“Everyone is necessarily the hero of his own life story. Hamlet could be told from Polonius's point of view and called The Tragedy of Polonius, Lord Chamberlain of Denmark. He didn't think he was a minor character in anything, I… — John Barth Copy Share Image
“In life,” he said, “there are no essentially major or minor characters. To that extent, all fiction and biography, and most historiography, are a lie. Everyone is necessarily the hero of his own life story. Hamlet could be told from… — John Barth Copy Share Image
Tis e'er the wont of simple folk to prize the deed and o'erlook the motive, and of learned folk to discount the deed and… — John Barth Copy Share Image
“So, I begin each day with a gesture of cynicism, and close it with a gesture of faith; or, if you prefer, begin it… — John Barth Copy Share Image
I admire writers who can make complicated things simple, but my own talent has been to make simple things complicated. — John Barth Copy Share Image
Printed prose is historically a most peculiar, almost an aberrant way of telling stories, and by far the most inherently anesthetic: It is the… — John Barth Copy Share Image
“There's a great difficulty in making choices if you have any imagination at all. Faced with such a multitude of desireable choices, no one… — John Barth Copy Share Image
The first obligation of the writer is to be interesting. To be interesting; not to change the world. — John Barth Copy Share Image
Yet everyone begins in the same place; how is it that most go along without difficulty but a few lose their way? — John Barth Copy Share Image
A curious thing about written literature: It is about four thousand years old, but we have no way of knowing whether four thousand years… — John Barth Copy Share Image
He wishes he had never entered the funhouse. But he has. Then he wishes he were dead. But he's not. Therefore he will construct… — John Barth Copy Share Image
