I was in federal prison in West Virginia for three months for contempt of Congress for a refusing to comply with a request of a Congressional committee of Congress, the House Un-American Activities Committee. Votes: 21
Americans have no sense of history. And not much memory. They don't remember what happened yesterday. Votes: 20
A critic is a eunuch working in a harem. He watches it, but he knows he can't do it. Critics very often are failed writers and, like failed priests, they hate religion. Votes: 16
After the Spanish Civil War against Franco, a group of us got together: a group of well-to-do people who were sympathetic to the lost cause of a Republican state. We bought a convent in Toulouse and converted it into a hospital run by the Unitarians. It took care of the Spanish refugees who fled to Toulouse. Votes: 13
To be dogmatic about a cause you believe in at the age of 20 or 30 is not unusual. But to be dogmatic at age 55 or 60 shows a lack of any learning capacity. Votes: 13
And finally, be assured that Zen asks nothing even as it promises nothing. One can be a Protestant Zen Buddhist, a Catholic Zen Buddhist or a Jewish Zen Buddhist. Zen is a quiet thing. It listens. Votes: 12
Like most thoughtful people who watch what's going on in Washington, venting is very necessary. Votes: 10
I always thought that socialism here would be peculiarly American, with some reasonable, post-industrial evolution between working-class needs and market forces. It won't be bloody like the Russian Revolution. Votes: 9
The Rosenberg case had been orchestrated to an anti-Communist frenzy that matched the exuberant hysteria of the Nazi horror. Votes: 9
In L.A., you work like hell because there is nothing else to do, unless you're cheating on your wife. Votes: 8
My books were attacked constantly by the Communist Party for not hewing to the Party line. I have never hewed to a Party line of any kind. Votes: 7
I'm disenchanted with Communism and most other things. I'm cynical but not a cynic. I'm cynical about TV, Congress, and commercial peanut butter. Votes: 7
Since I believe that a person's philosophical point of view has little meaning if it is not matched by being and action, I found myself willingly wed to an endless series of unpopular causes, experiences which I feel enriched my writing as much as they depleted other aspects of my life. Votes: 4
A man who will traduce those who stood with him in battle is not worth much. Votes: 4
Either you get a chance to be a kid when you are a kid, or you don't grow up. Votes: 3
Most assuredly Zen is a religion, but it is a religion without scripture, without doctrine or dogma and without sin. Votes: 3
Yiddish for gall, nerve, arrogance-whatever Votes: 3
The only thing that infuriates me is that I have more unwritten stories in me than I can conceivably write in a lifetime. Votes: 2
It's been said that I am the most widely read writer of the 20th century. The number of books I've sold runs into untold millions. Votes: 2
Computers: he always fixed on computers when his mind wandered into the future--instruments he revered and hated. The computer world was a place where snotty kids knew everything and nothing.... The computer was part of a future cloudy, unpredictable and menacing. Votes: 1
A mountain still in the distance can appear as a molehill. Votes: 0
Only people who suffer show the ravages of age. Votes: 0
The dignity is in the worker, not in the job. Votes: 0
I am a man of peace [so he told Mother, but it always appeared to me that he was the most belligerent man of peace I had ever encountered] Votes: 0