146 Quotes by William H. Gass

The true alchemists do not change lead into gold; they change the world into words.

Wills aren't really strong or weak; it is the characters that they express and serve that are.

The hurt heart heals, but the healed heart still hurts. -- From "Exile" in Finding a Form

They try to thrive. To multiply. To make murder a method of management.

He could have set fire to it, the garden was dry enough, and burned it clean—privet, vines, and weeds; but he waited in his rooms through the winter instead, weeping and dreaming.

My stories are malevolently anti-narrative, and my essays are maliciously anti-expository, but the ideology of my opposition arrived long after my antagonism had become a trait of character." -- William H. Gass, "Finding a Form

It is not a single cowardice that drives us into fiction's fantasies. We often fear that literature is a game we can't afford to play — the product of idleness and immoral ease. In the grip of that feeling it isn't life we pursue, but the point and purpose of life — its facility, its use.

...until summer becomes ein Zimmer in einem Traum -- a room in a dream.

Blue is therefore most suitable as the color of interior life.