E. L. Doctorow Quotes

Powerful E. L. Doctorow for Daily Growth

About E. L. Doctorow

Edward Lewis Doctorow, widely recognized as E.L. Doctorow, was an American novelist who left an indelible mark on contemporary literature from the mid-twentieth century to his passing in 2015. Born on January 6, 1931, in New York City, he grew up in the Bronx during the Great Depression, which would later serve as a rich backdrop for many of his works. Doctorow's literary journey began at the University of California, Berkeley, where he studied physics but found solace and inspiration in creative writing courses. After serving in the United States Army, Doctorow returned to academia, completing a Master of Arts degree from Columbia University in 1960. This education laid the groundwork for his prolific career as an author. Among Doctorow's most notable works is "Ragtime," published in 1975. The novel weaves together the stories of fictional characters with historical figures, such as Henry Ford, Emma Goldman, and J.P. Morgan, during the early 20th century. This innovative approach to storytelling earned Doctorow both popular acclaim and critical praise, culminating in a Pulitzer Prize for Fiction in 1975. Another significant work by Doctorow is "The Book of Daniel," published in 1971. The novel tells the story of a family dealing with the nuclear accident at Three Mile Island, using metafictional techniques to question the nature of truth and memory. Throughout his career, E.L. Doctorow explored themes of history, identity, and the American dream, often blurring the lines between fact and fiction. His unique storytelling methods and profound insight into human experiences continue to influence contemporary literature today.

Interpretations of Popular Quotes

"Writing a novel is like driving a car at night. You can see only as far as your headlights go, but you can make the whole trip that way."

This quote by E. L. Doctorow suggests that writing a novel, similar to driving at night, is a journey filled with uncertainty about what lies ahead, yet it's possible to complete the entire work piece by piece, focusing on one part of the story at a time, illuminated by the light of each new idea or plot development. In other words, the writing process requires perseverance and faith in moving forward despite the unknown, trusting that the path will become clear as the work progresses.

"Time being what it is, namely, a river which sweeps us along whether we like it or not, I prefer to row."

This quote by E. L. Doctorow suggests that life, symbolized as a river, inevitably moves forward (sweeps us along) regardless of our desires. Rather than being passive, the speaker chooses to actively participate in the direction of their own journey (row). In other words, it's about taking control of one's destiny and not just letting life happen to them. It encourages people to make proactive decisions and steer their own course through life, even when circumstances seem beyond control.

"There are no ordinary lives. Sometimes extraordinary events occur and change everything, but generally it's the quiet moments, the invisible threads, that lead us where we need to go."

This quote highlights the significance of seemingly ordinary or mundane aspects of life. It suggests that though dramatic events can indeed shape our lives significantly, it's often the small, unnoticed details - the quiet moments, the hidden connections (the invisible threads) - which lead us on our life paths. These subtle occurrences may seem insignificant at first glance but hold immense power in shaping our destinies and experiences over time. In essence, Doctorow reminds us not to underestimate the impact of ordinary life moments as they often play a crucial role in determining our life trajectories.

"To a writer, a finished story is a kind of death."

This quote by E. L. Doctorow suggests that for a writer, bringing a story to completion feels like a form of death. This is because, much like how we are attached to our own creations, writers invest a significant amount of time, emotion, and imagination into their work. Finishing a story means parting with this living, evolving entity – thus, it can feel like a kind of loss or ending, much like the death of a character or a relationship in a story.

"All stories are about the search for identity."

This quote by E. L. Doctorow emphasizes that every story, whether it's a novel, movie, or personal narrative, revolves around the protagonist's quest to understand who they are. The journey of self-discovery is at the core of all narratives, as characters navigate through life events, relationships, and challenges to establish their identity and purpose. By exploring their own stories, individuals can find meaning, grow, and ultimately discover themselves.

My father was the proprietor of a music shop on Forty-third Street, where many of the finest performers and musicians of the day would come to shop. He knew the classical repertoire inside out.

- E. L. Doctorow

Father, Knew, Shop, Performers

I did have a feeling then that the culture of factuality was so dominating that storytelling had lost all its authority.

- E. L. Doctorow

Storytelling, Feeling, Had, Dominating

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

Generation, Think, Product, Anew

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

Car, Night, Like, Headlights

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

Night, Like, Whole, Headlights

Congress is so beholden to the money that any solution in the general interest will be frustrated and subverted by the corporate interests who feel they will be damaged by progress, fair play and justice.

- E. L. Doctorow

Play, Congress, Frustrated, Beholden

Washington is designed not to solve problems. Congress is so beholden to the money that any solution in the general interest will be frustrated and subverted by the corporate interests who feel they will be damaged by progress, fair play and justice.

- E. L. Doctorow

Play, Congress, Frustrated, Beholden

The historian will tell you what happened. The novelist will tell you what it felt like.

- E. L. Doctorow

Will, Tell, Like, Novelist

I began to ask two questions while I was reading a book that excited me: not only what was going to happen next, but how is this done? How is it that these words on the page make me feel the way I'm feeling? This is the line of inquiry that I think happens in a child's mind, without him even knowing he has aspirations as a writer.

- E. L. Doctorow

Next, Line, I Think, Aspirations

When you're writing a book, you don't really think about it critically. You don't want to know too well what you're doing. First, you write the book, then you find the justification for it.

- E. L. Doctorow

Book, Doing, Think, Critically

One of the things I had to learn as a writer was to trust the act of writing. To put myself in the position of writing to find out what I was writing. I did that with 'World's Fair,' as with all of them. The inventions of the book come as discoveries.

- E. L. Doctorow

Trust, One Of The Things, Discoveries

I get intrigued by a first lin and I write to find out why it means something to me. You make discoveries just the way the reader does, so you're simultaneously the writer and the reader.

- E. L. Doctorow

I Write, Means, Reader, Simultaneously

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 Bronze Age, the Bible, all of that will be gone.

- E. L. Doctorow

Thought, Complexity, Works, Bronze

I have a number of vices, one of which is moderation.

- E. L. Doctorow

Moderation, Number, Which, Vices

There are two books that impressed me when I was very young. One was 'The Adventures of Augie March' - the idea of having something so generous, and so adventurous and improvisatory. The other was 'The U.S.A. Trilogy,' by John Dos Passos.

- E. L. Doctorow

Young, Other, Very, Trilogy

Writing is a socially acceptable form of schizophrenia.

- E. L. Doctorow

Acceptable, Form, Socially, Schizophrenia

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 discipline myself.

- E. L. Doctorow

Thought, Screen, Billy, Letters

I discovered Einstein said the same thing about his celebrated theories of relativity that writers say about their work when he said he didn't have any feelings of personal possession of these ideas. Once they were out there, they came from somewhere else. And that's exactly the feeling when you write. You don't feel possessive about it.

- E. L. Doctorow

Discovered, Same Thing, Relativity

Movies are too literal.

- E. L. Doctorow

Movies, Too, Literal

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

Goes, Important Thing, Bit, Struggle

People come out of the mid-west and go to the Ivy League. I kind of reversed the direction.

- E. L. Doctorow

Kind, Ivy League, League, Ivy

A period of time is as much an organising principle for a work of fiction as a sense of place. You can do geography, as Faulkner did, or you can dwell on a particular period. It provides the same framework.

- E. L. Doctorow

Fiction, Principle, Period, Faulkner

I can walk into a bookstore and hand over my credit card and they don't know who the hell I am. Maybe that says something about bookstore clerks.

- E. L. Doctorow

Over, Maybe, About, Card

Writing is immensely difficult. The short forms especially.

- E. L. Doctorow

Short, Writing, Immensely, Forms

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

Always, Very, Detriment, Twentieth

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 what happened in that case is that God gave me a bonus book.

- E. L. Doctorow

Exception, Been, I Think, Fluent

I like commas. I detest semi-colons - I don't think they belong in a story. And I gave up quotation marks long ago. I found I didn't need them, they were fly-specks on the page.

- E. L. Doctorow

Think, Belong, Commas, Marks

My theory about why Hemingway killed himself is that he heard his own voice; that he reached the point where he couldn't write without feeling he was repeating himself. That's the worst thing that can happen to a writer.

- E. L. Doctorow

Voice, Own, About, Repeating

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

Sleeping, Around, About, Novel

Here's how it goes: I'm up at the stroke of 10 or 10:30. I have breakfast and read the papers, and then it's lunchtime. Then maybe a little nap after lunch and out to the gym, and before I know it, it's time to have a drink.

- E. L. Doctorow

Lunch, Here, Maybe, Nap

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

- E. L. Doctorow

Fiction, Narrative, Longer, Nonfiction

Each book tends to have its own identity rather than the author's. It speaks from itself rather than you. Each book is unlike the others because you are not bringing the same voice to every book. I think that keeps you alive as a writer.

- E. L. Doctorow

Voice, Alive, I Think, Tends

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

Writing, Planning, Doing, Outlining

From my undergraduate days, I've always been interested in the major philosophical questions that don't seem to have an answer that everyone agrees on.

- E. L. Doctorow

Always, Everyone, Been, Philosophical

My books start almost before I realise it. Once in a while, some accident causes an idea to rise to the surface and say: 'now.'

- E. L. Doctorow

Surface, Some, Almost, Rise

Things that appear on the front page of the newspaper as 'fact' are far more dangerous than the games played by a novelist, and can lead to wars.

- E. L. Doctorow

Fact, Newspaper, More, Front Page

I like to think of myself as an unmediated novelist - or perhaps a national novelist.

- E. L. Doctorow

Think, Like, Perhaps, Novelist

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

Always, Raw, Attracted, Edges

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

- E. L. Doctorow

Nature, Fiction, Dwells, Ambiguity

Writers are not just people who sit down and write. They hazard themselves. Every time you compose a book your composition of yourself is at stake.

- E. L. Doctorow

Book, Your, Writers, Composition

Books are acts of composition: you compose them. You make music: the music is called fiction.

- E. L. Doctorow

Music, Books, Compose, Composition

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

Fact, Rained, Reader, Evoke

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

Beginning, Understand, Obama, Great Man

I got married very early, and in no time at all, we had three children. And it seemed to me I had an obligation to support them.

- E. L. Doctorow

Very, No Time, Seemed, Obligation

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

- E. L. Doctorow

Politics, Important, Very, Avenue

Suffering isn't a moral endowment. People don't always do well under duress, and it seemed to me to be truer to a fellow in that situation to make him angry.

- E. L. Doctorow

Suffering, Always, Seemed, Fellow

To have the regard of one's peers is immensely moving.

- E. L. Doctorow

Peers, Regard, Immensely, Moving

When I'm writing, I like to seal everything off and face the wall, not to look outside the window. The only way out is through the sentences.

- E. L. Doctorow

Through, Like, Sentences, Wall

My sense of what a book should be has changed so radically. I like to think for the better.

- E. L. Doctorow

Think, Better, Like, Radically

A new reader shouldn't be able to find you in your work, though someone who's read more may begin to.

- E. L. Doctorow

New, Read, Though, Begin

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

- E. L. Doctorow

Try, Bad, Most, Avoid

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

Reason, Terrifying, Century, Vacuum

When you're working well, you don't do research. Whatever you need comes to you.

- E. L. Doctorow

Working, Need, Well, Research

Somewhere along the line the rhythms and tonalities of music elided in my brain with the sounds that words make and the rhythm that sentences have.

- E. L. Doctorow

Words, Line, Rhythms, Sentences

One of the things I had to learn as a writer was to trust the act of writing. To put myself in the position of writing to find out what I was writing.

- E. L. Doctorow

Trust, One Of The Things, Position

I've outlasted many marriages at Random House.

- E. L. Doctorow

Random, House, Many, Marriages

I thought I would lose, so I didn't prepare a speech.

- E. L. Doctorow

Thought, Prepare, Would, Speech

It seems to me that in literature, books have always been answers to other books.

- E. L. Doctorow

Always, Other, Been, Literature

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

- E. L. Doctorow

Writing, Learn, Nothing, Exploration

In fiction, you know, there are no borders. You can go anywhere.

- E. L. Doctorow

Know, Go, Fiction, Borders

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