Quotes by Tom Spanbauer

About Tom Spanbauer:

Tom Spanbauer is an American writer whose work often explores issues of sexuality, race, and the ties that bind disparate people together. Raised in Idaho, Spanbauer has lived in Kenya and across the United States. He lives in Portland, Oregon, where he teaches a course titled dangerous writing. He graduated in 1988 from Columbia with an MFA in Fiction and has written five novels.
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

There is nothing more lonely than a true artist.

Tom Spanbauer

Books are in the mind, Grandfather Alessandro said. Too many books and you forget your body is in the world.

Tom Spanbauer

Have some fun while you wait for the will of heaven.

Tom Spanbauer

That's when you stop being one way and start being another, Ruby said. Not something many people can do, or want to do. In fact, Ruby said, The only people who cross over, cross over because they're on some kind of Mission Impossible. I could no long...

Tom Spanbauer

All this family shit! Harry said. How can you reinvent your life if the original versions won't leave you alone?

Tom Spanbauer

The fates lead her who will; who won't they drag.

Tom Spanbauer

I was wounded by a blow of love.

Tom Spanbauer

Every time you hear a car alarm, Ruby said, another New Yorker has gone to hell.

Tom Spanbauer

Life is a mess, Rose said. You can fix the mess human beings make, Rose said, But you can't fix the mess being human is.

Tom Spanbauer

Identity is your role in life, the part you play. Individuality is who you are, and who you are is revealed to you if you can get to complete presence.

Tom Spanbauer

Some people like to bitch, Rose said. Bitching is OK. But for me, I choose a kind of joy -- a lucid compulsion -- a polemical kind of fuck-you-motherfucker joy.

Tom Spanbauer

Life is absolutely, mysteriously beautiful.

Tom Spanbauer

God made man because he loves to hear stories, Alessandro said. That's a good story, huh?

Tom Spanbauer

Felt good, though, just being what I was.

Tom Spanbauer

Looking for who I am is who I am.

Tom Spanbauer

A person without her or his own truth ain't a person at all, Ida said. Anybody who tells you different—is a jackass, and no longer deserves to be called human being.

Tom Spanbauer

With tybo men there isn't much difference between fucking and killing.

Tom Spanbauer

Trying to change yourself is as hard as trying to change the universe. Maybe there’s no difference. The fact is, shit happens none of us plan on.

Tom Spanbauer

Author Bio

  • NameTom Spanbauer
  • DescriptionAmerican writer
  • CountryUnited States Of America
  • ProfessionNovelist