186 Quotes by Robert Penn Warren

The end of man is knowledge, but there is one thing he can't know. He can't know whether knowledge will save him or kill him. He will be killed, all right, but he can't know whether he is killed because of the knowledge which he has got or because of the knowledge which he hasn't got and which if he had it, would save him.

In one deep sense, novels are concealed autobiography. I don’t mean that you are telling facts about yourself, but you are trying to find out what you really think or who you are.

Suddenly his face wasn’t twitching. It was smooth as a baby’s and peaceful, but peaceful in the way that intensity can sometimes momentarily make a face look peaceful and pure.

I’ve been to a lot of places and done a lot of things, but writing was always first. It’s a kind of pain I can’t do without.

What if angry vectors veer Round your sleeping head, and form. There’s never need to fear Violence of the poor world’s abstract storm.

I think the greatest curse of American society has been the idea of an easy millennialism – that some new drug, or the next election or the latest in social engineering will solve everything.

Duffy was face to face with the margin of mystery where all our calculations collapse, where the stream of time dwindles into the sands of eternity, where the formula fails in the test tube, where chaos and old night hold sway and we hear the laughter in the ether dream.

Dying – shucks! If you kin handle the living, what’s to be afraid of the dying?

When one is happy in forgetfulness, facts get forgotten.