Donald Barthelme
Donald Barthelme
This article is about the author, Donald Barthelme Jr. For his father, the architect, see Donald Barthelme...
NationalityAmerican
ProfessionNovelist
Date of Birth7 April 1931
CountryUnited States of America
found worst elusive
Endings are elusive, middles are nowhere to be found, but worst of all is to begin, to begin, to begin.
ass casual passerby
[picket sign] COGITO ERGO NOTHING!....[casual passerby:] "Cogito ergo your ass"....
fighting thinking order
--Why are we fighting them? --They're mad. We're sane. --How do we know? --That we're sane? --Yes. --Am I sane? --To all appearances. --And you, do you consider yourself sane? --I do. --Well, there you have it. --But don't they also consider themselves sane? --I think they know. Deep down. That they're not sane. --How must that make them feel? --Terrible, I should think. They must fight ever more fiercely, in order to deny what they know to be true. That they are not sane.
art new-work genuine
Any genuine work of art generates new work.
heart fur literature
The aim of literature ... is the creation of a strange object covered with fur which breaks your heart.
running people missing
Some people', Miss R. said,'run to conceits or wisdom but I hold to the hard, brown, nutlike word. I might point out that there is enough aesthetic excitement here to satisfy anyone but a damned fool.
writing knowing doe
The writer is one who, embarking upon a task, does not know what to do... Writing is a process of dealing with not-knowing, a forcing of what and how.