Norman Mailer

Every moment of one's existence one is growing into more or retreating into less.

Any war that requires the suspension of reason as a necessity for support is a bad war.

There is no greater importance in all the world like knowing you are right and that the wave of the world is wrong, yet the wave crashes upon you.

Part of the ability to keep writing over the years comes down to living with the expectation of disappointment. It's the exact opposite of capitalism. In capitalism you want your business to succeed, and to the degree it does your energy increases, and you go out and buy an even bigger business. In writing it's almost the exact opposite. You just want to keep the store going. You're not going to do as well this year as last year probably, but nonetheless let's keep the store going. What ruins most writers of talent is that they don't get enough experience, so their novels tend to develop a certain paranoid perfection.

One thing I've learned in all these years is not to make love when you really don't feel it; there's probably nothing worse you can do to yourself than that.

The function of socialism is to raise suffering to a higher level.

Sentimentality is the emotional promiscuity of those who have no sentiment.

Once a newspaper touches a story, the facts are lost forever, even to the protagonists.