William H. Gass Quotes

You want the book to be special, and they are not always going to be special, but at least you want that to be the ambition. So the only way that happens is if you are not pressing to write a book.

I wanted to be a writer for a while. I was an excellent child writer. I won multiple poetry contests. I was published at age three - I think that was more about novelty than my immense talent.

Learn to write well, or not to write at all.

I'm always thinking, 'my career is over, I have to move back to Omaha, and work on the railroad, with the rest of my family. So no, I'm never thinking I've 'arrived.' I think that's a good way to be.

You can't be No. 1 unless you think like No. 1. You have to appear like No. 1.

We need to think bigger, dream bigger, and get bigger.

I think it's important that when you're bringing something to the table that you're sure has value, that you don't diminish yourself just so that you can have an opportunity.

I don't think I have made as much of my life as I should have. I should have written more books.

What I think of blogs is just this: Some are beautifully written and many are not. But even blogs that aren't necessarily "well" written are great for the person writing them.

I am not ambitious to appear a man of letters: I could be content the world should think I had scarce looked upon any other book than that of nature.

Strength is not nearly as important as desire. I don't think you can teach anyone desire. I think it's a gift. I don't know why I have it, but I do.

I should figure out why I'm so much more interested in doing something that I think is really hard. But, somehow, the thing that is hard for me feels more noble.

I'm already suspicious of anyone who thinks he or she is smart enough to be president. You'd have to have some ego to believe that about yourself.

Whatever you think in life... think higher and feel deeper.

I think the thing that I've learned is that really great people, they actually want to work on hard problems.

It was the maxim, I think, of Alphonsus of Aragon, that dead counsellors are safest. The grave puts an end to flattery and artifice, and the information we receive from books is pure from interest, fear, and ambition. Dead counsellors are likewise most instructive, because they are heard with patience and with reverence.

I used to think that the causes of war were predominantly economic. I came to think that they were more psychological. I am now coming to think that they are decisively "personal," arising from the defects and ambitions of those who have the power to influence the currents of nations.

I think it's a sin to sit down and let your life go without making a try for it.

Norman Mailer thinks William Burroughs is a genius, which I think is ludicrous beyond words. I don't think William Burroughs has an ounce of talent.

You do an awful lot of bad writing in order to do any good writing. Incredibly bad. I think it would be very interesting to make a collection of some of the worst writing by good writers.

I don't think I'm known for my gifts - I'm known for my gall. I don't want to be just a famous person - I'm too old.

I think what's really hard is making sense and making what you write clear and smooth-flowing.

I think with practice, you can being whatever you want to be, and with a goal you can go in any direction that you want to go in.