Joe Gould's Secret Quotes

“That’s one of the damnedest things I ever found out about human emotions and how treacherous they can be - the fact that you can hate a place with all your heart and soul and still be homesick for it. Not to speak of the fact that you can hate a person with all your heart and soul and still long for that person.”
― Joseph Mitchell, Joe Gould's Secret

“I was coughing and sneezing, my eyes were sore, my knees were shaky, I was as hungry as a bitch wolf, and I had exactly eight cents to my name. I didn't care. my history was longer by eleven thousand brand-new words, and at that moment I bet there wasn't a chairman of the board in all New York as happy as I.”
― Joseph Mitchell, Joe Gould's Secret

“I was young then, and much more
courteous to older people – and to everyone else, for that matter, as I look
back on it – than I should have been. Also, I had not yet found out about
time; I was still under the illusion that I had plenty of time – time for this,
time for that, time for everything, time to waste.”
― Joseph Mitchell, Joe Gould's Secret

“As the young reporter listens, it
dawns on him that it is not the South that he longs for but the past, the
South’s past and his own past, neither of which, in the way that he has been
driven by homesickness to think of them, ever really existed, and that it is
time for him to move out of the time gone by and into the here and now – it
is time for him to grow up. When the sermon is over, he goes back
downtown feeling that the old man has set him free, and that he is now a
citizen of the city and a citizen of the world.”
― Joseph Mitchell, Joe Gould's Secret

“I’ve long since lost my taste for good coffee,” he says. “I much prefer the kind that sooner or later, if you keep on drinking it, your hands will begin to shake and the whites of your eyes will turn yellow.”
― Joseph Mitchell, Joe Gould's Secret

“No era necesario poner lo que uno tenía que decir en un poema, un ensayo, un cuento o una novela. Sólo había que decirlo.”
― Joseph Mitchell, Joe Gould's Secret

“Essa é uma das piores coisas que descobri sobre as emoções humanas e como elas podem ser muito traiçoeiras — o fato de que é possível odiar um lugar de todo coração e com toda a alma e ainda sentir saudade. Sem falar que é possível odiar uma pessoa de todo o coração e com toda a alma e ainda suspirar por ela.”
― Joseph Mitchell, Joe Gould's Secret

“A veces, cuando bromea, la gente ignorante tiene una especie de inspirada temeridad que es de lo más alegre y contagiosa. Le levanta a uno el ánimo.”
― Joseph Mitchell, Joe Gould's Secret