E. L. Doctorow Quotes

The Jews are the most formidable and most remarkable race which has ever appeared in the world.

America is unique in the world. If you don't believe that, just ask someone from another country.

No man however great is greater than his people

I identify with the bottom of the pyramid, because, outside of having money, I am at the bottom of the pyramid.

Schools teach exactly what they are intended to teach and they do it well: how to be a good Egyptian and remain in your place in the pyramid.

Can it be I am the only Jew residing in Danville, Kentuchy, looking for matzoh in the Safeway and the A & P?

You may baptize as long as you want, but the Jew remains a Jew, the Chinese a Chinese and the Negro a Negro.

I think I may well be a Jew.

Men may be from Mars and women from Venus, but I'm from the Jersey Shore.

What we find exotic abroad may be what we hunger for in vain at home.

What I want to know, though, is why all of a sudden is everybody acting like gangs are some new phenomenon in this country? Almost everyone in America is affiliated with some kind of gang. We got the FBI, the ATF, the police departments, the religious groups, the Democrats and the Republicans. Everybody's got their own little clique and they're all out there gangbanging in their own little way.

Iran is the latest expression of a deep, ancient, powerful culture that's different than ours. And we don't know how it's going to play itself out.

Boys and young men acquire readily the moral sentiments of their social milieu, whatever these sentiments may be.

Genius may stand on the shoulders of giants, but it stands alone.

Handicaps can be converted into stepping stones on which one may climb toward some worthy goal, unless they are accepted as obstacles, and used as alibis.

America is not a democracy, it's an absolute monarchy ruled by King Kid. In a nation of immigrants, the child is automatically more of an American than his parents. Americans regard children as what Mr. Hudson in Upstairs, Downstairs called betters. Aping their betters, American adults do their best to turn themselves into children. Puerility exercises droit de seigneur everywhere.

All men are Jews, though few men know it.

As racial, economic and national groups, they take for themselves, whatever their power can command.

Even if I did speak Irish, I’d always be considered an outsider here, wouldn’t I? I may learn the password but the language of the tribe will always elude me, won’t it? The private core will always be ...hermetic, won’t it?

I use the phrase 'sibling society' to suggest a culture fundamentally without fathers, mothers, grandfathers, grandmothers, or ancestors. The thinking is horizontal.

The Jew has always been a people with definite racial characteristics and never a religion.

Never try to get into society, so-called. Those who try seldom get in, and if they do edge through the portals they always feel clammy and unworthy when under the scrutiny of the elect. Sit outside and appear indifferent, and after a while they may sent for you. If not, it will be money in your pocket.

More than the Jews have kept Shabbat, Shabbat has kept the Jews.

I think people look at me and realize that I am definitely not in line to the throne. It feels very easy living in Great Britain. The world is a much smaller place than it used to be, it doesn't feel like a huge cultural difference living here.