Life Quotes by William Faulkner

...the reason for living was to get ready to stay dead a long time.

— William Faulkner

“All right. It is so, then. But not to me. Not in my life and my love.”

— William Faulkner

Life is a process of preparing to be dead for a long time.

— William Faulkner

...how false the most profound book turns out to be when applied to life.

— William Faulkner

Only when the clock stops does time come to life

— William Faulkner

The aim of every artist is to arrest motion, which is life, by artificial means.

— William Faulkner

“Because Father said clocks slay time. He said time is dead as long as it is being clicked off by little wheels;…

— William Faulkner

A fellow gets to thinking. About all the sorrow and afflictions in this world; how it's liable to strike anywhere, like lightning.

— William Faulkner

I believe man will not merely endure, he will prevail...because he has a spirit capable of compassion and sacrifice and endurance.

— William Faulkner

“Life was created in the valleys. It blew up onto the hills on the old terrors, the old lusts, the old despairs.…

— William Faulkner

“Most of life is just a preparation for getting ready to be dead for a very long period of time.”

— William Faulkner

“I could just remember how my father used to say that the reason for living was to get ready to stay dead…

— William Faulkner

“He was as calm as a god who has seen both life and death, and seen nothing of particular importance in either…

— William Faulkner

...thinking as he had thought before and would think again and as every other man has thought: how false the most profound…

— William Faulkner

“I reckon I'll be at the beck and call of folks with money all my life, but thank God I won't ever…

— William Faulkner

As long as I live under the capitalistic system I expect to have my life influenced by the demands of moneyed people.…

— William Faulkner

“I reckon if there’s ere a man or woman anywhere that He could turn it all over to and go away with…

— William Faulkner

You're looking, sir, at a very dull survivor of a very gaudy life. Crippled, paralyzed in both legs. Very little I can…

— William Faulkner

I think the serious things really are the things that make for happiness--people and things that are compatible, love… So many people…

— William Faulkner

“The aim of every artist is to arrest motion, which is life, by artificial means and hold it fixed so that a…

— William Faulkner

“He just thought quietly, 'So this is love. I see, I was wrong about it too', thinking as he had thought before…

— William Faulkner

a fellow is more afraid of the trouble he might have than he ever is of the trouble he's already got. He'll…

— William Faulkner

The aim of every artist is to arrest motion, which is life, by artificial means and hold it fixed so that a…

— William Faulkner

“He would have to get up sometime, he knew that, just as all life consists of having to get up sooner or…

— William Faulkner

“But you cant be alive forever, and you always wear out life long before you have exhausted the possibilities of living. And…

— William Faulkner

“I tell you, they were not men after spoils and glory; they were boys riding the sheer tremendous tidal wave of desperate…

— William Faulkner

The past is never dead. It's not even past. All of us labor in webs spun long before we were born, webs…

— William Faulkner

“I lied," I said. ... "I know it," he said. "Then do something about it. Do anything, just so it's something." "I…

— William Faulkner

“Ladies and gentlemen, I feel that this award was not made to me as a man, but to my work - a…

— William Faulkner

“And George Farr had the town, the earth, the world to himself and his sorrow. Music came faint as a troubling rumor…

— William Faulkner

“Life is not interested in good and evil. Don Quixote was constantly choosing between good and evil, but then he was choosing…

— William Faulkner

“I could just remember how my father used to say that the reason for living was to get ready to stay dead…

— William Faulkner

It is my aim, and every effort bent, that the sum and history of my life, which in the same sentence is…

— William Faulkner

“It is the man who all his life has been self-convicted of veracity whose lies find quickest credence.”

— William Faulkner

“The aim of every artist is to arrest motion, which is life... and hold it fixed so that 100 years later, when…

— William Faulkner

Time is a fluid condition which has no existence except in the momentary avatars of individual people. There is no such thing…

— William Faulkner

“What matters is at the end of life, when you're about to pass into oblivion, that you've at least scratched 'Kilroy was…

— William Faulkner

“It was hot; heat quivered up from the asphalt, giving to the familiar buildings about the square a nimbus quality, a quality…

— William Faulkner

To live anywhere in the world today and be against equality because of race or color is like living in Alaska and…

— William Faulkner

Clocks slay time... time is dead as long as it is being clicked off by little wheels; only when the clock stops…

— William Faulkner