pulitzer-prize-winners

"An interviewer once asked him whether he had any advice for young writers starting out. "No," he answered, "if a writer is going to get anywhere, he doesn't listen to anybody.""

"Poetry is everywhere; it just needs editing."

"The West, at bottom, is a form of society, rather than an area. It is the term applied to the region whose social conditions result from the application of older institutions and ideas to the transforming influences of free land. By this application, a new environment is suddenly entered, freedom of opportunity is opened, the cake of custom is broken, and new activities, new lines of growth, new institutions and new ideals, are brought into existence. The wilderness disappears, the "West" proper passes on to a new frontier, and in the former area, a new society has emerged from its contact with the backwoods. [...] Decade after decade, West after West, this rebirth of American society has gone on, has left its traces behind it, and has reacted on the East."

"American democracy was born of no theorist's dream; it was not carried in the Sarah Constant to Virginia, nor in the Mayflower to Plymouth. It came out of the American forest, and it gained new strength each time it touched a new frontier. Not the constitution, but free land and an abundance of natural resources open to a fit people, made the democratic type of society in America for three centuries while it occupied its empire."

"The environment men create through their wants becomes a mirror that reflects their civilization; more importantly it also constitutes a book in which is written the formula of life that they communicate to others and transmit to succeeding generations. The characteristics of the environment are therefore of importance not only because they affect the comfort and quality of present-day life, but even more because they condition the development of young people and thereby of society."

"I’ve always been fascinated with this sense that every single person walking down the street has a whole story. It’s so interesting to think about the vast variety of things that can take place within one person’s life, and how nobody ever really knows it, because we only tell parts of our story to different people, and oh, I just want to know it so much! I always have, so I make it up."

"There’s a part of me in every I write, whether it’s male or female, because everything has to go through me. Everything I’ve observed or heard or whatever—it all has to go through me. I’m the one who makes these people up, and so there’s a part of me in some form in all of these people, but I really have made them up. But they’re so real to me, you know? By the time I’m done with them on the page, they’re very, very real to me. They’re just as real to me as anybody that I’ve ever met."

"Success did come to me later, but that was okay, I could feel myself getting better with each story or book. Age does matter to me — but that doesn’t mean it has to matter to all writers. It matters to me because as I age my work gets better, but more importantly, I live through more things and see more things, and therefore have more things to say."

"Traditional conservatives are as anti-fascist as any liberal. Their political vision is derived by libertarian thinkers of past centuries, such as John Locke and Edmund Burke. Their modern philosophy was articulated by erudite commentators like William F. Buckley and George Will. Their political heroes are men like Ronald Reagan and John McCain. Today on the right, there are plenty of folks who call themselves conservatives -- they are all over social media, they fill every time slot of Fox News and they dominate the Republican Party. Yet, these claimants to a long tradition that favors limited government, the rule of law and the advancement of liberty are unquestioning supporters of a president whose actions are those of a lawless, aspiring dictator. These people who claim to be conservatives, yet enthusiastically cheer for a man who violates the core tenets of traditional conservatism every day, should stop pretending they are something they are not and simply accept the better description of what they have become. It is a word that starts with F."

"When is it correct to use the F-word? Not the four-letter one that has become so common it barely raises an eyebrow, the seven-letter political word: fascist. The term arose with the early 20th century European political movement that gave us Hitler and Mussolini, so it weighs heavy with the horrors of World War II and the Holocaust. But, arguably, there are 21st century fascist regimes, even if they do not brand themselves with the term. Hungary’s leader, Viktor Orban, probably qualifies as a fascist. Russian President Vladimir Putin certainly does. Even the supposedly communist regime in China is more fascist than Marxist. Broadly defined, what is a fascist? Here are some key characteristics: A fascist supports a charismatic nationalist leader who seeks total or near total power. A fascist is a member of a party or a movement that supports that leader without question. Fascists believe political opposition is illegitimate and subversive and that perceived enemies of the state -- whether in the media, in popular culture, in academia or in competing political parties -- must be suppressed or, if it is the leader’s wish, prosecuted and tossed into prison. A fascist believes private industry, the courts and elected officials should all be in thrall to the leader. And a fascist has no objection to the leader’s quasi-military secret police committing acts of political violence and rounding up alien groups perceived to be a detriment to the homeland."

"These mercenaries do not serve the country, they serve a regime that excuses their unjustified violence and lies about their lawless actions. President Donald Trump falsely alleges that Renee Good, the mother of three gunned down in Minneapolis by an ICE agent, was a “professional agitator” who showed “disrespect” for law enforcement. His toady press secretary, Karoline Leavitt, who will say any despicable thing to please her boss, accused Good of being “a lunatic.” The Homeland Security boss, Kristi Noem, branded Good a “domestic terrorist.” There is zero evidence of any of the Trump administration’s slander. Renee Good was, indeed, out on the street to monitor the actions of ICE, but, as anyone can see in the video taken seconds before she was murdered, she was smiling at the ICE agents and telling them she was not mad at them. Good was, in fact, doing what she had been ordered to do, moving her vehicle out of the way. Trump and his team are even bigger cowards than the cosplay cops they have sent to terrorize immigrants and punish Democratic cities. It takes leaders with maturity and guts to admit fault and accept accountability. The cruel clowns in the White House will never be brave enough to do that."

"This is what it has come to in America. An aspiring-authoritarian president has assembled his own poorly trained army of aggressive thugs who hide their identities, flout legal procedures and use excessive force on a daily basis. And even when the force they apply proves lethal, the president, the vice president, a cabinet secretary and the rest of Trump’s lackeys and henchmen, defend these marauding goons with brazen lies that challenge citizens to not believe their own eyes. Two-hundred-and-fifty years ago, Americans rebelled against a king who was sending troops into American cities. Those British troops acted with far more restraint than the thugs to whom the Trump administration has given free rein to assault and even murder both citizens and non-citizens. As in 1776, the depredations of a new would-be tyrant must be resisted by all who love liberty. If that strikes you as melodramatic, tell it to the children of Renee Good."

"The big, macho men from ICE who are storming around American cities like Visigoths are a bunch of cowards. They arm themselves as if they are battling ISIS terrorists in Iraq while the only threat they face is common American citizens with whistles and protest signs. They break into private homes without warrants, they gas school kids, they tackle women on the street, they smash into the cars of American citizens. And one of them summarily executed a mother of three children because -- well, because he could. They think they are tough, but they are punks hiding behind masks. They are poorly-trained thugs dressed up like real soldiers who think they are living out a video game where they get points for assaulting anyone who gets in their way. They are the farthest thing from the real cops who police communities with restraint, discipline and a knowledge of the law."

"The conversations are uncomfortable, and the discomfort is also an improvement. Few people in power who feel comfortable with the status quo push for systemic changes that level the playing field."

"If you believe you’ll have to try and fail a lot to make a killer product, it’s not a bad idea to work on fun, lighthearted and relatively cheap products that you can quickly learn from."

"Once, while reporting out a story about Uber, I saw lots of Uber reporters and sources were on Telegram at the same time, or had been within five minutes of one another. I experienced a horrifying cocktail of anxiety and agitation. I try to use it sparingly."

"Operating system updates are like a periodic hazing ritual."

"I’m not super hopeful about returns here, since these are lower-margin businesses than software companies. But some will get out the door fast enough to make money for early investors."

"They [Beijing journalist expatriates] liked talking to people and being in the city. They didn’t live in gated communities with maids."

"There were classes and professors I liked, but I had no professional aspirations."

"I hope they’re treated as kindly as the white guys who are dead weight at their venture funds and who mismanage their companies, but are given third and fourth and fifth chances. The change is always slow and imperfect, but it has to start somewhere."

"The fact that women and men are willing to talk openly about abuse, harassment and bullying is a huge improvement."

"You must call up every strength you own And you can rip off the whole facial mask."

"And you, whiner, who wastes your time Dawdling over the remorseless earth, What evil, what unspeakable crime Have you made your life worth?"

"You seem to be all finished, so We'll plug your old recalcitrant anus And tie up your discouraged penis In a great, snow-white bow of gauze."

"—All this Dark Age machinery On which we had tormented you To life."

"You still whispered you would not die. Yet the nights I heard you cry Like a whipped child;"

"I have not learned how often I Can win, can love, but choose to die."

"Though trees turn bare and girls turn wives, We shall afford our costly seasons; There is a gentleness survives That will outspeak and has its reasons. There is a loveliness exists, Preserves us, not for specialists."

"I haven't read one book about A book or memorized one plot. Or found a mind I did not doubt. I learned one date. And then forgot. And one by one the solid scholars Get the degrees, the jobs, the dollars."

"I happened to find Your picture. That picture. I stopped there cold, Like a man raking piles of dead leaves in his yard Who has turned up a severed hand."

"—Before we drained out one another’s force With lies, self-denial, unspoken regret And the sick eyes that blame; before the divorce And the treachery. Say it: before we met. Still, I put back your picture. Someday, in due course, I will find that it’s still there."

"Ah, what avails the tenure race, Ah, what the Ph.D., When all departments have a place For nincompoops like thee?"

"Where, where is the long, flowing hair, The velvet suit, the broad bow tie; Where is the other-worldly air, Where the abstracted eye?"

"Is it, then, your opinion Women are putty in your hands? Is this the face to launch upon A thousand one night stands?"

"Have you subversive, out of date, Or controversial ideas?"

"It was the nature of the thing: No moon outlives its leaving night, No sun its day. And I went on Rich in the loss of all I sing To the threshold of waking light, To larksong and the live, gray dawn. So night by night, my life has gone."

"In darkness and in hedges I sang my sour tone and all my love was howling conspicuously alone."

"Riot in Algeria, in Cyprus, in Alabama; Aged in wrong, the empires are declining, And China gathers, soundlessly, like evidence. What shall I say to the young on such a morning?— Mind is the one salvation?—also grammar?— No; my little ones lean not toward revolt."

"Up the reputable walks of old established trees They stalk, children of the nouveaux riches; chimes Of the tall Clock Tower drench their heads in blessing."

"After experience taught me that all the ordinary Surroundings of social life are futile and vain;"

"Where are the beard, the bongo drums, Tattered T-shirt and grubby sandals, As who, released from Iowa, comes To tell of wondrous scandals?"

"They wear their godhead lightly. They look out from their hill and say, To themselves, "We have nowhere to go but down; The great destination is to stay.""

"The sleek, expensive girls I teach, Younger and pinker every year, Bloom gradually out of reach."

"I taught myself to name my name, To bark back, loosen love and crying; To ease my woman so she came, To ease an old man who was dying."

"We Americans are a simple and somewhat primitive people. We desire things eagerly like children; and when we are crossed or thwarted, when we encounter those who dissent from our proposals, we strike out assertively. The state of Washington is characteristically American, with the virtues and shortcomings of the old stock set in sharp relief. In what temper our Economics and politics will dwell together in the immediate future, no wise man will endeavor to forecast."

"Those older satirists—nagging souls like Pope and bold bad fellows like —were mainly concerned to annoy their victims with pin-pricks. They were too completely the gentleman to grow chummy with base fellows whom they frankly despised; and in consequence they never discovered half the possibilities of the gentle art of satire. Sinclair Lewis is wiser than they were. He has learned that before one can effectively impale one's victim, one must know his weaknesses and take him off his guard."

"Perhaps the rarest bit of irony in American history is the later custodianship of democracy by the middle class, who while perfecting their tariffs and subsidies, legislating from the bench, exploiting the state and outlawing all political theories but their own, denounce all class consciousness as unpatriotic and all agrarian or proletarian programs as undemocratic. But it was no fault of Andrew Jackson if the final outcome of the great movement of Jacksonian democracy was so untoward; it was rather the fault of the times that were not ripe for democracy. ... One far-reaching result survived the movement, the popularization of the name of democracy and the naive acceptance of the belief that the genius of America was democratic."

"Ideas are not godlings that spring perfect-winged from the head of Jove; they are not flowers that bloom in a walled garden; they are weapons hammered out on the anvil of human needs. Freedom to think is bought with a price; and to ignore the price is to lose all sense of values. To love ideas is excellent, but to understand how ideas themselves are conditioned by social forces, is better still. To desire culture, to enjoy commerce with the best that has been known and thought in the world is excellent also; but to understand the dynamics which lies back of all culture signifies more. Men who will be free, struggle to be free, fashion themselves ideas for swords to fight with. To consider the sword apart from the struggle is to turn dilettante and a frequenter of museums."

"There is a certain historical fitness in the fact that the should have arisen in Connecticut and been the intellectual and spiritual children of Yale. For generations the snug little commonwealth had been the home of a tenacious conservatism, that clung to old ways and guarded the institutions of the fathers with pious zeal. In no other New England state did the ruling hierarchy maintain so glacial a grip on society. The Revolution of '76 had only ruffled the surface of Connecticut life; it left the social structure quite unchanged. The church retained its unquestioned control of the machinery of the commonwealth; and the church was dominated by a clerical aristocracy, hand in glove with a mercantile aristocracy."