Wilfrid Sheed Quotes & Sayings

Every writer is a writer of the generation before. — Wilfrid Sheed

I picked up the writing on the very day he died. It was the only consolation I could find. — Wilfrid Sheed

For now, I'm supposing that all movements are equal, which they're not, except in this respect: that none of them gives a damn about artists beyond their immediate utility. Good movements will use a writer just as ruthlessly as bad ones; since they all fancy they have better things to do than worry about one man's artistic survival. — Wilfrid Sheed

It is a fallacy to think that carping is the strongest form of criticism: the important work begins after the artist's mistakes have been pointed out, and the reviewer can't put it off indefinitely with sneers, although some neophytes might be tempted to try: "When in doubt, stick out your tongue" is a safe rule that never cost one any readers. But there's nothing strong about it, and it has nothing to do with the real business of criticism, which is to do justice to the best work of one's time, so that nothing gets lost. — Wilfrid Sheed

The American male doesn't mature until he has exhausted all other possibilities. — Wilfrid Sheed

Whether or not Big Brother is watching us, we certainly have to watch him, which may be even worse. — Wilfrid Sheed

The 1930s - a Golden Age for American humor, mainly because everything else was going so badly. The wisecrack was the basic American sentence because there were so many things that could not be said any other way. — Wilfrid Sheed

Mr Michener, as timeless as a stack of National Geographics, is the ultimate Summer Writer. Just as one goes back to the cottage in Maine, so one goes back to one's Michener. — Wilfrid Sheed

The actual Irish weather report is really a recording made in 1922, which no one has had occasion to change. "Scattered showers, periods of sunshine." — Wilfrid Sheed

It is possible that the malice of writers has been overrated (by myself among others). Reading their ruminations on their craft, one sees why this writer could not possibly like that one, would indeed consider him a menace. Literature is a battleground of conflicting faiths, and nobler passions than envy are involved. — Wilfrid Sheed

People talk about talent as though it were some neutral substance that can be applied to anything. But talent is narrow and only functions with a very few subjects, which it is up to the writer to find. — Wilfrid Sheed

As things now stand, the office is a slightly meaner battleground than the home. Male bosses seem to dominate their women underlings as they would never dominate their wives. — Wilfrid Sheed

Of course, history is only a muddle of facts and a fuddle of professors, and anyone who thinks it is one clear voice saying "Arise, sir Knight" deserves a life sentence in Camelot. — Wilfrid Sheed

As you approach the presidency, no one seems worthy of it, since it wasn't designed for a human in the first place. — Wilfrid Sheed

The only reason I didn't kill myself after I read the reviews of my first book was because we have two rivers in New York and I couldn't decide which one to jumo into. — Wilfrid Sheed

Unnecessary customs live a brutally short life in America. — Wilfrid Sheed

Even the God of Calvin never judged anyone as harshly as married couples judge each other. — Wilfrid Sheed

One reason the human race has such a low opinion of itself is that it gets so much of its wisdom from writers. — Wilfrid Sheed

Suicide is about life, being in fact the sincerest form of criticism life gets. — Wilfrid Sheed

How does one make a movie about decadence these days? Now that we're allowed to do it, it's too late. — Wilfrid Sheed

The worse we treat people in this country, the more delicately we talk about them. — Wilfrid Sheed

Saloons provide moments of genuine ecstasy - but only if your soul is at peace and the rest of your life bears contemplating. Otherwise, they are palaces of misery. — Wilfrid Sheed

Mankind has always made too much of its saints and heroes, and how the latter handle the fuss might be called their final test. — Wilfrid Sheed

For Catholics before Vatican II, the land of the free was pre-eminently the land of Sister Says-except, of course, for Sister, for whom it was the land of Father Says. — Wilfrid Sheed

Beware the fictionist writing his own life. Even candor becomes a strategy. — Wilfrid Sheed

If the French were really intelligent, they'd speak English. — Wilfrid Sheed