Bohemianism Quotes

“But an artist, he realized. Or rather so-called artist. Bohemian. That's closer to it. The artistic life without the talent.”
― Philip K. Dick, The Three Stigmata of Palmer Eldritch

“Art is a barren route, of which glory is the oasis.”
― Henri Murger, The Bohemians of the Latin Quarter: Scenes de la Vie de Boheme

“My environment reflects the life I've led, the places I've visited and the people I've loved.”
― Virginia Nicholson, Among the Bohemians: Experiments in Living 1900-1939

“How would that premise stand up if he examined it? That was probably why the Communists were always cracking down on Bohemiansism. When you were drunk or when you committed adultery you recognised your own personal fallability of that so mutable substitute for the apostles' creed, the party line. Down with Bohemianism, the sin of Majakowski.”
― Ernest Hemingway, For Whom the Bell Tolls

“ERNEST FRIEDLANDER: Be quiet! Be quiet!

LEO MERCURÉ: Why should we be quiet? You’re making enough row to blast the roof off! Why should you have the monopoly of noise? Why should your pompous moral pretensions be allowed to hurdle across the city without any competition? We’ve all got lungs. Let’s use them! Let’s shriek like mad! Let’s enjoy ourselves!”
― Noël Coward, Design for Living

“Both the Gypsies of the 19th century and the Bohemian scribblers and court jester types share similar personality traits. Both groups were known as drifters, dancers, minstrels and troubadours. And for their cheerful and pleasant approach to poverty. They were also known for stalking members of the opposite sex. Alcohol, words and the hue and glow of the artist’s easel were what they lived for”
― Karl Wiggins, Wrong Planet - Searching for your Tribe

“…a kind of Calvinist in reverse; that is, he was uncompromisingly bohemian”
― Renata Adler, Speedboat

“Open the windows and the doors, she shouted, cook some meat and fish, buy the largest turtles around, let strangers come in and spread their mats in the corners and urinate in the rose bushes and sit down to eat as many times as they want, and belch and rant and muddy everything with their boots, and let them do whatever they want to us, because that's the only way to drive off ruin.”
― Gabriel Garcí­a Márquez, One Hundred Years of Solitude

“The practice of an offbeat and sometimes bizarre lifestyle, often in the camaraderie of compatible people was incredibly romantic in the 19th century when authors, artists and entertainers lived in the low-class, substandard Gypsy ghettos of Western Europe and were often regarded as nothing more than vagabonds, globetrotters, opportunists, con artists and charlatans. They also practiced an open sexual liberation regarded at the time as quite a new morality.”
― Karl Wiggins, Wrong Planet - Searching for your Tribe

“You can understand how the same word used to describe Gypsies in Western Europe came to also describe the poor artists of the Parisian slums”
― Karl Wiggins, Wrong Planet - Searching for your Tribe

“By the mistaken benevolence of deceased relatives both young men were placed out of reach of hunger, and so, meditating high achievements, idled their time pleasantly away, and revelled in the careless joys of a Bohemianism devoid of the sharp reasoning of adversity.”
― Arthur Machen, The Three Impostors

“I dreamt that I took William Burrough’s penis and tied it up with piano wire. I hung him like a Chagall painting…In the next part J.G. Ballard swam through streets of female urine. The girls read his book Crash and then mowed him down with their Volkswagen, crushing his chest slowly against a brick wall. As he screamed in agony larger than representation can accommodate, they referred to his text and had orgasms. Later, they jumped up and down yelling, ‘You’re not a hero. You’re not a hero. You’re not. You’re not. You’re not.’ “
“How do you analyze that part of the dream, Anna?”
…”I guess I’m nervous about my birthday.”
― Sarah Schulman, Empathy