“INTERVIEWER Why don’t you write tragedy? BARTHELME I’m fated to deal in mixtures, slumgullions, which preclude tragedy, which require a pure line.… — Donald Barthelme Copy Share Image
The writer is one who, emnbarking upon a task, does not know what to do. — Donald Barthelme Copy Share Image
Endings are elusive, middles are nowhere to be found, but worst of all is to begin, to begin, to begin. — Donald Barthelme Copy Share Image
Painters, especially American painters since the Second World War, have been much more troubled, beset by formal perplexity, than American writers. They've… — Donald Barthelme Copy Share Image
I think writers like old cities and are made very nervous by new cities. — Donald Barthelme Copy Share Image
As Jules Renard said, no matter how much care an author takes to write as few books as possible, there will be… — Donald Barthelme Copy Share Image
The writer is one who, embarking upon a task, does not know what to do... Writing is a process of dealing with… — Donald Barthelme Copy Share Image
Maybe writing can't be taught, but editing can be taught—prayer, fasting and self-mutilation. — Donald Barthelme Copy Share Image
Art is not difficult because it wishes to be difficult, rather because it wishes to be art. However much the writer might… — Donald Barthelme Copy Share Image
And I sat there getting drunker and drunker and more in love and more in love...And you can never touch a girl in the… — Donald Barthelme Copy Share Image
“The story ends. It was written for several reasons. Nine of them are secrets. The tenth is that one should never cease considering human… — Donald Barthelme Copy Share Image
“INTERVIEWER Why don’t you write tragedy? BARTHELME I’m fated to deal in mixtures, slumgullions, which preclude tragedy, which require a pure line. It’s a… — Donald Barthelme Copy Share Image
“Do I want to be loved in spite of?Do you? Does anyone? But aren't we all to some degree? Aren't there important parts of… — Donald Barthelme Copy Share Image
“Of course we had hoped that he would take up his sword as part of the President's war on poetry. The time is ripe… — Donald Barthelme Copy Share Image
Capitalism places every man in competition with his fellows for a share of the available wealth. A few people accumulate big piles, but most… — Donald Barthelme Copy Share Image
“You came and fell upon me, I was sitting in the wicker chair. The wicker exclaimed as your weight fell upon me. You were… — Donald Barthelme Copy Share Image
“Mother, have you noticed that this society we’re in tends to be a little…repressive?” “What does that mean, Eugenie? What does that mean, that… — Donald Barthelme Copy Share Image
I keep wondering if, say, there is intelligent life on other planets, the scientists argue that something like two percent of the other planets… — Donald Barthelme Copy Share Image
“This muck heaves and palpitates. It is multi-directional and has a mayor.” — Donald Barthelme Copy Share Image
“They were heading I judged for the Sixth Precinct. Had I had the black hat with me, and sufficient men and horses and lariats… — Donald Barthelme Copy Share Image
