E.L.Doctorow Quotes

Good writing is supposed to evoke sensation in the reader–not the fact that it is raining, but the feeling of being rained upon.” -

Emily supposed the modern world was fortunate in the progress of science. But she could not help but feel at this moment the impropriety of male invasiveness. She knew he was working to save this poor woman, but in her mind, too, was a sense of Wrede's science as adding to the abuse committed by his fellow soldiers. He said not a word. It was as if the girl were no more than the surgical challenge she offered.

Happiness consists of living in the dailyness of life and not knowing how happy you are.

The three most important documents a free society gives are a birth certificate, a passport, and a library card.

A book is not complete until it’s read

Writing is like driving a car at night. You can only see as far as your headlights, but you can make the whole trip that way.

I watched bulls bred to cows, watched mares foal, I saw life come from the egg and the multiplicative wonders of mudholes and ponds, the jell and slime of life shimmering in gravid expectation. Everywhere I looked, life sprang from something not life, insects unfolded from sacs on the surface of still waters and were instantly on prowl for their dinner, everything that came into being knew at once what to do and did it, unastonished that it was what it was, unimpressed by where it was, the great earth heaving up bloodied newborns from every pore, every cell, bearing the variousness of itself from every conceivable substance which it contained in itself, sprouting life that flew or waved in the wind or blew from the mountains or stuck to the damp black underside of rocks, or swam or suckled or bellowed or silently separated in two.

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.