Quotes by E. L. Doctorow

About E. L. Doctorow:

Edgar Lawrence "E. L." Doctorow was an American author, editor, and professor, best known internationally for his works of historical fiction. He has been described as one of the most important American novelists of the 20th century.
A B C D E F G H I J K L M N O P Q R S T U V W X Y Z

If we ever find out how the brain works, with all its complexity, then we will be able to build a machine that has consciousness. And if that happens, that is a road to planetary disaster because everything we've thought about ourselves, since the Br...

E. L. Doctorow

Like art and politics, gangsterism is a very important avenue of assimilation into society.

E. L. Doctorow

I try to avoid experience if I can. Most experience is bad.

E. L. Doctorow

I'm not the sort of writer who can walk into a party and take a look around, see who's sleeping with whom and go home and write a novel about society. It's not the way I work.

E. L. Doctorow

History is the present. That's why every generation writes it anew. But what most people think of as history is its end product, myth.

E. L. Doctorow

I started on computers with 'Billy Bathgate,' a little orange screen with black letters. I thought it was really cool, but it actually slowed me up for a while because it's so easy to revise, I tended to stay on the same page. I've learned to discipl...

E. L. Doctorow

It's like driving a car at night. You never see further than your headlights, but you can make the whole trip that way.

E. L. Doctorow

Obama is a great man who's just beginning to understand the realities. And I'm not just saying that because he reads my books. I would have voted for him anyway.

E. L. Doctorow

Good writing is supposed to evoke sensation in the reader - not the fact that it is raining, but the feeling of being rained upon.

E. L. Doctorow

The nature of good fiction is that it dwells in ambiguity.

E. L. Doctorow

The important thing is not to be too comfortable when you're writing. Noise in the street? That's good. The computer goes down? That's good. All these things are good. It has to be a little bit of a struggle.

E. L. Doctorow

I don't think anything I've written has been done in under six or eight drafts. Usually it takes me a few years to write a book. 'World's Fair' was an exception. It seemed to be a particularly fluent book as it came. I did it in seven months. I think...

E. L. Doctorow

In the twentieth century one of the most personal relationships to have developed is that of the person and the state. It's become a fact of life that governments have become very intimate with people, most always to their detriment.

E. L. Doctorow

Writing is a socially acceptable form of schizophrenia.

E. L. Doctorow

Writing is an exploration. You start from nothing and learn as you go.

E. L. Doctorow

Planning to write is not writing. Outlining, researching, talking to people about what you're doing, none of that is writing. Writing is writing.

E. L. Doctorow

We're always attracted to the edges of what we are, out by the edges where it's a little raw and nervy.

E. L. Doctorow

There is no longer any such thing as fiction or nonfiction; there's only narrative.

E. L. Doctorow

The writer isn't made in a vacuum. Writers are witnesses. The reason we need writers is because we need witnesses to this terrifying century.

E. L. Doctorow

Writing is like driving at night in the fog. You can only see as far as your headlights, but you can make the whole trip that way.

E. L. Doctorow

Author Bio

  • NameE. L. Doctorow
  • DescriptionNovelist, editor, professor
  • BornJanuary 6, 1931
  • DiedJuly 21, 2015
  • CountryUnited States Of America
  • ProfessionNovelist; Writer; Faculty
  • WorksThe Book Of Daniel; Ragtime; Billy Bathgate; The March; Homer & Langley
  • AwardsGuggenheim Fellowship; National Humanities Medal; National Book Award