J R Quotes

“If you want to make a million you don't have to understand money, what you have to understand is people's fears about money”
― William Gaddis, J R

“-Put on the lights there, now. Before we go any further here, has it ever occurred to any of you that all this is simply one grand misunderstanding? Since you're not here to learn anything, but to be taught so you can pass these tests, knowledge has to be organized so it can be taught, and it has to be reduced to information so it can be organized do you follow that? In other words this leads you to assume that organization is an inherent property of knowledge itself, and that disorder and chaos are simply irrelevant forces that threaten it from outside. In fact it's exactly the opposite. Order is simply a thin, perilous condition we try to impose on the basic reality of chaos...”
― William Gaddis, J R

“I mean why should somebody go steal and break the law to get all they can when there's always some law where you can be legal and get it all anyway!”
― William Gaddis, J R

“Has it ever occurred to any of you that all this is simply one grand misunderstanding? Since you're not here to learn anything, but to be taught so you can pass these tests, knowledge has to be organized so it can be taught, and it has to be reduced to information so it can be organized do you follow that? In other words this leads you to assume that organization is an inherent property of the knowledge itself, and that disorder and chaos are simply irrelevant forces that threaten it from the outside. In fact it's exactly the opposite. Order is simply a thin, perilous condition we try to impose on the basic reality of chaos...”
― William Gaddis, J R

“The function of this school is custodial. It’s here to keep these kids off the streets until the girls are big enough to get pregnant and the boys are old enough to go out and hold up a gas station.”
― William Gaddis, J R

“Get a black suit and just freeload, problem it's too God damned late now even to be any of the things I never wanted to be.”
― William Gaddis, J R

“-And there's this twelve thousand dollars item for books.
-That supposed to be twelve hundred, the twelve thousand is for paper.
towels. Besides there is already that bequest for the library.
-Did it say books in so many words? No. It's just a bequest for the library.
-Use it for pegboard. You need pegboard in a library. Books you don't know what you're getting into.”
― William Gaddis, J R

“You see I still have confidence in you sir, or should I say the artist who dwells within you, the artist who disdains such mundane details as selecting a fresh shirt in the morning, who steps forth into the workday world the rest of us inhabit indifferent to the glances he draws because his shoes fail to match, why? Because his mind has been elsewhere, his inner ear tuned to the sonorous tones of horn and kettledrum, tones it is his sacred duty to let us hear with him.”
― William Gaddis, J R

“—Problem what happened he always woke up the same person went to bed the night before only way he knew it these God damned words going through his head, go to bed knew he’d wake up the same God damned person finally couldn’t take it anymore, same God damned words waiting for him only thing to do get rid of the God damned container for the thing contained, God damned words come around next morning God damned container smashed on the sidewalk no place for them to . . .”
― William Gaddis, J R

“-Money? in a voice that rustled.”
― William Gaddis, J R

“Sixteen years like living with a God damned invalid sixteen years every time you come in sitting there waiting just like you left him wave his stick at you, plump up his pillow cut a paragraph add a sentence hold his God damned hand little warm milk add a comma slip out for some air pack of cigarettes come back in right where you left him, eyes follow you around the room wave his God damned stick figure out what the hell he wants, plump the God damned pillow change bandage read aloud move a clause around wipe his chin new paragraph God damned eyes follow you out stay a week, stay a month whole God damned year think about something else, God damned friends asking how he’s coming along all expect him out any day don’t want bad news no news rather hear lies, big smile out any day now, walk down the street God damned sunshine begin to think maybe you’ll meet him maybe cleared things up got out by himself come back open the God damned door right there where you left him . . . —William Gaddis on writing a novel”
― William Gaddis, J R

“our view of life's misleading but of course we have bad seats" — spoken by Mister Gibbs (I think?)”
― William Gaddis, J R

“You just can’t understand anything you can’t get your hands on, anything you can’t feel or see or, or count...”
― William Gaddis, J R

“... and she turned for the stairs as the sound of rain came, finally, scattered across the roof, a fall that now gave substance to the stilled beams of headlamps in the drive where those of flashlights rose and fell to the cadenced steps come back and round the range of yew and up the terrace and through the door to fall on broken glass and flee across the inkstained carpet, darting, climbing, caught fixed in niches, they scaled the walls and leaped the beams to skirt the hayloft.”
― William Gaddis, J R

“No, no I've failed enough at other people's things I've done enough of other people's damage from now on I'm just going to do my own, from now on I'm going to fail at my own”
― William Gaddis, J R

“I love you for reasons you'll never know anything about”
― William Gaddis, J R

“No you won’t understand will you! that your own selfish suffering’s easier than facing suffering you’ve caused”
― William Gaddis, J R

“And finally the gray yielded to dark, the clock made another try at striking the hour, missed, waited, tried again unheard, again, until the alarm stung the silence into another sunless day”
― William Gaddis, J R

“In simple straightforward terms Dan, you might say that he structured the material in terms of the ongoing situation to tangibilitate the utilization potential of this one to one instructional medium in such a meaningful learning experience that these
kids won’t forget it for a hell of a long time, how's that Whiteback.”
― William Gaddis, J R

“It’s just, sometimes it's just too God damned long to be able to keep believing something's real...”
― William Gaddis, J R

“A bell sounded silencing motion where anything moved, hurling motionlessness into activity, books gathered at a sweep, papers to the floor, a glove through the air.”
― William Gaddis, J R

“What do you mean do I go around with narcotics signing petitions painting slop writing books full of dirty words with a beard?”
― William Gaddis, J R

“has it ever occurred to any of you that all this is simply one grand misunderstanding? Since you’re not here to learn anything, but to be taught so you can pass these tests, knowledge has to be organized so it can be taught, and it has to be reduced to information so it can be organized do you follow that? In other words this leads you to assume that organization is an inherent property of the knowledge itself, and that disorder and chaos are simply irrelevant forces that threaten it from outside. In fact it’s exactly the opposite. Order is simply a thin, perilous condition we try to impose on the basic reality of chaos . . ”
― William Gaddis, J R

“success and like free enterprise and all”
― william gaddis, J R

“I guess we all know somebody like him, talk him out of suicide till the day one of you finally dies in bed like talking to yourself most of the time . . .”
― William Gaddis, J R

“the one station that played music great music left in the whole loud cheap pounding stupidity of radio you find it and make it cheap and stupid like all the rest of you could, if there was one flower out here in this mud and weeds and broken toilet seats you’d find it and step on it, the minute you...
- okay wait look is it my fault if...
- The minute you get your hands on something the power to keep something like that going you couldn’t do it you couldn’t even leave it alone for a few people still looking for something beautiful, people who’d rather hear a symphony than eat who can still, who hear a magnificent soprano voice singing ach nein when you hear this here lady singing up mine you can’t get up to their level so you drag them down to yours if there’s any way to ruin something, to degrade it to cheapen it...”
― William Gaddis, J R

“I, I should have just done what you wanted me to in the first place”
― William Gaddis, J R

“...and clear the mile away the wind might bring its sound from the tracks when the wind lay right, blowing off the day and finally letting the darkness settle, and damp, for day to return like a rumor of day and lurk in the sky unable to break”
― William Gaddis, J R

“- Hi is Mrs Eigen here?
- All out of them.
- Oh, then would, would you like to buy some greeting cards then?
- Tom got a boy here selling greeting cards, what grade are you in.
- Six M, Mrs Manzinel ...
- Tom boy out here working his way through six N selling greeting cards. What's the greetings.
- Well see these are all occasion cards, like for all different occasions they're all ...
- All occasion cards Tom, got them for all different occasions.
- Like birthdays, anniversary, you know all these different occasions like ..
- Got a friend jumped out a window, got a card for that?
- Well gee I, maybe get well...
- Can't get well, went home and hung himself got a card for that?
- Well gee I, I don't think so but maybe you could ...
- Got a woman on alimony sleeping with a book salesman hell of an occasion, got a card for that?
- Well gee I, like here's sympathy maybe you could ..
- Jack God damn it what are you, hello Chris what is it.
- Oh hi Mister Eigen I, I was just selling these greeting cards ...
- Says they're for all occasions Tom but every God damned occasion I can think of is ...
- Jack shut up will you?”
― William Gaddis, J R

“Point is whole God damned point is she wants to be taken seriously needs a supporting cast, talented woman never been allowed to do anything sits here all day drinking Mister Clean works up a whole God damned drama has a part for everybody. Arabs Israelis Irish same God damned thing scared maybe nobody takes them seriously, God damned Irish know everybody knows they're a God damned joke so the worse they get, God damned self-righteous Israelis same God damned thing take the top half of the double boiler leave the Arabs the bottom half everybody so God damned sick of all of them all they do is run around shouting for an audience somewhere to take them seriously same God damned thing, fill this up? Whole God damned problem tastes like apricots, whole God damned problem listen whole God damned problem read Wiener on communication, more complicated the message more God damned chance for errors, take a few years of marriage such a God damned complex of messages going both ways can't get a God damned thing across. God damned much entropy going on say good morning she's got a damned headache thinks you don't give a God damn how she feels, ask her how she feels she thinks you just want to get laid, try that she says it's the only God damn thing you take seriously about her puts you out of business and goes running around like the God damned Israelis waving the top half of the double boiler have to tell everybody they're right. God damned Arabs mad as hell sitting there with the bottom half pretend you take them seriously only thing you want is their God damned oil ...
- Jack listen you could get damn sick on this stuff if you ...
- Want their God damned oil have to respect them for themself, always find some God damned slob around ready to listen respect her for herself nods gravely looking up her skirt, talented woman never been allowed to do anything just listens doesn't make any God damned difference to her who he is takes her seriously, finally sure he's not just after her double boiler spreads the bottom half for him same God damned thing starts all over again, tastes like apricots what the hell is it.”
― William Gaddis, J R