Don DeLillo Quotes

I feel like the writer observing the grief, but it is difficult to be detached from it.

I began to draw an invisible boundary between myself and other people. No matter who I was dealing with. I maintained a set distance, carefully monitoring the person’s attitude so that they wouldn’t get any closer. I didn’t easily swallow what other people told me. My only passions were books and music

It is possible to move through the drama of our lives without believing so earnestly in the character that we play.

It's fun to play a character when you can't concern yourself with how sympathetic they are.

A writer has to stand outside the page. It's not for the writer to shed tears onto the pages for these characters. It's not for him to suffer or to laugh or to experience ecstasy or agony in the manner of the characters on the pages.

I don't take anything personally. I am a secondary character in other people's stories. I know that whatever people say about me is just a projection of their image of me. It has nothing to do with me.

The writer's original perception of a character or characters may be as erroneous as the reader's.

She watched the prairies the rivers, the towns slipping past at an untouchable distance below - and she noted that the sense of detachment one feels when looking at the earth from a plane was the same sense she felt when looking at people: only her distance from people seemed longer. - Dagny Taggart

The only beautiful things are the things that do not concern us.

What I felt for you was a combination of respect and affection. There was a closeness I felt through intimate interaction. The affection part is all over with. All that remains is the respect. If I put my arms around you and told you that I missed you, I would be lying. You're alright with me and I wish you well. But you're not me and that makes you one of them and you can only get so close.

Indeed, she often wondered if she were dead, or dying from the inside out, and that was the root of her calm, the reason she could surrender her character.

There are problems in these times, but none of them are mineI'm beginning to see the light

You are the patient one, Mademoiselle,' said Poirot to Miss Debenham. She shrugged her shoulders slightly. 'What else can one do?' You are a philosopher, Mademoiselle.' That implies a detached attitude. I think my attitude is more selfish. I have learned to save myself useless emotion.

When I'm lovin' these hoes, there ain't no love involved.

I stood among them, but not of them: in a shroud of thoughts which were not their thoughts.

Sometimes I had the feeling that all of us in his family were like pets to him. The dog you take for a walk, the cat you play with and that curls up in your lap, purring, to be stroked - you can be fond of them, you can even need them to a certain extent, and nonetheless the whole thing - buying pet food, cleaning up the cat box, and trips to the vet - is really too much. Your life is elsewhere.

I have no expectations. None at all.

In order to judge properly, one must get away somewhat from what one is judging, after having loved it. This is true of countries, of persons, and of oneself.

Even Christoph Waltz's character, Colonel Landa in 'Inglourious Basterds', I never judged him.

I tried to put things in perspective but sometimes you're just too close to it.

I thought it would be fun to take the kind of character that nobody would like, none of our readers would like, and shove him down their throats and make them like him.

I seldom get into the mood of the story. It's acting. I go in, I act, I quit. I don't take anything away from it.

Sometimes I pretend not to look at my own characters, because that's like different people getting off with your girlfriend or something.

I'm never going to tell the reader what to believe; I'm going to examine these characters that believe different ways, and examine their motives.

My father is incapable of showing much affection, or even of carrying on a conversation. I didn't want to have a relationship with him just because he's my blood relative. It would bore me.