Peter De Vries (February 27, 1910 – September 28, 1993) was an American editor and novelist known for his satiric wit. He has been described by the philosopher Daniel Dennett as “probably the funniest writer on religion ever”. These Peter De Vries quotes will inspire you.
Best Peter De Vries Quotes
- “Sometimes I write drunk and revise sober, and sometimes I write sober and revise drunk. But you have to have both elements in creation — the Apollonian and the Dionysian, or spontaneity and restraint, emotion and discipline.” ―
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“Everybody hates me because I’m so universally liked.”―
- “Before the mind snaps or the heartbreaks, it gathers itself like a clock about to strike. It might even be said one pulls himself together to disintegrate.” ―
- “Write drunk; edit sober.” ―
- “Human nature is pretty shabby stuff, as you may know from introspection.” ―
- “What people believe is a measure of what they suffer.” ―
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“There are times when parenthood seems nothing more than feeding the hand that bites you.” ―
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“The universe is like a safe to which there is a combination. But the combination is locked up in the safe.” ―
- “What baffles me is the comfort people find in the idea that somebody dealt this mess. Blind and meaningless chance seems to me so much more congenial – or at least less horrible. Prove to me that there is a God and I will really begin to despair.” ―
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“I write when I’m inspired, and I see to it that I’m inspired at nine o’clock every morning. ” ―
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“Life is a zoo in a jungle” ―
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“It is the final proof of God’s omnipotence that he need not exist in order to save us.” ―
- “We all learn by experience, but some of us have to go to summer school.” ―
- “A suburban mother’s role is to deliver children obstetrically once, and by car forever after.” ―
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“You believe what you must in order to stave off the conviction that it’s all a tale told by an idiot” ―
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“Let us hope…that a kind Providence will put a speedy end to the acts of God under which we have been laboring.” ―
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“My father hated radio and could not wait for television to be invented so he could hate that too. ” ―
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“We are not primarily put on this earth to see through one another, but to see one another through. ” ―
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“Who of us is mature enough for offspring before the offspring themselves arrive? The value of [parenthood] is not that adults produce children but that children produce adults.” ―
- “The difficulty with marriage is that we fall in love with a personality, but must live with a character.” ―
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“Nostalgia ain’t what it used to be.” ―
- “The bonds of matrimony are like any other bonds – they mature slowly” ―
- “The feeling for words comes at an early age–or rather it is lost in most cases at an early age, leaving the rest poets.” ―
- “A man has to believe in something, and I believe I’ll have another drink.” ― The Vale of Laughter
- “The greatest experience open to man then is the recovery of the commonplace. Coffee in the morning and whiskeys in the evening again without fear. Books to read without that shadow falling across the page.” ―
- “There is a point when life, having showered us with jewels for nothing, begins to exact our life’s blood for paste.” ―
- “I once tried drowning my sorrows, till I found out they could swim.” ― The Vale of Laughter
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“Every novel should have a beginning, a middle, and an end.” ―
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“The value of marriage is not that adults produce children, but that children produce adults.” ―
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“I love being a writer. What I can’t stand is the paperwork.” ―
