135 Quotes by Donald Barthelme

The first thing I did was make a mistake. I thought I had understood capitalism, but what I had done was assume an attitude -melancholy sadness- toward it.

They were heading I judged for the Sixth Precinct. Had I had the black hat with me, and sufficient men and horses and lariats and .30-30s, and popular support from the masses and a workable revolutionary ideology and/or a viable myth pattern, I would have rescued them.

This muck heaves and palpitates. It is multi-directional and has a mayor.

It seemed to proclaim itself a mystery, but one there was no point in solving - an ongoing low-grade mystery.

All men that are ruined are ruined on the side of their natural propensities," the note concludes.This is surely true. Yet the vivacity with which he embraces ruin is unexampled, in my experience.

Yes, the saint was underrated quite a bit, then, mostly by people who didn’t like things that were ineffable……a lot of people don’t like things that are unearthly, the things of this earth are good enough for them, and they don’t mind telling you so. “If he’d just go out and get a job, like everybody else, then he could be saintly all day long…” —from “The Temptations of St. Anthony,” by Donald Barthelme

97. I approached the symbol, with its layers of meaning, but when I touched it, it changed into only a beautiful princess.98. I threw the beautiful princess headfirst down the mountain to my acquaintances.99. Who could be relied upon to deal with her.

Fragments are the only forms I trust.

Goals incapable of attainment have driven many a man to despair, but despair is easier to get to than that -- one need merely look out of the window, for example.