William H. Gass Quotes

32 Sourced Quotes

If there were genders to genres, fiction would be unquestionably feminine.

William H. Gass
Freud thought that a psychosis was a waking dream, and that poets were daydreamers too, but I wonder if the reverse is not as often true, and that madness is a fiction lived in like a rented house

William H. Gass
The true alchemists do not change lead into gold; they change the world into words.

William H. Gass
Sports, politics, and religion are the three passions of the badly educated.

William H. Gass
Getting even is one great reason for writing. The precise statement of the motive is tricky, but the clearest expression of my unwholesome nature and my mean motives (apart from trying to write well) appears in a line I like in In the Heart of the Heart of the Country. The character says, I want to rise so high that when I shit I won't miss anybody. But maybe I say it's a motive because I like the line. Anyway, my work proceeds almost always from a sense of aggression. And usually I am in my best working mood when I am, on the page, very combative, very hostile. That's true even when I write to praise, as is often the case.

William H. Gass
An opinion should be treated like a guest who is likely to stay too late and drink all the whiskey.

William H. Gass
Most of these metaphors are bad and have to be thrown away. I have to beat the comparisons back into the holes they pour from.

William H. Gass