Saul Bellow

A great deal of intelligence can be invested in ignorance when the need for illusion is deep.

Everybody needs his memories. They keep the wolf of insignificance from the door.

California is like an artificial limb the rest of the country doesn't really need. You can quote me on that.

Whoever wants to reach a distant goal must take small steps.

A good novel is worth more than the best scientific study.

There are evils that have the ability to survive identification and go on for ever... money, for instance, or war.

Any artist should be grateful for a naive grace which puts him beyond the need to reason elaborately.

All a writer has to do to get a woman is to say he's a writer. It's an aphrodisiac.

No realistic, sane person goes around Chicago without protection.

Goodness is achieved not in a vacuum, but in the company of other men, attended by love.

In expressing love we belong among the undeveloped countries.

A man is only as good as what he loves.