Norman Mailer

The natural role of twentieth-century man is anxiety.

— Norman Mailer

“Red had a deep loathing of the night before them. He had been through so much combat, had felt so many kinds…

— Norman Mailer

To know what you want to say is not the best condition for writing a novel. Novels go happiest when you discover…

— Norman Mailer

The horror of the Twentieth Century was the size of each new event, and the paucity of its reverberation.

— Norman Mailer

In America few people will trust you unless you are irreverent.

— Norman Mailer

I respect most boxers because they're violent people who learned to discipline themselves ... a good boxer is an artist ... Boxing…

— Norman Mailer

I guess all that's left is to love the fire.

— Norman Mailer

It's not the sentiments of men which make history but their actions.

— Norman Mailer

“He knew that again now. Hennessey’s death had opened to Croft vistas of such omnipotence that he was afraid to consider it…

— Norman Mailer

“The Anti-Semiten. Why don’t they ever learn? Why does God permit it?” Roth sneered. “God is a luxury I don’t give myself.”

— Norman Mailer

A book of great beauty and manically exquisite insight with a wild and deadly humor . . . The only American novelist…

— Norman Mailer

When I read it, I don't wince, which is all I ever ask for a book I write.

— Norman Mailer

I think it's bad to talk about one's present work, for it spoils something at the root of the creative act. It…

— Norman Mailer

“The compulsive talker must go through the herculean transformation of learning to quit or must become a great monologuist.”

— Norman Mailer

Revolutions are the periods of history when individuals count most.

— Norman Mailer

“His decision had been made in the valley, and it lay as an iron warp in his mind. He could have turned…

— Norman Mailer

“I heard from clear across the city, over the Hudson in the Jersey yards, one fierce whistle of a locomotive which took…

— Norman Mailer

The condition that is most disagreeable in your life becomes the most useful one. You know, I feel the same way about…

— Norman Mailer

“Don't bug me or I'll gas you said the creep”

— Norman Mailer

The ultimate tendency of liberalism is vegetarianism.

— Norman Mailer

There are these two kinds of patriotism. There's blind patriotism, unflagging patriotism. And then there's the patriotism that says I live in…

— Norman Mailer

Dying cant be all that difficult, up to now everyone has managed to do it.

— Norman Mailer

“His nerves were more keyed than he had realized. "Quit the bitching and let's go," he heard himself piping. He was damn…

— Norman Mailer

The mark of mediocrity is to look for precedent.

— Norman Mailer

You don't know a woman until you've met her in court.

— Norman Mailer