1
Somehow he had catapulted himself beyond the world's value system. But this very fact lay upon him an awesome responsibility to maintain the illusions of other men.E.L. Doctorow
2
Thus with continued concentration and the expenditure of enormous amounts of energy he tried to keep himself from slipping into the vast distances of his unhappiness. It was all around him. It was a darkness as impudently close as his brow. It choked him by its closeness. And what was most terrifying was its treachery. He would wake up in the morning and see the sun coming in the window, and sit up in his bed and think it was gone, and then find it there after all, behind his ears or in his heart.E.L. Doctorow
3
It is the law of wealth that such people only profit from the money that is taken from them.E.L. Doctorow
4
Poor Father, I see his final exploration. He arrives at the new place, his hair risen in astonishment, his mouth and eyes dumb. His toe scuffs a soft storm of sand, he kneels and his arms spread in pantomimic celebration, the immigrant, as in every moment of his life, arriving eternally on the shore of his Self.E.L. Doctorow
5
It proposed that human beings, by the act of making witness, warranted times and places for their existence other than the time and place they were living through.E.L. Doctorow
6
I am often asked the question How can the masses permit themselves to be exploited by the few. The answer is By being persuaded to identify with them.E.L. Doctorow
7
Because like all whores you value propriety. You are creature of capitalism, the ethics of which are so totally corrupt and hypocritical that your beauty is no more than the beauty of gold, which is to say false and cold and useless.E.L. Doctorow
8
Writing is like driving a car at night. You can only see as far as your headlights, but you can make the whole trip that way.E.L. Doctorow