Donald Barthelme
Donald Barthelme
This article is about the author, Donald Barthelme Jr. For his father, the architect, see Donald Barthelme...
NationalityAmerican
ProfessionNovelist
Date of Birth7 April 1931
CountryUnited States of America
shoes looks frogs
How does one conquer fear, Don B.?" "One takes a frog and sews it to one's shoe," he said. "The left or the right?" Don B. gave me a pitying look. "Well, you'd look mighty funny going down the street with only one frog sewed to your shoes, wouldn't you?" he said. "One frog on each shoe.
found worst elusive
Endings are elusive, middles are nowhere to be found, but worst of all is to begin, to begin, to begin.
firsts connected
How can you be alienated without first having been connected?
fighting thinking order
--Why are we fighting them? --They're mad. We're sane. --How do we know? --That we're sane? --Yes. --Am I sane? --To all appearances. --And you, do you consider yourself sane? --I do. --Well, there you have it. --But don't they also consider themselves sane? --I think they know. Deep down. That they're not sane. --How must that make them feel? --Terrible, I should think. They must fight ever more fiercely, in order to deny what they know to be true. That they are not sane.
messages has-beens
We are what we have been told about ourselves. We are the sum of the messages we have received. The true messages. The false messages.
particular
There was no particular point at which I stopped being promising.
wine class whiskey
The privileged classes can afford psychoanalysis and whiskey. Whereas all we get is sermons and sour wine. This is manifestly unfair. I protest, silently.
food golden existence
Food ... is the topmost taper on the golden candelabrum of existence.
crafts doe tasks
The writer is one who, emnbarking upon a task, does not know what to do.
firsts enjoy wells
Well chaps first I'd like to say a few vile things more or less at random, not only because it is expected of me but also because I enjoy it.
tickets spots lottery-ticket
The center will not hold if it has been spot-welded by an operator whose deepest concern is not with the weld but with his lottery ticket.
shrinking fading world
The world is sagging, snagging, scaling, spalling, pilling, pinging, pitting, warping, checking, fading, chipping, cracking, yellowing, leaking, stalling, shrinking, and in dynamic unbalance.
dripping instant-gratification seasons
Instant gratification is not as good as that gratification which comes dripping slow, over the sere seasons.
divorce thinking sticks
Who among us is not thinking about divorce, except for a few tiny-minded stick-in-the-muds who don't count?