Memoirists From The United States

"Mary Antin gave one of the brightest accounts of reaching and penetrating the promised land."

"America fears the unshaven legs, the unshaven men's cheeks, the aroma of perspiration, and the limp prick. Above all it fears the limp prick."

"A proper autobiography is a death-bed confession. A true man finds so much work to do that he has no time to contemplate his yesterdays; for to-day and to-morrow are here, with their impatient tasks. The world is so busy, too, that it cannot afford to study any man's unfinished work; for the end may prove it a failure, and the world needs masterpieces."

"Outside America I should hardly be believed if I told how simply, in my experience, Dover Street merged into the Back Bay."

"It is painful to be consciously of two worlds. The Wandering Jew in me seeks forgetfulness. I am not afraid to live on and on, if only I do not have to remember too much. A long past vividly remembered is like a heavy garment that clings to your limbs when you would run."

"This is a story with an unhappy ending. And I too have become Americanized enough to be terrified of unhappy endings. Yet I have to drop all my work to write it."

"A little instruction in the elements of chartography—a little practice in the use of the compass and the spirit level, a topographical map of the town common, an excursion with a road map—would have given me a fat round earth in place of my paper ghost."

"Give a beggar a dime and he'll bless you. Give him a dollar and he'll curse you for withholding the rest of your fortune. Poverty is a bag with a hole at the bottom."

"I feel like a starved man who is so bewildered by the first sight of food that he wants to grab and devour the ice-cream, the roast, and the entrée all in one gulp. For ages and ages, my people in Russia had no more voice than the broomstick in the corner. The poor had no more chance to say what they thought or felt than the dirt under their feet. And here, in America, a miracle has happened to them. They can lift up their heads like real people. After centries of suppression, they are allowed to speak. Is it a wonder that I am too excited to know where to begin? All the starved, unlived years crowd into my throat and choke me. I don't know whether it is joy or sorrow that hurts me so. I only feel that my release is wrung with the pain of all those back of me who lived and died, their dumbness pressing down on them like stones on the heart. (beginning of "Mostly About Myself")"

"All three children carried themselves rather better than the common run of "green" pupils that were brought to Miss Nixon. But the figure that challenged attention to the group was the tall, straight father, with his earnest face and fine forehead, nervous hands eloquent in gesture, and a voice full of feeling. This foreigner, who brought his children to school as if it were an act of consecration, who regarded the teacher of the primer class with reverence, who spoke of visions, like a man inspired, in a common schoolroom, was not like other aliens, who brought their children in dull obedience to the law; was not like the native fathers, who brought their unmanageable boys, glad to be relieved of their care. I think Miss Nixon guessed what my father's best English could not convey. I think she divined that by the simple act of delivering our school certificates to her he took possession of America."

"My heart chokes in me like in a prison! I'm dying for a little love and I got nobody-nobody!" wailed Shenah Pessah, as she looked out of the dismal basement window. (beginning of "Wings")"

""...When I only begin to read, I forget I'm on this world. It lifts me on wings with high thoughts." ("Wings")"

"The reason is: rats leave the sinking ship but we... we... didn't leave, so the ship didn't sink, and that's madness, Lear's song that's Touchstone's forest jest, that's swan of Avon logic."

"We don't have to know, only to be: let go the jumble of worn words, reason and vanity."

"Be indigestible, hard, ungiving. so that, living within, you beget, self-out-of-self, selfless, that pearl-of-great-price."

"I knew all the poets-their poems-when I was quite young. (Who were your favorites?) G.P.: I loved Robinson Jeffers. I loved Auden, I loved H.D."

"For one moment seek a lesser beauty and a lesser grace, but you will find no peace in the end save in her presence."

"If you're a woman who doesn't know how to write, you're going to cry every night. But if you do, no problem."

"When I was little I definitely was sad a lot and I used to dream. I used to get these obsessive crushes on non-available guys. Not any more, but that was my life for a long time."

"I think there's too much emphasis on beauty. I find it so limiting. I think just be yourself. Be who you are."

"Self acceptance is the sexiest thing to me."

"I refuse to believe that trading recipes is silly. Tuna-fish casserole is at least as real as corporate stock."

"Broadway has been very good to me. But I've been very good to Broadway, too."

"The dying process begins the minute you are born, but it accelerates during dinner parties."

"Think what you've just said. All foods should be healthy. We ate meat without any of the things they inject in cows and chickens these days. Bread tasted like bread. Now everything is refined, teens are fat, people have heart attacks at 39. Does that make me nuts? [...] In the thirties I was told I had a tumor down there. I met with a surgeon who was puffy faced and sweating and his hands trembled. He said he wanted to cut through my rectum to get at the growth. I stood and shouted, "Physician, heal thyself!" and I simply fled. A pure bean sprouts diet cured me in months and the tumor shrank and disappeared. I rest my case."

"I'll be eighty this month. Age, if nothing else, entitles me to set the record straight before I dissolve. I've given my memoirs far more thought than any of my marriages. You can't divorce a book."

"Actors and actresses are overrated...Once just a few people knew about them. Then films started and we found ourselves canned like sardines and sent all over the world. It gave us an exaggerated idea of our importance. A scientist who saves thousands of lives is much more important. I wouldn't be twenty years old today for anything. Films aren't entertainments any more, they are realism. I come out of these films positively exhausted. I want to throw up."

"The really frightening thing about middle age is the knowledge that you'll grow out of it."

"I’ve been through everything. I always said I was like those round-bottomed circus dolls — you know, those dolls you could push down and they’d come back up? I’ve always been like that. I’ve always said, "No matter what happens, if I get pushed down, I’m going to come right back up.""

"Gratitude is riches. Complaint is poverty."

"Being a sex symbol has to do with an attitude, not looks. Most men think it's looks, most women know otherwise."

"A guy who didn’t have the guts to run for president. Little Michael. He doesn’t know anything about me. But he never had the guts to run. He probably wished he did but he didn’t. He spent millions of dollars on polling but he was missing one thing: guts. Little Michael."

"Working collectively and collaboratively is the difference between mediocrity by yourself...or success as a team. You have to share the pain... and the responsibility... and if you do then you will also share in the rewards."

"If we don't get gun-control laws in this country, we are full of beans. To have the National Rifle Association rule the United States is pathetic. And I agree with Mayor Michael Bloomberg: It's time to put up or shut up about gun control for both parties."

"Progress is not inevitable. It's up to us to create it."

"I’ve always wondered if people who block each other from expressing their opinions do so because they have so little confidence in their own. To me, encountering an opposing point of view is a chance to gain a deeper understanding of the issues at stake... and develop my own point of view. But the first thing you’ve got to do is you’ve got to let people speak and you’ve got to listen. And that’s what the first amendment is all about. That’s what really distinguishes this country from others."

"On his controversial initiative "Opportunity NYC": "Now, you might say, 'why should we pay people for doing what they're supposed to do?' It's a fair question -- but think of it this way. Every other anti-poverty program that's been tried has failed to get the national poverty rate below 11 percent. … Why shouldn't we experiment with a program built around the one strategy that has proven time and again to work wonders -- capitalism?""

"Despite the potential to lead us to new cures, the federal government has restricted funding for creating new cell lines – putting the burden of any future research squarely on the shoulders of the private sector. The consequences of this decision have not only driven thousands of scientists overseas in search of more money and greater opportunity – but also put the brakes on the march of medicine. I’ve always wondered how these legislators would act if their health – or their children’s health – was on the line and stem cell research might lead to a cure.""

"I was elected to be independent. I was elected because I owed no political debts. I was elected to “do the job,” and not to spend my first four years in office campaigning. I’ve kept that promise -- and that’s why we face the future with renewed optimism."

"“Others may doubt us. They may criticize us. They may try to deny us what is rightfully ours. But they will fail. And I promise you, as long as I am mayor, I will never back away from fighting any opponent -- or confronting any obstacle -- that would prevent our people from achieving all of their dreams in Our New York.”"

"The federal poverty measurement … hasn't been changed since it was first introduced in 1964. … [T]he formula [doesn't] indicate that we've made any gains in fighting poverty. … [Yet] we have made real progress in fighting poverty and raising living standards since the 70s. … The poverty formula … is bankrupt."

"Despite its potential, the federal government has restricted funding for creating new cell lines – putting the burden of any future research squarely on the shoulders of the private sector. Government’s most basic responsibility, however, is the health and welfare of its people, so it has a duty to encourage appropriate scientific investigations that could possibly save the lives of millions."

"One's a dog-eat-dog world, and the other one's just the opposite."

"Too often, failing government agencies get bigger budgets, while successful agencies have their budgets cut – because government caters to those screaming the loudest, regardless of what they’re screaming about. In business, it’s exactly the opposite! You invest more in the most successful departments, and less in those that aren’t performing."

"Partisanship may be King in Washington – but the rest of us don’t have to pay tribute."

"Our reputation has been hurt very badly in the last few years. We've had a go-it-alone mentality in a world where because of communications and transportation, you should be going exactly in the other direction."

"Taxes are not good things, but if you want services, somebody's got to pay for them so they're a necessary evil."

"Leading from the front: It’s what built America. But these days, the federal government isn’t at the front – it’s cowering in the back corner of the room, ducking responsibility and hoping no one notices."

"If you want to get the best people to run for office, we’ve got to make the rules easier, and simpler, and more understandable to get on the ballot."

"Government by three men in a room has turned New York State into a national symbol of governmental dysfunction. Enough is enough!"