436 Quotes by Norman Mailer

You never really know a woman until you meet her in court

There are these two kinds of patriotism. There's blind patriotism, unflagging patriotism. And then there's the patriotism that says I live in a democracy and it's very important for the health and the life of this democracy that it get better all the time, not get worse.

There was no one ever in American life who was remotely like Truman Capote. Small wonder, then, if people are still fascinated by him.

I've always felt that my relationship to the United States is analogous to a marriage. I love this country. I hate it. I get angry at it. I feel close to it. I'm charmed by it. I'm repelled by it. And it's a marriage that's gone on for let's say at least 50 years of my writing life, and in the course of that, what's happened? It's gotten worse. It's not what it used to be.

We sail across dominions barely seen, washed by the swells of time. We plow through fields of magnetism. Past and future come together on thunderheads and our dead hearts live with lightning in the wounds of the Gods.

It is the actions of men and not their sentiments that make history. Our sentiments can be loaded with love within, but our actions can turn into the opposite. Perversity is always ready to consort with human nature.

Even an evil man can have principles—he can be true to his own evil, which is not always so easy.

I've made an ass of myself so many times I often wonder if I am one.

I've had an exciting relation to France all my life, from my young years in Brooklyn when I thought that Paris was the place to be.