Joseph Heller
Joseph Heller
Joseph Hellerwas an American satirical novelist, short story writer, and playwright. The title of one of his works, Catch-22, entered the English lexicon, to refer to a vicious circle, wherein an absurd, no-win, contradictory choice, particularly in situations in which the desired outcome of the choice is a bureaucratic, or legal impossibility for artificial reasons, and hence, then regardless of the chosen option, a paradoxically negative outcome is a certainty. Although he is remembered primarily for Catch-22, his other works...
NationalityAmerican
ProfessionNovelist
Date of Birth1 May 1923
CountryUnited States of America
I wouldn't want to live without strong misgivings.
It's a wise person, I guess, who knows he's dumb, and an honest person who knows he's a liar. And it's a dumb person, I guess, whose convinced he's wise...-Bob Slocum
That's some catch, that Catch-22," he observed. It's the best there is," Doc Daneeka agreed.
We do have a zeal for laughter in most situations, give or take a dentist.
I'm gonna live forever, or die trying.
I'd like to see the government get out of war altogether and leave the whole field to private individuals.
But that was war. Just about all he could find in its favor was that it paid well and liberated children from the pernicious influence of their parents.
I had examined myself pretty thoroughly and discovered that I was unfit for military service.
Let someone else get killed!
Suppose everyone on our side felt that way?
Well then I'd certainly be a damned fool to feel any other way, wouldn't I?
I don't think the 'what' distinguishes a good novel from a bad one but rather the 'how.'
I don't think it's good to achieve too much at too early an age. What else can the future give you if you've already got all that your imagination has dreamt up for you? A writer is only discovered once in a lifetime, and if it happens very early the impossibility of matching that moment again can have a somewhat corrosive effect on his personality and indeed on the work itself.
I don't believe in miracles because it's been a long time since we've had any.