John Knowles
John Knowles
John Knowles was an American novelist best known for A Separate Peace. He died in 2001 at the age of 75...
NationalityAmerican
ProfessionNovelist
Date of Birth16 September 1926
CountryUnited States of America
war heart stupidity
It seemed clear that wars were not made by generations and their special stupidities, but that wars were made instead by something ignorant in the human heart
memories real war
Your war memories will be with you forever, you'll be asked about them thousands of times after the war is over. People will get their respect for you from that-partly from that, don't get me wrong-but if you can say that you were up front where there was some real shooting going on, then that will mean a whole lot to you in years to come.
war school hatred
I never killed anybody and I never developed an intense level of hatred for the enemy. Because my war ended before I ever put on a uniform; I was on active duty all my time at school; I killed my enemy there.
burden ease grant taxpayers
If we could get some grant money, it would ease the burden on the taxpayers of Philipsburg,
branch club high members river tree whose
We really did have a club whose members jumped from the branch of a very high tree into the river as initiation.
attacks depraved experience masters novel sadistic school
The novel has one peculiarity for a school novel: It never attacks the place; it isn't an expose; it doesn't show sadistic masters or depraved students, or use any of the other school-novel sensationalistic cliches. That's because I didn't experience things like that there.
against anchor athletic bore damn decisive far finished gives good healthy man relay swimming thrilling
Swimming isn't the most thrilling sport in the world, far from it; it's a damn bore most of the time, but it does make you healthy and gives you a good body. I finished first as the anchor man in the final, decisive relay against Andover, to become an athletic mini-hero for about 15 minutes.
dry high leaving people short
There's been a lot of misinformation out there. I think they're leaving a lot of people high and dry at very short notice.
border breathe cold found hampshire kid return session summer survived winter
As a kid from a border state, I found the New Hampshire winter breathtakingly cold - for a while I didn't think I could breathe there at all - but I survived to return for the summer session of 1943.
cost people
I think it is probably going to cost people their lives.
age boys earlier gone hell looking quite raise stayed
Looking back, I think we were all quite mature, surprisingly responsible. In earlier wars, boys of our age had just gone off to raise hell or enlist or both, but we stayed dutifully at our desks doing tomorrow's homework.
came credit kids played secondary throw
I like the way we came back. Give credit to Shippensburg, those kids played hard. Their secondary was great; I thought we'd be able to throw more on them.
came credit kids played secondary throw
I like the way we came back, ... Give credit to Shippensburg, those kids played hard. Their secondary was great; I thought we'd be able to throw more on them.
developed leg pain
An abscess on his leg developed and he was in so much pain.