162 Quotes by E. L. Doctorow

History is the present. That’s why every generation writes it anew. But what most people think of as history is its end product, myth.

The Shadow had no imagination. He neither looked at naked women nor thought of ridding the world of dictators like Hitler or Mussolini.

All over the world today, not just in the totalitarian countries, assiduous functionaries in Ministries of Truth are clubbing history dumb and rendering language insensible.

The poem is a cry of the unborn heart. Yes, because the poem perfectly embodies the world, there is no world without poem.

I am telling you what I know – words have music and if you are a musician you will write to hear them.

We’re always attracted to the edges of what we are, out by the edges where it’s a little raw and nervy.

A writer of books has to admit that film is the enemy, and that in my case I have been sleeping with the enemy.

Poems have ideas. The ideas of poems come out of their emotions and their emotions are carried on images.

I thought of myself as a writer for years before I got around to writing anything.