Frasi di William Saroyan

„Posso amare un onesto idiota, ma non posso amare un genio disonesto.“

—  William Saroyan

Me stesso sulla terra; 1998, p. 41
Che ve ne sembra dell'America?

„Il massimo possibile della felicità è sapere che non è indispensabile essere felici.“

—  William Saroyan

Il mio cuore negli altipiani

„Se un uomo grande e grosso vi dice qualche impertinenza e voi sapete di non poterlo stendere a terra con un solo colpo, bene, rispondetegli civilmente e in nove casi su dieci quello se ne andrà per i fatti suoi e lascerà voi ai vostri.
Ricordatevelo sempre.
Ma non sempre, si capisce, il trucco funziona. Ogni regola ha le sue eccezioni.
Pat Hogan, il telegrafista, fu un'eccezione.“

—  William Saroyan

Avviso a chi vuol lavorare nelle pompe funebri; 1998, p. 206
Che ve ne sembra dell'America?

„Io non so per quale ragione quel meraviglioso desiderio e altri del genere si manifestano pur sempre in una vita nuova, mentre l'esperienza ha dimostrato da un pezzo la futilità loro e il loro pericolo, ma è certo che continuano a manifestarsi per una ragione o un'altra, e ho quasi idea che siano universali, ed eterni, inevitabili di ogni vita che si forma, poi lentamente o rapidamente messi via, secondo i casi, in quanto non ad altro conducono che a dolore, dolore, o alla morte, e mai alla grandezza che pur svegliano dentro e che chiedono, vogliono, forse perché, nella natura delle cose, noi siamo, dopotutto, piccoli e deboli, e troppo facilmente ci adattiamo alla terra, accettiamo le limitazioni della mortalità.“

—  William Saroyan

Al calar del sole; 1998, pp. 162-163
Che ve ne sembra dell'America?

„Leggere fa l'uomo completo, scrivere lo fa preciso […].“

—  William Saroyan

Settantamila assiri; 1998, p. 21
Che ve ne sembra dell'America?

„Ognuno deve morire, è vero, ma io ho sempre pensato che sarebbe stata fatta un'eccezione nel mio caso. E ora, che succede?“

—  William Saroyan

„[…] un uomo non comincia a vivere se non comincia a morire.“

—  William Saroyan

Il mondo e il teatro; 1998, p. 107
Che ve ne sembra dell'America?

„L'arte non può più permettersi di essere sprezzante nei confronti della politica, e sembra ormai arrivato il tempo che la politica impari qualcosa dall'arte.“

—  William Saroyan

„Quando ridi, ridi come un matto. E quando ti arrabbi, arrabbiati per bene. Cerca di essere vivo. Abbastanza presto sarai morto.“

—  William Saroyan

„How did money ever happen? What's it mean? What's it for?“

—  William Saroyan

Jim Dandy : Fat Man in a Famine (1947)

„You must remember always to give, of everything you have. You must give foolishly even. You must be extravagant. You must give to all who come into your life. Then nothing and no one shall have power to cheat you of anything, for if you give to a thief, he cannot steal from you, and he himself is then no longer a thief. And the more you give, the more you will have to give.“

—  William Saroyan, libro The Human Comedy

The Human Comedy (1943)

„To remember something or to invent something, it comes to the same thing.“

—  William Saroyan

Obituaries (1979)

„One day, back there in the good old days when I was nine and the world was full of every kind of magnificence, and life was still a delightful and mysterious dream, my cousin Mourad, who was considered crazy by everybody who knew him except me, came to my house at four in the morning and woke me up by tapping on the window of my room.“

—  William Saroyan, libro My Name Is Aram

"The Summer of the Beautiful White Horse".
My Name Is Aram (1940)
Contesto: One day, back there in the good old days when I was nine and the world was full of every kind of magnificence, and life was still a delightful and mysterious dream, my cousin Mourad, who was considered crazy by everybody who knew him except me, came to my house at four in the morning and woke me up by tapping on the window of my room.
"Aram," he said.
I jumped out of bed and looked out the window.
I couldn't believe what I saw.
It wasn't morning yet, but it was summer and with daybreak not many minutes around the corner of the world it was light enough for me to know I wasn't dreaming.
My cousin Mourad was sitting on a beautiful white horse.

„Then swiftly, neatly, with the grace of the young man on the trapeze, he was gone from his body.
For an eternal moment he was still all things at once: the bird, the fish, the rodent, the reptile, and man.“

—  William Saroyan

"The Daring Young Man on the Flying Trapeze"
The Daring Young Man on the Flying Trapeze (1934)
Contesto: Then swiftly, neatly, with the grace of the young man on the trapeze, he was gone from his body.
For an eternal moment he was still all things at once: the bird, the fish, the rodent, the reptile, and man. An ocean of print undulated endlessly and darkly before him. The city burned. The herded crowd rioted. The earth circled away, and knowing that he did so, he turned his lost face to the empty sky and became dreamless, unalive, perfect.

„In the end, today is forever, yesterday is still today, and tomorrow is already today.“

—  William Saroyan

My Heart's in the Highlands (1939)

„Art can no longer afford to be contemptuous of politics, and it appears to be time politics took a little instruction from art.“

—  William Saroyan

Something About a Soldier (1940)

„When you laugh, laugh like hell. And when you get angry, get good and angry. Try to be alive. You will be dead soon enough.“

—  William Saroyan

Preface
The Daring Young Man on the Flying Trapeze (1934)
Contesto: The most solid advice for a writer is this, I think: Try to learn to breathe deeply, really to taste food when you eat, and when you sleep really to sleep. Try as much as possible to be wholly alive with all your might, and when you laugh, laugh like hell. And when you get angry, get good and angry. Try to be alive. You will be dead soon enough.

„I believed from the beginning of remembered experience that I was somebody with an incalculable potential for enlargement, somebody who both knew and could find out, upon whom demands could be made with the expectation of having them fulfilled.
I felt at the same time, and pretty much constantly, that I was nothing in relation to Enormity, the Unknown, and the Unknowable.“

—  William Saroyan

Here Comes There Goes You Know Who (1961)
Contesto: I believed from the beginning of remembered experience that I was somebody with an incalculable potential for enlargement, somebody who both knew and could find out, upon whom demands could be made with the expectation of having them fulfilled.
I felt at the same time, and pretty much constantly, that I was nothing in relation to Enormity, the Unknown, and the Unknowable. I was too vulnerable, too lacking in power, a thing of subtle reality, liable to be blown away without a moment's warning, a migrant with no meaning, no guide, no counsel, an entity in continuous transition, a growing thing whose stages of growth always went unnoticed, a fluid and flawed thing. Thus, there could be no extreme vanity in my recognition of myself, if in fact there could be any at all. I did frequently rejoice in the recognition, but I may have gotten that from some of the Protestant hymns I had heard, and knew, and had sung, such as Joy to the World. The simple fact was that if the song wasn't about me, I couldn't see how it could possibly be about anybody else, including the one I knew it was supposed to be about, and good luck to him, too.

„There is no America and there is no England, and no France, and no Italy. There is only the earth.“

—  William Saroyan

Inhale and Exhale (1936)
Contesto: There is a small area of land in Asia Minor that is called Armenia, but it is not so. It is not Armenia. It is a place. There are only Armenians, and they inhabit the earth, not Armenia, since there is no Armenia. There is no America and there is no England, and no France, and no Italy. There is only the earth.