Norman Mailer quotes

Norman Mailer (1923-2007) was an iconic American novelist, journalist, and filmmaker. Known for his sharp wit and unabashed commentary, Mailer left an indelible mark on American literature. His groundbreaking works, such as "The Naked and the Dead" and "The Executioner's Song," explored themes of war, politics, masculinity, and the human condition. A controversial figure, Mailer challenged societal norms with his controversial behavior and unapologetic opinions. With a rich and imaginative writing style, he crafted powerful narratives that resonated with readers. Beyond his literary achievements, Mailer also co-founded The Village Voice and delved into filmmaking, earning critical acclaim for his documentary "Maidstone." Norman Mailer's contributions to American literature remain timeless, showcasing his fearless exploration of complex subjects and his unwavering commitment to the art of storytelling.

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

- Norman Mailer

Growth, in some curious way, I suspect, depends on being always in motion just a little bit, one way or another.

- Norman Mailer

Masculinity is not something given to you, but something you gain. And you gain it by winning small battles with honor.

- Norman Mailer

The Irish are the only men who know how to cry for the dirty polluted blood of all the world.

- Norman Mailer

Revolutions are the periods of history when individuals count most.

- Norman Mailer

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

- Norman Mailer

I had a quick grasp of the secret to sanity, it had become the ability to hold the maximum of impossible combinations in one's mind.

- Norman Mailer

If a person is not talented enough to be a novelist, not smart enough to be a lawyer, and his hands are too shaky to perform operations, he becomes a journalist.

- Norman Mailer

Because there is very little honor left in American life, there is a certain built-in tendency to destroy masculinity in American men.

- Norman Mailer

Once a newspaper touches a story, the facts are lost forever, even to the protagonists.

- Norman Mailer

Culture's worth huge, huge risks. Without culture we're all totalitarian beasts.

- Norman Mailer

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

- Norman Mailer

Giving a camera to Diane Arbus is like putting a live grenade in the hands of a child.

- Norman Mailer

I hate everything which is not in myself.

- Norman Mailer

With the pride of the artist, you must blow against the walls of every power that exists the small trumpet of your defiance.

- Norman Mailer

The difference between writing a book and being on television is the difference between conceiving a child and having a baby made in a test tube.

- Norman Mailer

God like Us suffers the ambition to make a destiny more extraordinary than was conceived for Him, yes God is like Me, only more so.

- Norman Mailer

Hip is the sophistication of the wise primitive in a giant jungle.

- Norman Mailer

What characterizes a member of a minority group is that he is forced to see himself as both exceptional and insignificant, marvelous and awful, good and evil.

- Norman Mailer

There's a subterranean impetus towards pornography so powerful that half the business world is juiced by the sort of half sex that one finds in advertisements.

- 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 discharges the tension.

- Norman Mailer

I don't think life is absurd. I think we are all here for a huge purpose. I think we shrink from the immensity of the purpose we are here for.

- Norman Mailer

Tough guys don't dance. You had better believe it.

- Norman Mailer

Alimony is the curse of the writing class.

- Norman Mailer

It's not a good idea to put your wife into a novel; not your latest wife anyway.

- Norman Mailer

The function of socialism is to raise suffering to a higher level.

- Norman Mailer

Obsession is the single most wasteful human activity, because with an obsession you keep coming back and back and back to the same question and never get an answer.

- Norman Mailer

A modern democracy is a tyranny whose borders are undefined; one discovers how far one can go only by traveling in a straight line until one is stopped.

- Norman Mailer

There was that law of life, so cruel and so just, that one must grow or else pay more for remaining the same.

- Norman Mailer

In America all too few blows are struck into flesh. We kill the spirit here, we are experts at that. We use psychic bullets and kill each other cell by cell.

- Norman Mailer