Adult life Quote by John Barth

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

I admire writers who can make complicated things simple, but my own talent has been to make simple things complicated.

— John Barth

“That clever folk care less for what ye think than why ye think it.”

— John Barth

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

“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

Self knowledge is always bad news.

— John Barth

The first obligation of the writer is to be interesting. To be interesting; not to change the world.

— John Barth

Yet everyone begins in the same place; how is it that most go along without difficulty but a few lose their way?

— John Barth

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

Nothing is loathsomer than the self-loathing of a self one loathes.

— John Barth

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

“Am I boring you? I don't really care, I suppose, but I'll be more comfortable if I knew all this interested you. No doubt…

— John Barth