All Edward Abbey Quotes
- Why the critics, like a flock of ducks, always move in perfect unison: Their authority with the public depends upon an appearance of unanimous agreement.… Agreement
- It is not the writer's task to answer questions but to question answers. To be impertinent, insolent, and, if necessary, subversive. Answer
- A good writer must have more than vin rose in his veins, use more than Chablis for ink. Chablis
- Why do I write? I write to entertain my friends and to exasperate our enemies. To unfold the folded lie, to record to truth of… Bliss
- The author: an imaginary person who writes real books. Author
- I wait. Now the night flows back, the mighty stillness embraces and includes me; I can see the stars again and the world of starlight. I am… Embrace
- Going to bed with Gertrude Stein, Jeane Kirkpatrick, Susan Sontag, or Margaret Thatcher: There are some things one prefers neither to do nor to have… Bed
- Football is a game for trained apes. That, in fact, is what most of the players are -- retarded gorillas wearing helmets and uniforms. The… Apes
- Those art lovers who pride themselves mostly on *taste* usually possess no other talent. Art
- Baseball serves as a good model for democracy in action: Every player is equally important and each has a chance to be a hero. Action
- As between the skulking and furtive poacher, who hunts for the sake of meat, and the honest gentleman shooter, who kills for the pleasure of… Find
- If a man’s imagination were not so weak, so easily tired, if his capacity for wonder not so limited, he would abandon forever such fantasies… Abandon
- The night I filled an inside straight: Even a blind hog's gonna root up an acorn once in a while. Acorn
- When riding my old Harley a ninety per at midnight down the Via Roma in Naples, I kept one consolation firmly in mind: If anything… Anything Goes
- It's true: Every time you kill an elk, you're saving some cow's life. Cow
- Tee Vee football: one team wins, one team loses -- they tie -- who cares? And why? Care
- Music begins where words leave off. Music expresses the inexpressible. If there is a Kingdom of Heaven, it lies in music. Begins
- How did Haydn and Mozart produce such vast quantities of formally perfect art? They worked from a perfect formula. In music, Beethoven was the Great… Art
- If there's anything I hate, it's the vibraphone. And the cha-cha-cha. And Latin rhythms generally. Cha Cha
- The critics say that Shostakovich's Fourth Symphony has no form. They are wrong; it has the form of Shostakovich's Fourth Symphony. Critics
- As Mark Twain said, 'I love Wagner -- if only they'd cut out all that damned singing!' All
- Opera: I like it, except for all those howling sopranos and caterwauling tenors. (Why can't tenors sing like men?) All
- Grand opera is a form of musical entertainment for people who hate music. Entertainment
- The best argument for Christianity is the Gregorian chant. Listening to that music, one can believe anything -- while the music lasts. Argument
- Reincarnation? There is such a thing. What could be more Mozartian than the Nutcracker Suite? Inspirational