162 Quotes by E. L. Doctorow

I am often asked the question How can the masses permit themselves to be exploited by the few. The answer is By being persuaded to identify with them.

We are able to walk on air, but only as long as our illusion supports us.

Facts are the images of history, just as images are the facts of fiction.

He was a moody, distracted young fellow, and it was clear his own mind was more company to him than people were.

Most people are quiet in the world, and live in it tentatively, as if it were not their own.

Grandmamma had been the last connection to our past. I had understood her as some referent moral authority to whom we paid no heed, but by whose judgments we measured our waywardness.

And she understood as I did that when you sat down and put your hands on the keys, it was not just a piano in front of you, it was a universe.

Writing is immensely difficult. The short forms especially.

Why does there have to be promise before destruction?