John O'Hara Quotations

Little old ladies of both sexes. Why do I let them bother me?

I wasn't ready to go out to pasture. I didn't have a worldwide travel agenda and I didn't want to work on the world's greatest novel ... I wanted to stay busy, but not in the pressure cooker. This is a perfect transition.

We get together and encourage each other. We compare ideas and show off our stuff.

America may be unique in being a country which has leapt from barbarism to decadence without touching civilization.

They say great themes make great novels. but what these young writers don't understand is that there is no greater theme than men and women.

The trouble is people leave too much to luck. They get married and then trust to luck. They should be sure in the first place.

Book reviewers are little old ladies of both sexes.

An artist is his own fault.

Becoming the reader is the essence of becoming a writer.

Never play cards with a man named Doc, and never eat at a place called Mom's.

Much as I like owning a Rolls-Royce, I could do without it. What I could not do without is a typewriter, a supply of yellow second sheets and the time to put them to good use.

Socially, I never belonged to any class, rich or poor. To the rich I was poor, and to the poor I was poor pretending to be like the rich.

Men go to musicals. Women are the ones who buy the tickets for plays.

In every marriage the wife has to keep her mouth shut about at least one small thing her husband does that disgusts her.

Hot lead can be almost as effective coming from a linotype as from a firearm.

Illinois is a state of suspended animation and the people live in hibernation from Oct. to whenever it ever gets warmer.

But whats the use of being old if you cant be dumb?

So who's perfect? ... Washington had false teeth. Franklin was nearsighted. Mussolini had syphilis. Unpleasant things have been said about Walt Whitman and Oscar Wilde. Tchaikovsky had his problems, too. And Lincoln was constipated.

I can get very depressed by a review that is unfair, unreasonable, and totally destructive....

They say great themes make great novels

Our story opens in the mind of Luther L. (L for LeRoy) Fliegler, who is lying in his bed, not thinking of anything, but just aware of sounds, conscious of his own breathing, and sensitive to his own heartbeats. Lying beside him is his wife, lying on her right side and enjoying her sleep.

When Caroline Walker fell in love with Julian English she was a little tired of him. That was in the summer of 1926, one of the most unimportant years in the history of the United States, and the year in which Caroline Walker was sure her life had reached a pinnacle of uselessness.

George Gershwin died on July 11, 1937, but I don’t have to believe it if I don’t want to.