Sinclair Lewis
Sinclair Lewis
Harry Sinclair Lewiswas an American novelist, short-story writer, and playwright. In 1930, he became the first writer from the United States to receive the Nobel Prize in Literature, which was awarded "for his vigorous and graphic art of description and his ability to create, with wit and humor, new types of characters." His works are known for their insightful and critical views of American capitalism and materialism between the wars. He is also respected for his strong characterizations of modern...
NationalityAmerican
ProfessionNovelist
Date of Birth7 February 1885
CitySauk Centre, MN
CountryUnited States of America
In other countries, art and literature are left to a lot of shabby bums living in attics and feeding on booze and spaghetti, but in America the successful writer or picture-painter is indistinguishable from any other decent businessman.
Do you think it's so snobbish, to want to see something besides one's fellow citizens abroad?
What are these unheard of sins you condemn so much - and like so well?
The game (baseball)was a custom of his clan, and it gave outlet for the homicidal and sides-taking instincts which Babbitt called "patriotism" and "love of sport."
I love America, but I don't like it.
Good Lord, I don't know what 'rights' a man has! And I don't know the solution of boredom. If I did, I'd be the one philosopher that had the cure for living. But I do know that about ten times as many people find their lives dull, and unnecessarily dull, as ever admit it; and I do believe that if we busted out and admitted it sometimes, instead of being nice and patient and loyal for sixty years, and then nice and patient and dead for the rest of eternity, why, maybe, possibly, we might make life more fun.
His name was George F. Babbitt, and . . . he was nimble in the calling of selling houses for more than people could afford to pay.
In fact, the whole thing about prohibition is this: it isn't the initial cost, it's the humidity.
A man takes a drink, the drink takes another, and the drink takes the man.
I am convinced that everything that is worth while in the world has been accomplished by the free, inquiring, critical spirit, and that the preservation of this spirit is more important than any social system whatsoever. But the men of ritual and the men of barbarism are capable of shutting up the men of science and silencing them forever.
So much in a revolution is nothing but waiting.
When audiences come to see us authors lecture, it is largely in the hope that we'll be funnier to look at than to read.
Advertising is a valuable economic factor because it is the cheapest way of selling goods, particularly if the goods are worthless.
NOW is a fact that cannot be dodged.