"A cult is a religion with no political power."
About Tom Wolfe
Tom Wolfe, a significant figure in American literature, is best known for his pioneering work in New Journalism, where he blended literary techniques with journalistic rigor. His book 'The Electric Kool-Aid Acid Test' captures the essence of the 1960s counterculture, illustrating the tension between individual freedom and societal expectations. Wolfe's keen observations often reveal the absurdities of modern life, as seen in his assertion that 'The right to be heard does not automatically include the right to be taken seriously.' This highlights his belief in the necessity of substance over mere expression in a society inundated with voices. His writing challenges conventional narratives, urging readers to question the status quo and reflect on the complexities of identity and culture. Wolfe's insights remain relevant today, as they continue to provoke thought about the nature of American society and the individual's place within it.
Quote collection
68 quotes — follow a thought to its full quote page.
"A cult is a religion with no political power."
"Love is the ultimate expression of the will to live."
"I still believe nonfiction is the most important literature to come out of the second half of the 20th century."
"A lie may fool someone else, but it tells you the truth: you're weak."
"The problem with fiction, it has to be plausible. That's not true with non-fiction."
"Everybody, everybody everywhere, has his own movie going, his own scenario, and everybody is acting his movie out like mad, only most people don’t know that is what they’re trapped by, their little script."
"If a conservative is a liberal who's been mugged, a liberal is a conservative who's been arrested."
"Sherman made the terrible discovery that men make about their fathers sooner or later... that the man before him was not an aging father but a boy, a boy much like himself, a boy who grew up and had a child of his own and, as best he could, out of a sense of duty and, perhaps love, adopted a role called Being a Father so that his child would have something mythical and infinitely important: a Protector, who would keep a lid on all the chaotic and catastrophic possibilities of life. ~Tom Wolfe"
"It's not just that reporting gives you a bigger slice of life, gives - lends verisimilitude to what you are doing - it's that it feeds the imagination."
"The attitude is we live and let live. This is actually an amazing change in values in a rather short time and it's an example of freedom from religion."
"Dear Mother, I meant to write you before this and I hope you haven't been worried.... I have met some Beautiful People and..."
"What do you mean, blindly? That baby is a very sentient creature… That baby sees the world with a completeness that you and I will never know again. His doors of perception have not yet been closed. He still experiences the moment he lives in."
"I never forget. I never forgive. I can wait. I find it very easy to harbor a grudge. I have scores to settle."
"It is very comforting to believe that leaders who do terrible things are, in fact, mad. That way, all we have to do is make sure we don't put psychotics in high places and we've got the problem solved."
"A glorious place, a glorious age, I tell you! A very Neon renaissance - And the myths that actually touched you at that time - not Hercules, Orpheus, Ulysses and Aeneas - but Superman, Captain Marvel, and Batman."
"Sherman made the terrible discovery that men make about their fathers sooner or later."
"The notion that the public accepts or rejects anything in modern art is merely romantic fiction. The game is completed and the trophies distributed long before the public knows what has happened."
"You're either on the bus or off the bus."
"a perception of the cosmic unity of this higher level. And a feeling of timelessness, the feeling that what we know as time is only the result of a naive faith in causality - the notion that A in the past caused B in the present, which will cause C in the future, when actually A, B, and C are all part of a pattern that can be truly understood only by opening the doors of perception and experiencing it... in this moment... this supreme moment... this Kairos."
"Put your good where it will do the most!"