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Top 30 William T. Vollmann Quotes (2025 Update)

William T. Vollmann Quote: “When I go train hopping and I look up into the sky, there are always so many more stars than I remember there were.”

1. “When I go train hopping and I look up into the sky, there are always so many more stars than I remember there were.”

— William T. Vollmann

William T. Vollmann Quote: “The instant people specialize, its in their interest to dehumanize the people their specialized function operates upon.”

2. “The instant people specialize, its in their interest to dehumanize the people their specialized function operates upon.”

— William T. Vollmann

William T. Vollmann Quote: “We all lived for money, and that is what we died for.”

3. “We all lived for money, and that is what we died for.”

— William T. Vollmann

William T. Vollmann Quote: “Maybe life is a process of trading hopes for memories.”

4. “Maybe life is a process of trading hopes for memories.”

— William T. Vollmann

William T. Vollmann Quote: “Death is ordinary. Behold it, subtract its patterns and lessons from those of the death that weapons bring, and maybe the residue will show what violence is.”

5. “Death is ordinary. Behold it, subtract its patterns and lessons from those of the death that weapons bring, and maybe the residue will show what violence is.”

— William T. Vollmann

William T. Vollmann Quote: “I wish I could go back and rewrite my first book, You Bright and Risen Angels; I could do a better job. But in the meantime, nobody knows as much about my books as I do. Nobody has the right but me to say which words go into my books or get deleted or edited. When I’m dying, I’ll smile, knowing I stood up for my books. If I die with more money, that wouldn’t bring a smile to my face. Unless I got better drugs or more delicious-looking nurses.”

6. “I wish I could go back and rewrite my first book, You Bright and Risen Angels; I could do a better job. But in the meantime, nobody knows as much about my books as I do. Nobody has the right but me to say which words go into my books or get deleted or edited. When I’m dying, I’ll smile, knowing I stood up for my books. If I die with more money, that wouldn’t bring a smile to my face. Unless I got better drugs or more delicious-looking nurses.”

— William T. Vollmann

William T. Vollmann Quote: “Lovers may never meet again, but the ways of enemies oft do intersect: This proves some corollary about gravity.”

7. “Lovers may never meet again, but the ways of enemies oft do intersect: This proves some corollary about gravity.”

— William T. Vollmann

William T. Vollmann Quote: “When it comes to revolutionaries, trust only the sad ones. The enthusiastic ones are the oppressors of tomorrow.”

8. “When it comes to revolutionaries, trust only the sad ones. The enthusiastic ones are the oppressors of tomorrow.”

— William T. Vollmann

William T. Vollmann Quote: “I decided that there is really some sort of entity that I call Imperial, and I decided to extend it all the way along the California-Mexico border and into Tijuana and then to the Pacific because it all has a similar feeling.”

9. “I decided that there is really some sort of entity that I call Imperial, and I decided to extend it all the way along the California-Mexico border and into Tijuana and then to the Pacific because it all has a similar feeling.”

— William T. Vollmann

William T. Vollmann Quote: “The landscape around us is but a shadow of the landscape within us.”

10. “The landscape around us is but a shadow of the landscape within us.”

— William T. Vollmann

William T. Vollmann Quote: “Whereas if I want to create a prostitute character now from memories of different prostitutes and inventing stuff, I can say, “this could happen,” “this is quite plausible.” But I don’t feel I know enough about border life to do the latter.”

11. “Whereas if I want to create a prostitute character now from memories of different prostitutes and inventing stuff, I can say, “this could happen,” “this is quite plausible.” But I don’t feel I know enough about border life to do the latter.”

— William T. Vollmann

William T. Vollmann Quote: “The times are new, but the informers are old.”

12. “The times are new, but the informers are old.”

— William T. Vollmann

William T. Vollmann Quote: “Just for the hell of it, try to love someone as unlike you as possible.”

13. “Just for the hell of it, try to love someone as unlike you as possible.”

— William T. Vollmann

William T. Vollmann Quote: “If this advertisement be not sufficient, I can only protrude my wormlike tendrils of apology, craving forbearance on the grounds that a writer must write about what he knows, and since I know nothing about any subject it scarcely matters where I dabble.”

14. “If this advertisement be not sufficient, I can only protrude my wormlike tendrils of apology, craving forbearance on the grounds that a writer must write about what he knows, and since I know nothing about any subject it scarcely matters where I dabble.”

— William T. Vollmann

William T. Vollmann Quote: “I feel like I’m almost ready to write fiction about the border. But even after 10 years of writing nonfiction about it, I don’t think I know quite enough to do it right.”

15. “I feel like I’m almost ready to write fiction about the border. But even after 10 years of writing nonfiction about it, I don’t think I know quite enough to do it right.”

— William T. Vollmann

William T. Vollmann Quote: “There will come a time when nobody reads my books and no one remembers who I was. And in the meantime, I’ll do it my way.”

16. “There will come a time when nobody reads my books and no one remembers who I was. And in the meantime, I’ll do it my way.”

— William T. Vollmann

William T. Vollmann Quote: “My father grew up in an era when to be an American – a white American, at least – was to be yourself. In some respects, his generation was more ignorant, complacent, self-centered and parochial than mine.”

17. “My father grew up in an era when to be an American – a white American, at least – was to be yourself. In some respects, his generation was more ignorant, complacent, self-centered and parochial than mine.”

— William T. Vollmann

William T. Vollmann Quote: “At least I hope – that the fiction I’ve written so far has flaws but has mostly been successful.”

18. “At least I hope – that the fiction I’ve written so far has flaws but has mostly been successful.”

— William T. Vollmann

William T. Vollmann Quote: “23 He dreamed that a bomb was singing to him. From far away, the bomb was coming to marry him. The bomb was his destiny, falling on him, screaming.”

19. “23 He dreamed that a bomb was singing to him. From far away, the bomb was coming to marry him. The bomb was his destiny, falling on him, screaming.”

— William T. Vollmann

William T. Vollmann Quote: “All that’s happened is inconsequential; it cannot hurt us anymore; there’s only music, which lives within us and beyond us, needing us to express it but capable of surviving forever between expressions.”

20. “All that’s happened is inconsequential; it cannot hurt us anymore; there’s only music, which lives within us and beyond us, needing us to express it but capable of surviving forever between expressions.”

— William T. Vollmann

William T. Vollmann Quote: “Luck, like life itself, is no certain thing, but a loveliness which may alight upon my shoulder but more often seems to be some unknown brilliant quantity in motion.”

21. “Luck, like life itself, is no certain thing, but a loveliness which may alight upon my shoulder but more often seems to be some unknown brilliant quantity in motion.”

— William T. Vollmann

William T. Vollmann Quote: “Generally speaking, the deader the author, the more worthwhile the work.”

22. “Generally speaking, the deader the author, the more worthwhile the work.”

— William T. Vollmann

William T. Vollmann Quote: “Death cannot be experienced either by the dead or the living.”

23. “Death cannot be experienced either by the dead or the living.”

— William T. Vollmann

William T. Vollmann Quote: “The chronology was for the convenience of the reader who may be unfamiliar with some of the names and events mentioned. My publisher persuaded me to cut it, on account of the wartime paper shortage.”

24. “The chronology was for the convenience of the reader who may be unfamiliar with some of the names and events mentioned. My publisher persuaded me to cut it, on account of the wartime paper shortage.”

— William T. Vollmann

William T. Vollmann Quote: “The hospital bulked darkly in the darkness.”

25. “The hospital bulked darkly in the darkness.”

— William T. Vollmann

William T. Vollmann Quote: “What is a woman to me? The answer must be: A projection. Who is projecting, and for what reason, I cannot necessarily know from the performance itself. Mr. Umewaka and Mr. Mikata do not when playing their feminine roles feel themselves to be women; they strive, as I so often in my wonderment repeat, to be nothing; yet when they enact women I see them as women. Meanwhile the psyche within a male body which mechanically performs itself as such may see itself as female.”

26. “What is a woman to me? The answer must be: A projection. Who is projecting, and for what reason, I cannot necessarily know from the performance itself. Mr. Umewaka and Mr. Mikata do not when playing their feminine roles feel themselves to be women; they strive, as I so often in my wonderment repeat, to be nothing; yet when they enact women I see them as women. Meanwhile the psyche within a male body which mechanically performs itself as such may see itself as female.”

— William T. Vollmann

William T. Vollmann Quote: “Although my work leads me to spend time with Nazi skinheads, diseased street prostitutes and homeless alcoholics, I do not have the strength of character to be a pathologist.”

27. “Although my work leads me to spend time with Nazi skinheads, diseased street prostitutes and homeless alcoholics, I do not have the strength of character to be a pathologist.”

— William T. Vollmann

William T. Vollmann Quote: “Most literary critics agree that fiction cannot be reduced to mere falsehood. Well-crafted protagonists come to life, pornography causes orgasms, and the pretense that life is what we want it to be may conceivably bring about the desired condition. Hence.”

28. “Most literary critics agree that fiction cannot be reduced to mere falsehood. Well-crafted protagonists come to life, pornography causes orgasms, and the pretense that life is what we want it to be may conceivably bring about the desired condition. Hence.”

— William T. Vollmann

William T. Vollmann Quote: “The system has bugs. The bugs have a system. The system of the bugs is the bug in the system.”

29. “The system has bugs. The bugs have a system. The system of the bugs is the bug in the system.”

— William T. Vollmann

William T. Vollmann Quote: “Thus the tragedy of Venus: Everybody wants her, and so our goddess has become prey.”

30. “Thus the tragedy of Venus: Everybody wants her, and so our goddess has become prey.”

— William T. Vollmann

William T. Vollmann Quote: “As long as Death keeps himself out of sight in our hot dark future, we need not face facts.”

31. “As long as Death keeps himself out of sight in our hot dark future, we need not face facts.”

— William T. Vollmann

William T. Vollmann Quote: “He was too busy enjoying the flowers to be put off by the blood – which is a wise policy, whenever one can manage it.”

32. “He was too busy enjoying the flowers to be put off by the blood – which is a wise policy, whenever one can manage it.”

— William T. Vollmann

William T. Vollmann Quote: “So many revolutionaries are intellectuals, a class of people whose aspirations tend to run ahead of their capabilities.”

33. “So many revolutionaries are intellectuals, a class of people whose aspirations tend to run ahead of their capabilities.”

— William T. Vollmann

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