Ellmann Quotes

And they dare to rule the world! They have made it so ugly. Square houses! Their obsession with straight lines and right angles has ruined the earth! They consider all curves, all subtleties, all softness, all indefinites, female, and they shun them. They have poisoned and denatured everything they touch, and expect us to be grateful. ~ Lucy Ellmann

What is the point of labeling each individual piece of fruit? Buy the fruit, EAT the ad! We've carved a chunk out of the ozone, burned up all the rainforests, soon we won't be able to BREATHE, and all because we had to label each individual piece of fruit. ~ Lucy Ellmann

the fact that we all go on pretending things are fine, hoping everything's a-okay, even though everything is nowhere near okay and we all know it, no matter how many candlelit vigils you hold ~ Lucy Ellmann

Writing a novel without being asked seems a bit like having a baby when you have nowhere to live. ~ Lucy Ellmann

the fact that I really need a professional declutterer, or at least a book on decluttering from the library, unless they've decluttered the library too and have no books anymore ~ Lucy Ellmann

She stood eating soup in her overgrown garden, looking up at stars she could not name. ~ Lucy Ellmann

Drift beautifully on the surface, and you will die unbeautifully in the depths. ~ Richard Ellmann

To say that a great genius is mad, while at the same time recognizing his artistic merit, is no better than to say he is rheumatic or diabetic. ~ James Joyce

A Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man is in fact the gestation of a soul. ~ Richard Ellmann

Nora Barnacle is not a very interesting person." So said Richard Ellmann, author of the definitive James Joyce biography, to Brenda Maddox, author of the only Nora Barnacle biography, who quoted him to me. ~ Jessa Crispin

Like Richard Ellmann on James Joyce, Arnold Rampersad on Ralph Ellison is in a class of its own. His masterful and magisterial book is the most powerful and profound treatment of Ellison's undeniable artistic genius, deep personal flaws, and controversial political evolution. And he reveals an Ellison unbeknownst to all of us. From now on, all serious scholarship on Ellison must begin with Rampersad's instant and inimitable classic in literary biography. ~ Cornel West

the fact that a police officer on TV said what used to be a fist fight or road rage is now a shooting, and what used to be a domestic dispute is now a gun rampage, and what used to be a tardy or disruptive student is now a school shooter, the fact that the police aren't much better themselves, the fact that what used to be an arrest or a warning is now a split-second execution ~ Lucy Ellmann

the fact that maybe men think if they just name everything, everything'll be okay, the fact that it's like dogs marking their territory ~ Lucy Ellmann

the fact that nothing you do seems innocent anymore ~ Lucy Ellmann

...the fact that there's a lot you have to blank out if you want to get through life... ~ Lucy Ellmann

Wilde had to live his life twice over, first in slow motion, then at top speed. During the first period he was a scapegrace, during the second a scapegoat. For the three and a half years he lived after his release from prison, he saw pass before him, mostly in dumb show, a multitude of people he had known earlier, who evaded him. ~ Richard Ellmann

GENERAL STATEMENT FOR ALL CONCERNED: I do not wish you to be perturbed in any way by my current uncommunicative behaviour. I wish it to be known that I am not pursuing any friendships at the moment because I can not think of anything to say and I suspect I am bad for people. I am too egotistically involved in my own decay to focus on the troubles and triumphs of others ... ~ Lucy Ellmann

Unable to make babies, they make bombs instead. Men menstruate by shedding other people's blood. ~ Lucy Ellmann

the fact that you'll never know what sort of person you might have been if you'd read different stuff ~ Lucy Ellmann

Historians of literature like to regard a century as a series of ten faces, each grimacing in a different way. ~ Richard Ellmann

All along, she had given him the sort of On-Off treatment scientists use to drive rats insane. In humans, this merely leads to a state of high anxiety. She was a mystery to him. A mystery banana. ~ Lucy Ellmann

The whole world organizes itself around the fact that people manage to get their awkward bodies in position to fuck, an achievement honored by toasters, tandems, and tax cuts. ~ Lucy Ellmann