Peter De Vries
Peter De Vries
Peter De Vrieswas an American editor and novelist known for his satiric wit. He has been described by the philosopher Daniel Dennett as "probably the funniest writer on religion ever"...
NationalityAmerican
ProfessionNovelist
Date of Birth27 February 1910
CountryUnited States of America
years expanding-universe billions
Anyone informed that the universe is expanding and contracting in pulsations of eighty billion years has a right to ask. What's in it for me?
art food museums
Murals in restaurants are on a par with the food in museums.
adventure boredom pay
We pay for security with boredom, for adventure with bother.
splinters pieces sticks
We are nothing but a string of gut on a stick of bone riding this piece of astral soot for one piteous splinter of eternity.
men
I wondered whether any woman could be happy with a man who says 'folderol'.
writing lasts discouraged
I tried to write worse but it was no good; my generalizations came out as before, each more exquisite than the last. I grew discouraged.
tubas instruments
The tuba is certainly the most intestinal of instruments, the very lower bowel of music.
men people wonderful
Man is vile, I know, but people are wonderful.
children believe atheism
"You don't believe in God," I said to Stein. "God is a word banging around in the human nervous system. He exists about as much as Santa Claus." "Santa Claus has had a tremendous influence, exist or not." "For children." "Lots of saints have died for God with a courage that's hardly childish." "That's part of the horror. It's all a fantasy. It's all for nothing."
easter race ideas
"You ought to be ashamed," a woman in an Easter bonnet told Stein. "Your race gave us our religion..." "From ancient polytheism, the belief in lots of gods," the woman continued a little more eruditely, "the Hebrew nation led us on to the idea that there is only one." "Which is just a step from the truth," said Stein.
character space
The writer can only explore the inner space of his characters by perceptively navigating his own.
people may firsts
The trouble with treating people as equals is that the first thing you know they may be doing the same thing to you.
cookies shapes diction
Words fashioned with somewhat over precise diction are like shapes turned out by a cookie cutter.
fads way looks
Look at it this way: Psychoanalysis is a permanent fad.