John Knowles
John Knowles
John Knowles was an American novelist best known for A Separate Peace. He died in 2001 at the age of 75...
NationalityAmerican
ProfessionNovelist
Date of Birth16 September 1926
CountryUnited States of America
morning hate joy
It was hard to remember in the heavy and sensual clarity of these mornings; I forgot whom I hated and who hated me. I wanted to break out crying from stabs of hopeless joy, or intolerable promise, or because these mornings were too full of beauty for me, because I knew of too much hate to be contained in a world like this.
knows
I did no know everything there was to know about myself, and knew that I did not know it.
prayer night feet
Never say you are five feet nine when you are five feet eight and a half" was the first one I encountered. Another was, "Always say some prayers at night because it might turn out that there is a God.
acceptance people understanding
There are special, strange gifted people in the world and they have to be treated with understanding
parent sometimes accepting
I knew that part of friendship consisted in accepting a friend’s shortcomings, which sometimes included his parents.
war school hatred
I never killed anybody and I never developed an intense level of hatred for the enemy. Because my war ended before I ever put on a uniform; I was on active duty all my time at school; I killed my enemy there.
summer exeter
The summer of 1943 at Exeter was as happy a time as I ever had in my life.
school class members
Exeter was, I suspect, more crucial in my life than in the lives of most members of my class, and conceivably, than in the lives of almost anyone else who ever attended the school.
teaching yale letdowns
The best teaching I ever experienced was at Exeter. Yale was a distinct letdown afterward.
sick people generations
Young people in my generation were sort of in lockstep, and it wasn't just the '40s, either. In the '30s and in the '50s it was the same. No one ever dropped out unless he got sick or got kicked out.
mother dad father
My father was in the coal business in West Virginia. Both dad and mother were, however, originally from Massachusetts; New England, to them, meant the place to go if you really wanted an education.
numbers people feelings
There are simply more young people than there ever were. You get this feeling of strength. Also, large numbers can be a drawback, making it difficult to lose one's anonymity.
against anchor athletic bore damn decisive far finished gives good healthy man relay swimming thrilling
Swimming isn't the most thrilling sport in the world, far from it; it's a damn bore most of the time, but it does make you healthy and gives you a good body. I finished first as the anchor man in the final, decisive relay against Andover, to become an athletic mini-hero for about 15 minutes.
age boys earlier gone hell looking quite raise stayed
Looking back, I think we were all quite mature, surprisingly responsible. In earlier wars, boys of our age had just gone off to raise hell or enlist or both, but we stayed dutifully at our desks doing tomorrow's homework.