hipster, Civilization, Alcohol

Writing a first draft is like trying to build a house in a strong wind.

William Faulkner
Strong, Writing, Wind

She was bored. She loved, had capacity to love, for love, to give and accept love. Only she tried twice and failed twice to find somebody not just strong enough to deserve it, earn it, match it, but even brave enough to accept it.

William Faulkner
Strong, Capacity To Love, Giving
William Faulkner (1999). “Novels, 1957-1962”

Success is feminine and like a woman, if you cringe before her, she will override you

William Faulkner
Feminine, Ifs, Cringe
1956 Interview in Paris Review, Spring.

It's not when you realize that nothing can help you — religion, pride, anything — it's when you realize that you don't need any aid.

William Faulkner
Pride, Religion, Needs
"The Sound And The Fury".

The only thing worth writing about is the human heart in conflict with itself

William Faulkner
Heart, Writing, Conflict

There are some things for which three words are three too many, and three thousand words that many words too less.

William Faulkner
Three, Thousand, Three Words
William Faulkner (1951). “Absalom, Absalom!”

Don't be 'a writer'. Be writing.

William Faulkner
Writing

No battle is ever won ... victory is an illusion of philosophers and fools.

William Faulkner
Victory, Battle, Fool
"The Sound and the Fury". Third International Edition,

My own experience has been that the tools I need for my trade are paper, tobacco, food, and a little whisky.

William Faulkner
Drinking, Writing, Scotch Whisky
"William Faulkner, The Art of Fiction No. 12". Interview with Jean Stein, www.theparisreview.org. 1956.

The last sound on the worthless earth will be two human beings trying to launch a homemade spaceship and already quarreling about where they are going next.

William Faulkner
Space, Two, Trying
1959 Speech to UNESCO Commission, in the NewYork Times, 3 Oct.

Nothing can destroy the good writer. The only thing that can alter the good writer is death. Good ones don't have time to bother with success or getting rich.

William Faulkner
Rich, Get Rich, Bother

No one is without Christianity, if we agree on what we mean by that word. It is every individual's individual code of behavior by means of which he makes himself a better human being than his nature wants to be, if he followed his nature only. Whatever its symbol - cross or crescent or whatever - that symbol is man's reminder of his duty inside the human race.

William Faulkner
Mean, Men, Race
"William Faulkner, The Art of Fiction No. 12". Interview with Jean Stein, www.theparisreview.org. 1956.

War and drink are the two things man is never too poor to buy.

William Faulkner
Funny, War, Men
William Faulkner (2011). “A Fable”, p.26, Vintage

I don't want money badly enough to work for it.

William Faulkner
Want, Enough
"William Faulkner, The Art of Fiction No. 12". Interview with Jean Stein, www.theparisreview.org. 1956.

Time is a fluid condition which has no existence except in the momentary avatars of individual people. There is no such thing as was - only is.

William Faulkner
Time, People, Individual
"William Faulkner, The Art of Fiction No. 12". Interview with Jean Stein, www.theparisreview.org. 1956.

The most important thing is insight, that is to be - curious - to wonder, to mull, and to muse why it is that man does what he does.

William Faulkner
Science, Technology, Men

Believe that man will not merely endure; he will prevail.

William Faulkner
Inspirational, Motivational, Positive
Nobel Prize acceptance speech, Stockholm, 10 Dec. 1950

I could smell the curves of the river beyond the dusk and I saw the last light supine and tranquil upon tideflats like pieces of broken mirror, then beyond them lights began in the pale clear air, trembling a little like butterflies hovering a long way off.

William Faulkner
Butterfly, Light, Air
William Faulkner (2016). “The Sound and the Fury (Third International Edition) (Norton Critical Editions)”, p.90, W. W. Norton & Company

a fellow is more afraid of the trouble he might have than he ever is of the trouble he's already got. He'll cling to trouble he's used to before he'll risk a change. Yes. A man will talk about how he'd like to escape from living folks. But it's the dead folks that do him the damage. It's the dead ones that lay quiet in one place and dont try to hold him, that he cant escape from.

William Faulkner
Men, Risk, Trying
William Faulkner (1985). “Light in August”, Vintage

A bus station is where a bus stops. A train station is where a train stops. On my desk, I have a work station….

William Faulkner
Bus Stops, Logical, Desks

Fear is the most damnable, damaging thing to human personality in the whole world.

William Faulkner
Fear, Personality, World

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