Edward Abbey
Edward Abbey
Edward Paul Abbeywas an American author and essayist noted for his advocacy of environmental issues, criticism of public land policies, and anarchist political views. His best-known works include the novel The Monkey Wrench Gang, which has been cited as an inspiration by radical environmental groups, and the non-fiction work Desert Solitaire...
NationalityAmerican
ProfessionActivist
Date of Birth29 January 1927
CountryUnited States of America
men opera sopranos
Opera: I like it, except for all those howling sopranos and caterwauling tenors. (Why can't tenors sing like men?)
cutting singing said
As Mark Twain said, 'I love Wagner -- if only they'd cut out all that damned singing!'
museums world-literature pay
Most of what we call the classics of world literature suggest artifacts in a wax museum. We have to hire and pay professors to get them read and talked about.
lying book writing
In order to write a book, it is necessary to sit down (or stand up) and write. Therein lies the difficulty.
art great-art art-is
Great art is indefinable but that's all right; it exists anyway.
moving agreement voice
Why the critics, like a flock of ducks, always move in perfect unison: Their authority with the public depends upon an appearance of unanimous agreement. One dissenting voice would shatter the whole fragile structure.
answers tasks insolent
It is not the writer's task to answer questions but to question answers. To be impertinent, insolent, and, if necessary, subversive.
real book writing
The author: an imaginary person who writes real books.
stars loneliness night
I wait. Now the night flows back, the mighty stillness embraces and includes me; I can see the stars again and the world of starlight. I am twenty miles or more from the nearest fellow human, but instead of loneliness I feel loveliness. Loveliness and a quiet exultation.
done bed gertrude
Going to bed with Gertrude Stein, Jeane Kirkpatrick, Susan Sontag, or Margaret Thatcher: There are some things one prefers neither to do nor to have done.
art pride taste
Those art lovers who pride themselves mostly on *taste* usually possess no other talent.
sports humanity gentleman
As between the skulking and furtive poacher, who hunts for the sake of meat, and the honest gentleman shooter, who kills for the pleasure of sport, I find the former a higher type of humanity.
art perfect produce
How did Haydn and Mozart produce such vast quantities of formally perfect art? They worked from a perfect formula. In music, Beethoven was the Great Emancipator.
latin hate rhythm
If there's anything I hate, it's the vibraphone. And the cha-cha-cha. And Latin rhythms generally.