Joseph Heller (May 1st, 1923 – December 12th, 1999) was an American author who wrote novels, short stories, plays and screenplays. Best known for his anti-war satirical novel Catch 22, whose title has become more famous than the novel itself, a synomyn for any absurd or contradictory choice.
Born into poverty to Jewish/Russian parents in Coney Island, Brooklyn, Heller loved to write even as a child but it would take a long time before he became the writer we known him as. At just 19, Heller flew to the Italian front during WWII, flying 60 combat missions as a B-25 Bombadier, an experience that would serve as the base for Catch 22 (US – UK).
“Some men are born mediocre, some men achieve mediocrity, and some men have mediocrity thrust upon them.”
“He knew everything there was to know about literature, except how to enjoy it”
“What is a country? A country is a piece of land surrounded on all sides by boundaries, usually unnatural. Englishmen are dying for England, Americans are dying for America, Germans are dying for Germany, Russians are dying for Russia. There are now fifty or sixty countries fighting in this war. Surely so many countries can’t all be worth dying for.”
“It doesn’t make a damned bit of difference who wins the war to someone who’s dead.”
“He was going to live forever, or die in the attempt.”
“Just because you’re paranoid doesn’t mean they aren’t after you.”
“Be glad you’re even alive.’
Be furious you’re going to die.”
“I want to keep my dreams, even bad ones, because without them, I might have nothing all night long.”
“There is no disappointment so numbing…as someone no better than you achieving more.”
“mankind is resilient: the atrocities that horrified us a week ago become acceptable tomorrow.”
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