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
prayer writing editing
Maybe writing can't be taught, but editing can be taught—prayer, fasting and self-mutilation.
book writing people
As Jules Renard said, no matter how much care an author takes to write as few books as possible, there will be people who haven't heard of some of them.
writing
Write about what you're afraid of.
strong fiction facts
There's not a strong autobiographical strain in my fiction. A few bits of fact here and there.
obscure
I am never needlessly obscure I am needfully obscure, when I am obscure.
art thinking progress
I don't think you can talk about progress in art - movement, but not progress. You can speak of a point on a line for the purpose of locating things, but it's a horizontal line, not a vertical one.
dripping instant-gratification seasons
Instant gratification is not as good as that gratification which comes dripping slow, over the sere seasons.
intelligent garden agony
I keep wondering if, say, there is intelligent life on other planets, the scientists argue that something like two percent of the other planets have the conditions, the physical conditions, to support life in the way it happened here, did Christ visit each and every planet, go through the same routine, the Agony in the Garden, the Crucifixion, and so on...
self world mouths
Now, here is the point about the self: it is insatiable. It is always, always hankering. It is what you might call rapacious to a fault. The great flaming mouth to the thing is never in this world going to be stuff full.
struggle fall men
Capitalism places every man in competition with his fellows for a share of the available wealth. A few people accumulate big piles, but most do not. The sense of community falls victim to this struggle.
heart fur literature
His examiner...said severely: "Baskerville, you blank round, discursiveness is not literature." "The aim of literature," Baskerville replied grandly, "is the creation of a strange object covered with fur which breaks your heart.
too-much anticipation possibility
Best not to anticipate too much ... it jiggles the possibilities.
shrinking fading world
The world is sagging, snagging, scaling, spalling, pilling, pinging, pitting, warping, checking, fading, chipping, cracking, yellowing, leaking, stalling, shrinking, and in dynamic unbalance.
artist doe failing
Let me point out, if it has escaped your notice, that what an artist does, is fail.