Nathanael West

“He was a diviner of the commonplace.”

“In America, violence is a kind of catharsis.”

“He had a great talent for unhappiness.”

“Art has become a luxury which the artist himself cannot afford.”

“Men have always fought their misery with dreams.”

“I was a rebel, but not against the law.”

“Hollywood is a place where they'll pay you a thousand dollars for a kiss and fifty cents for your soul.”

“He did not feel that he had been born, but that he had been wrenched from some gentle, silent, and dreamless sleep.”

“Every man is a new species to himself.”

“A dream is a miracle of translation.”

“I went to the University of Hard Knocks. The school of life. The curriculum is experience.”

“He found it impossible to laugh at the grimaces of a suffering people.”

“He was a connoisseur of rust.”