Tag Archives: autobiography
The Jugular
Excerpted from John Lydon’s autobiography Rotten: No Irish, No Blacks, No Dogs, ©1994: That’s the trouble with working-class people throughout the world. They always try to spur their hatred onto what they see as being lower down the scale, rather than going for the fucking jugular of the upper- and middle-class bastards who are keeping …
Anyone Can Do It
John Lydon (aka “Johnny Rotten”) on the Sid Vicious personality cult, excerpted from his autobiography Rotten: No Irish, No Blacks, No Dogs, ©1994: Since I always have to have a point and purpose to everything I do, that’s why people accuse me of being calculated. But it’s the way I am. I always know my next …
We Couldn’t Stand It
“It was horrible to hear Camille sobbing so. We couldn’t stand it and went out to buy beer.” ~Jack Kerouac as Sal Paradise in On The Road, ©1957 Not exactly overflowing with the milk of human kindness, are you there, Jack?
“It’s sad and I don’t like it.”
Excerpted from On The Road by Jack Kerouac, ©1957: Dean was having his kicks; he put on a jazz record, grabbed Marylou, held her tight, and bounced against her with the beat of the music. She bounced right back. It was a real love dance. lan MacArthur came in with a huge gang. The New …
Jack and Rita
Excerpted from On The Road by Jack Kerouac, ©1957: Then I went to meet Rita Bettencourt and took her back to the apartment. I got a her in my bedroom after a long talk in the dark of the front room. She was a nice little girl, simple and true, and tremendously frightened of sex. …
Wonderfully Chaotic
John Lydon on politics, excerpted from his his autobiography Rotten: No Irish, No Blacks, No Dogs, ©1994: Around the time of the punks, socialism wasn’t working in England. The Labour party were unimpressive and tedious. The Conservatives, the same. It fluctuated from one party to another, four years of this, four years of that, and …
Old Women Knitting Quilts
Excerpted from John Lydon’s autobiography Rotten: No Irish, No Blacks, No Dogs, ©1994: I’m not a social snob; I can move inside any group and feel comfortable, I don’t care if it’s old women talking about knitting quilts. It’s all about human beings. I can find that as fascinating as anything else. Sid, Paul, and …
Me and Art
Excerpted from Art Buchwald’s autobiography Leaving Home: A Memoir, ©1993: But a funny thing can happen to you in a depression. If you don’t hurt yourself, you can gain tremendous insights and empathy, find inner strengths and hidden talents. It’s mysterious process, but if you can hold on, you become a wiser and better person. …
Catcher
“Ever since reading Catcher in the Rye, I have identified with Holden Caulfield. I always believed that while he was working one side of the street, I was working the other.” ~Art Buchwald, in his autobiography Leaving Home: A Memoir, ©1993 That’s interesting. I would never have thought to compare Holden Caulfield with Art Buchwald. …
The Difference
“Talent is not enough– determination, perseverance, resolution, that’s what makes the difference.” ~Lauren Bacall, in her autobiography Lauren Bacall: By Myself ©1978
RIP Tony Hendra
Tony Hendra died last Thursday of Lou Gherig’s disease. He was 79. You can read a little bit about him HERE. His autobiography, Father Joe: The Man Who Saved My Soul, is a wonderful book about spiritual transformation. I don’t have a lot of space to store books, but I’ve always kept a spot on …
Who, not What
Excerpted from Insomniac City by Bill Hayes, ©2017: Earlier, over dinner, O (Oliver Sacks) talking about his late friend Gaj– Carleton Gajdusek, a Nobel laureate in medicine– with great excitement and conviction, comparing him to Goethe, of whom it was said, O told me, “He had a nature. A nature.” I thought I knew what …
Marveling at the Lottery Logic
“I am told by longtime New Yorkers that the subway used to be awful– garbage-strewn, graffiti-covered, suffocating in the summer, dangerous at night all year round. And of course I know plenty of people who despise taking it today, even though the cars are remarkably safe, clean, and cool. I suggest they ride with me. …
I love you, I miss you…
Steve Irwin wrote his autobiography, The Crocodile Hunter, in 2001, just a year after the death of his mother. His dedication to her is heartbreaking: I’m dedicating this book, and my life, to my mum. I loved my mum more than anything in the world. She nurtured, protected, and loved me all my life. Lyn …
On In Out
“Turn on, tune in, drop out.” ~Dr. Timothy Leary Excerpt from Dr. Timothy Leary’s autobiography Flashbacks, ©1983: “Turn on” meant go within to activate your neural and genetic equipment. Become sensitive to the many and various levels of consciousness and the specific triggers engaging them. Drugs were one way to accomplish this end. “Tune in” …
You Watch What I Tell You
Excerpted from The Seventh Child: A Lucky Life by Freddie Mae Baxter, edited by Gloria Bley Miller, ©1999: My mother was only forty-nine years old when she died. She wasn’t sick before she died– like you say somebody was sick a long time– unless she was hiding it. She wasn’t in bed where you had …
Of Course
“I wanted to write so that I would have something interesting to read, for while everything I read was quite good, some of it wonderful, I believed that I would write better, and so of course it turned out to be.” ~William Saroyan There are people in this world who suffer from low self-esteem. William …
Just Sitting and Being Alive
Excerpted from The Bicycle Rider in Beverly Hills, the autobiography of William Saroyan, © 1952: Water to an Armenian is a holy thing, like fire. A farmer watering his plants, trees, or vines is taking part in a rite which has profound meaning and satisfaction for him. The farmers of Fresno went to the headgates …
The anxiety and fear that was plainly showing
In this excerpt from his memoir The Bicycle Rider in Beverly Hills, William Saroyan relates a memory of his mother’s from when his family crossed the Atlantic to America, c. 1888: My mother also remembered an Assyrian woman on the boat from Havre to New York, in steerage. This woman helped my mother take care …
But He Is Also
Excerpted from The Bicycle Rider in Beverly Hills, the autobiography of Armenian writer William Saroyan, © 1952: It is necessary to remember and necessary to forget, but it is better for a writer to remember. It is necessary for him to live purposely, which is to say to live and to remember having done so. …
Abbie's Tree House 