Paul Simon Quotes

In my own writing, I think of myself as a realist who exaggerates a little.

To understand a literary style, consider what it omits.

In my mind, there's usually a fairly definitive kind of narrative when I write. But I don't want to enforce that on other people. I think that's why I like using metaphor so much.

He knew he was Joe DiMaggio, and he knew what that meant to the country.

I think the best all-round baseball player ever was Joe DiMaggio.

I'm the guy that made Joe DiMaggio famous.

I try not to be overly literal. When I'm writing songs, I write down a lot of words, and then I try to simplify it. I like to give people hints or words that make visual pictures for them.

The writer is always tricking the reader into listening to their dream.

It is the test of a novel writer's art that he conceal his snake-in-the-grass; but the reader may be sure that it is always there.

Word - that invisible dagger.

We strove for more than 60 years to give Joe DiMaggio the hero's life. From his debut at Yankee Stadium in 1936 until his death in 1999, DiMaggio was, at every turn, one man we could look at who made us feel good.

One of the standard story-generating engines for science fiction is to take something we normally think of as metaphoric and treat it as if it were literal.

At every step in his life, DiMaggio was what New Yorkers wanted in a hero.

I guess I have a weird habit of writing body part metaphors.

My writing is not just all facts and voices. I strive to create a text that works as a sign, pointing out undercurrents that lie beneath the facts.

If I were playing today I'd do what Joe DiMaggio said. I'd go knock on the door at Yankee Stadium and when George Steinbrenner answered I'd say, 'Howdy, pardner.'

Never use a metaphor, simile, or other figure of speech which you are used to seeing in print.

It's my attempt to remain invisible, not distract the reader from the story with obvious writing.

I have to give Mays one edge, durability. Mickey isn't sound and Willie is. Otherwise, if I had a chance to trade for either player, I'd pick Mantle.

A poet's mission is to make words do more work than they normally do, to make them work on more than one level.

Where have you gone, Joe DiMaggio? A nation turns its lonely eyes to you.

Bill Dickey is learning me his experience.

I'm asking the reader to suspend reality with me and entertain the idea that the person writing is not me. In order to do that well, I think, one needs to point out the artifice of the narrative. Somehow if the narrator is self-aware then it's almost more humanizing and more relatable.

Babe Ruth was the home-run king of his time, but also the strikeout king.

We are a people captivated by the power and romance of metaphor, forever seeking the invisible through the image of the visible.