John D. MacDonald
John D. MacDonald
John Dann MacDonaldwas an American writer of novels and short stories, known for his thrillers...
ProfessionNovelist
Date of Birth24 July 1916
John D. MacDonald quotes about
children thinking elephants
It's no good telling somebody they're trying too hard. It's very much like ordering a child to go stand in a corner for a half hour and never once think about elephants.
thinking done logic
All thinking is done with the glands. Logic is added later to tidy things up.
new-york thinking two
New York is where it is going to begin, I think. You can see it coming. The insect experts have learned how it works with locusts. Until locust population reaches a certain density, they all act like any grasshoppers. When the critical point is reached, they turn savage and swarm, and try to eat the world. We're nearing a critical point. One day soon two strangers will bump into each other at high noon in the middle of New York. But this time they won't snarl and go on. They will stop and stare and then leap at each others
communication thinking years
The dividing line [between friends and acquaintances] is communication, I think. A friend is someone to whom you can say any jackass thing that enters your mind. With acquaintances, you are forever aware of their slightly unreal image of you, and to keep them content, you edit yourself to fit. Many marriages are between acquaintances. You can be with a person for three hours of your life and have a friend. Another will remain an acquaintance for thirty years.
glitter maintaining structure
I am wary of the whole dreary deadening structured mess that we have built into such a glittering top-heavy structure that there is nothing left to see but the glitter, and the brute routines of maintaining it.
beautiful doors ideas
I am not suited to the role of going around selling the life-can-be-beautiful idea. It can be, indeed. But you don't buy the concept from your friendly door-to-door lecture salesman.
excellence world littles
To enjoy enduring success we should travel a little in advance of the world.
friendship unforgivable avoiding
Friendships like marriages are dependent on avoiding the unforgivable.
tears looks persons
When you see the ugliness behind the tears of another person, it makes you take a closer look at your own.
imagination world environment
We have been endowed with the capacity and the power to create desirable pictures within and to find them automatically in the outer world of our environment.
morning
In the morning I'm often anti-semantic.
long fool sun
Now it stands to reason, mister, any damn fool stares into the sun long enough, he'll end up seeing exactly what some other damn fool tells him he's going to see.
heterosexuality prison cures
The only thing that prisons demonstrably cure is heterosexuality.
relationship home commitment
At times it seems as if arranging to have no commitment of any kind to anyone would be a special freedom. But in fact the whole idea works in reverse. The most deadly commitment of all is to be committed only to one's self. Some come to realize this after they are in the nursing home.