Edgar Lawrence “E. L.” Doctorow (January 6, 1931 – July 21, 2015) was an American novelist and professor best known for his historical novels that stand as classics today.
Described as one of the most important novelists of the 20th century, Doctorow wrote twelve novels during his lifetime including the award winning Ragtime (US – UK), Billy Bathgate (US – UK), and The March (US – UK), all of which place characters in well known historical settings. Doctorow used a range of narrative styles and was praised during his lifetime for his audacity to combat tough subject and the imagination he showed in his writing.
Born in the Bronx and named after Edgar Allan Poe, Doctorow’s father run a small music shop. His first published efforts were in the school magazine Dynamo and after finding a love for writing, Doctorow enrolled in a journalism class. His first novel, Welcome to Hard Times was published to positive reviews in 1960.
Today we’re featuring some of our favourite quotes from the author, and we hope they speak to you equally.
“The three most important documents a free society gives are a birth certificate, a passport, and a library card.”
“Writing is a socially acceptable form of schizophrenia.”
“We are all good friends. Friendship is what endures. Shared ideals, respect for the whole character of a human being. ”
“Writing is like driving a car at night. You can only see as far as your headlights, but you can make the whole trip that way.”
“…if justice cannot be made to operate under the worst possible conditions of social hysteria, what does it matter how it operates at other times?”
“Good writing is supposed to evoke sensation in the reader–not the fact that it is raining, but the feeling of being rained upon.”
“I am often asked the question How can the masses permit themselves to be exploited by the few. The answer is By being persuaded to identify with them.”
“I asked this question: How can I think about my brain when it’s my brain doing the thinking? So is this brain pretending to be me thinking about it?”
“But I can stop on any corner at the intersection of two busy streets, and before me are thousands of lives headed in all four directions, uptown downtown east and west, on foot, on bikes, on in-line skates, in buses, strollers, cars, trucks, with the subway rumble underneath my feet… and how can I not know I am momentarily part of the most spectacular phenomenon in the unnatural world? …The city may begin from a marketplace, a trading post, the confluence of waters, but it secretly depends on the human need to walk among strangers.”
“The writer isn’t made in a vacuum. Writers are witnesses. The reason we need writers is because we need witnesses to this terrifying century.”
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