"I believed from the beginning of remembered experience that I was somebody with an incalculable potential for enlargement, somebody who both knew and could find out, upon whom demands could be made with the expectation of having them fulfilled. I felt at the same time, and pretty much constantly, that I was nothing in relation to Enormity, the Unknown, and the Unknowable. I was too vulnerable, too lacking in power, a thing of subtle reality, liable to be blown away without a moment's warning, a migrant with no meaning, no guide, no counsel, an entity in continuous transition, a growing thing whose stages of growth always went unnoticed, a fluid and flawed thing. Thus, there could be no extreme vanity in my recognition of myself, if in fact there could be any at all. I did frequently rejoice in the recognition, but I may have gotten that from some of the Protestant hymns I had heard, and knew, and had sung, such as Joy to the World. The simple fact was that if the song wasn't about me, I couldn't see how it could possibly be about anybody else, including the one I knew it was supposed to be about, and good luck to him, too."
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Pulitzer Prize winnersHumanistsPlaywrights from the United StatesNovelists from CaliforniaNovelists from Armenia
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William Saroyan
William Saroyan (31 August 1908 β 18 May 1981) was an Armenian American author, famous for his novel The Human Comedy (1943) and other works dealing with the comedies and tragedies of everyday existence.
193 quotes on TrueQuotesView all quotes by William Saroyan β
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