William Saroyan
William Saroyan
William Saroyanwas an American dramatist and author. He was awarded the Pulitzer Prize for Drama in 1940, and in 1943 won the Academy Award for Best Story for the film adaptation of his novel The Human Comedy...
ProfessionNovelist
Date of Birth31 August 1908
CityFresno, CA
army-and-navy captured fact life setting three
Three times in my life I have been captured: by the orphanage, by school, and by the Army. But I'm mistaken. The fact is I was captured only once, when I was born, only that capture is also setting free, which is what this is actually all about. The
life kids race
Kids are always the only future the human race has.
men cities empty-life
Standing at the edge of our city, a man could feel that we had made this place of streets and dwellings in the stillness of the desert, and that we had done a brave thing... Or a man could feel that we had made this city in the desert and that it was a fake thing and that our lives were empty lives, and that we were the contemporaries of the jack rabbits.
life lying dark
All things lie dark in possibility.
life men rehearsing
It takes a lot of rehearsing for a man to be himself.
time-of-your-life
Live, for this is the time of your life.
good-times time-of-your-life ugliness
In the time of your life, live-so that in that good time there shall be no ugliness or death for yourself or for any life your life touches.
life sorrow delight
In the time of your life, live—so that in that wondrous time you shall not add to the misery and sorrow of the world, but shall smile to the infinite delight and mystery of it."
guilt innocence nor
No man's guilt is not yours, nor is any man's innocence a thing apart.
beyond death love small somewhere town
Is the small town a place, truly, of the world, or is it no more than something out of a boy's dreaming? Out of his love of all things not of death made? All things somewhere beyond the dust, rust, and decay, beyond the top, beyond all sides, beyond bottom: outside, around, over, under, within?
decent giver hell looking thanks
What the hell are they all looking for? A decent way to give it all over to the giver of it all, with thanks for the bother.
above beyond cease ends image knew longer loveliness man reached sleep train truly until
While the train was going by, I knew that a man will go away without ever having reached anywhere, and never will the image of loveliness just beyond all things, all ends and edges, over and above and within, cease to be in his sleep until he is truly one who is no longer alive, and no longer able to sleep at all.
guilt inferior innocence man nor remember variation
Be the inferior of no man, nor of any be the superior. Remember that every man is a variation of yourself. No man's guilt is not yours, nor is any man's innocence a thing apart.
good man
Every man in the world is better than someone else and not as good as someone else.