171 Quotes by John Cheever

For these are not as they might seem to be, the ruins of our civilization, but are temporary encampment and outposts of the civilization that we – you and I – shall build.

She perceived vaguely the pitiful corruption of the adult world; how cruel and frail it was, like a worn piece of burlap, patched with stupidities and mistakes, useless and ugly, and yet they never saw its worthlessness.

Fiction is meant to illuminate, to explode, to refresh.

Justina’s life had been exemplary, but by ending it she seemed to have disgraced us all.

Now working is terribly painful and I’m still having a fight with the booze. I’ve enlisted the help of a doctor but it’s touch and go. A day for me; a day for the hootch.

But now that she had made him her confidant, he saw that he could not change this relationship.

Donald Wryson was a large man with thinning fair hair and the cheerful air of a bully, but he was a bully only in the defense of rectitude, class distinctions, and the orderly appearance of things.

The voices woke Amy, and, lying in her bed, she perceived vaguely the pitiful corruption of the adult world; how crude and frail it was, like a piece of worn burlap, patched with stupidities and mistakes, useless and ugly, and yet they never saw its worthlessness, and when you pointed it out to them, they were indignant.

That’s the way I remember them, heading for an exit.