West of Eden Quotes

“Instead of being distressed by the huge moral discrepancy between the myth of Hollywood and its current reality, most of them only saw what already had been fixed in their minds. It was absolutely eerie and sent me right back to The Day of the Locust. The point that Nathanael West made, of course, is that the masses ultimately want to kill and devour, to cannibalize their celebrity gods.”
― Jean Stein, West of Eden: An American Place

“But as Ram Dass once said, you know, if you think you’re enlightened, go spend a weekend with your parents.”
― Jean Stein, West of Eden: An American Place

“You see, we have all the makings of a real beautiful dictatorship. And what is holding it back is a tradition stemming out of the Bill of Rights and the Constitution. That’s it. And if that center doesn’t hold, you will find the sweetest dictatorship you will ever want to look for. Many of them are men of goodwill, and they do not understand the delicacy of liberty, how easily it can be destroyed.”
― Jean Stein, West of Eden: An American Place