Wright Morris > Quotes

“Life, raw life, the kind we lead every day, whether it leads us into the past or the future, has the curious property of not seeming real enough. We have a need, however illusive, for a life that is more real than life. It lies in the imagination. Fiction would seem to be the way it is processed into reality. If this were not so we should have little excuse for art. Life, raw life, would be more than satisfactory in itself. But it seems to be the nature of man to transform—himself, if possible, and then the world around him—and the technique of this transformation is what we call art.”
― Wright Morris, The Territory Ahead

“There's little to see, but things leave an impression. It's a matter of time and repetition. As something old wears thin or out, something new wears in. The handle on the pump, the crank on the churn, the dipper floating in the bucket, the latch on the screen, the door on the privy, the fender on the stove, the knees of the pants and the seat of the chair, the handle of the brush and the lid to the pot exist in time but outside taste; they wear in more than they wear out. It can't be helped. It's neither good nor bad. It's the nature of life.”
― Wright Morris

“The imagination made us human, but being human, becoming more human, is a greater burden than we imagined. We have no choice but to imagine ourselves more human than we are.”
― Wright Morris

“Everyone in California is from somewhere else.”
― Wright Morris, Love Among the Cannibals

“The man who comes to writing late, but is in essence a writer, may sometimes gain as much as he has lost: his experience of life has given him a subject, he is spared the youthful writer's self-torment and soul-searching.”
― Wright Morris

“They all liked California, but they thought the people were cold.”
― Wright Morris, Love Among the Cannibals

“The life congenial to Sharon, however melancholy, is the world of phantoms, more alluring than dreams, that impinges on her dreaming. The pervasive tone is a sweet sadness, a pleasurable longing, suffused with drug-like strains of music. Longing for what? Signs are visible. A child is sometimes seen wearing a blindfold, groping about as if for companions. A voice says, “It is not your longing, but part of the world’s longing.” A profound recognition sweetens her sorrow. She moves, she floats, she glides, she gasps to see the earth receding behind her, space unfolding before her. Bells are ringing.”
― Wright Morris, Plains Song: For Female Voices

“The life congenial to Sharon, however melancholy, is the world of phantoms, more alluring than dreams, that impinges on her dreaming. The pervasive tone is a sweet sadness, a pleasurable longing, suffused with drug-like strains of music. Longing for what? Signs are visible. A child is sometimes seen wearing a blindfold, groping about as if for companions. A voice says, “It is not your longing, but part of the world’s longing.” A profound recognition sweetens her sorrow. She moves, she floats, she glides, she gasps to see the earth receding behind her, space unfolding before her.”
― Wright Morris, Plains Song: For Female Voices

“Beaches are the same the world over. . . . I don't mean to be ironic. California is that way naturally. It's hard to do malice to California.”
― Wright Morris, Love Among the Cannibals

“This is California. You can't have everything.”
― Wright Morris, Love Among the Cannibals

“Pretty good-looking women, in the main, thanks to the California sun.”
― Wright Morris, Love Among the Cannibals

“Here on the West Coast a soda jerk, willing to choose between a chick and a Thunderbird, can have the Thunderbird.”
― Wright Morris, Love Among the Cannibals

“Longing is a particular kind of desire that has lost its way, desire without a clear object. Longing creates search parties and then sends them out into the world without a specific thing to search for. Longing, I would say, is the governing emotion of this book, longing mixed with wonder.”
― Wright Morris, Plains Song: For Female Voices

“Sabi is found not in the beauty of youth but instead in the beauty of wear and tear, the beauty of something that has stood the test of time and is still standing in spite of everything. Sabi is the acquired soul of a created thing as it grows old.”
― Wright Morris, Plains Song: For Female Voices