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21 " Boredom slays more of existence than war. "
― Norman Mailer
22 " rip the prisonsopenput theconvictsontelevision "
― Norman Mailer , Deaths For The Ladies (and other disasters)
23 " I really am a pessimist. I've always felt that fascism is a more natural governmental condition than democracy. Democracy is a grace. It's something essentially splendid because it's not at all routine or automatic. Fascism goes back to our infancy and childhood, where we were always told how to live. We were told, Yes, you may do this; no, you may not do that. So the secret of fascism is that it has this appeal to people whose later lives are not satisfactory. "
24 " How his hatred seethed in search of a justifiable excuse. "
― Norman Mailer , The Fight
25 " Harsh words live in the dungeon of the heart "
― Norman Mailer , The Gospel According to the Son
26 " Kerouac lacks discipline, intelligence, honesty and a sense of the novel. His rhythms are erratic, his sense of character is nil, and he is as pretentious as a rich whore, sentimental as a lollypop. "
27 " About a week after they had come back, a load of mail came to the island. They were the first letters the men had received in several weeks, and for a night it relieved the changeless pattern of their lives. One of the infrequent rations of beer was given out the same night, and the men finished their three cans quickly, and sat about without saying very much. The beer had been far too inadequate to make them drunk; it made them only moody and reflective, it opened the gate to all their memories, and left them sad, hungering for things they could not name. "
― Norman Mailer , The Naked and the Dead
28 " Prevarication, like honesty, is reflexive, and soon becomes a sturdy habit, as reliable as truth. "
― Norman Mailer , The Castle in the Forest
29 " It is not uncommon for fighters’ camps to be gloomy. In heavy training, fighters live in dimensions of boredom others do not begin to contemplate. Fighters are supposed to. The boredom creates an impatience with one’s life, and a violence to improve it. Boredom creates a detestation for losing. "
30 " Let the passions and cupidities and dreams and kinks and ideals and greed and hopes and foul corruptions of all men and women have their day and the world will still be better off, for there is more good than bad in the sum of us and our workings. "
― Norman Mailer ,
31 " The highest prize in a world of men is the most beautiful woman available on your arm and living there in her heart loyal to you. "
32 " If you avoid the killer diseases and keep the degenerative ones under control with sensible diet and exercise and whatever chemotherapy you need to stay in balance, you can live nearly forever. "
― Norman Mailer , New Short Novels 2
33 " Every moment of one’s existence one is growing into more or retreating into less. One is always living a little more or dying a little bit. "
― Norman Mailer , Advertisements for Myself
34 " I guess all that's left is to love the fire. "
35 " Bright was the light of my last martini on my moral horizon "
― Norman Mailer , Harlot's Ghost
36 " You can indulge your righteous rage but the things it comes out of are pretty cheap. The trick is to make yourself an instrument of your own policy. Whether you like it or not, that's the highest effectiveness man has achieved. "
37 " The more things you own, the more things you need to keep you comfortable. "
38 " Yeah, fighting a war to fix something works about as good as going to a whorehouse to get rid of a clap. "
39 " No heart is so hard as the timid heart. "
40 " I am not here only so that the blind might see, but to teach those who thought they could see that they are blind "