William Saroyan
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"William Saroyan" was an American dramatist and author. He was awarded the Pulitzer Prize for Drama in 1940, and in 1943 won the Academy Award for Best Story for the film adaptation of his novel The Human Comedy (novel)/The Human Comedy.

An Armenian American, Saroyan wrote extensively about the Armenian immigrant life in California. Many of his stories and plays are set in his native Fresno, California/Fresno. Some of his best-known works are The Time of Your Life, My Name Is Aram and My Heart's in the Highlands (play)/My Heart's in the Highlands.

He is recognized as "one of the most prominent literary figures of the mid-20th century." Stephen Fry describes Saroyan as "one of the most underrated writers of the [20th] century." Fry suggests that "he takes his place naturally alongside Hemingway, Steinbeck and Faulkner."

More William Saroyan on Wikipedia.

I am interested in madness. I believe it is the biggest thing in the human race, and the most constant. How do you take away from a man his madness without also taking away his identity?

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No enemy is so annoying as one who was a friend, or still is a friend, and there are many more of these than one would suspect.

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I was a little afraid of him; not the boy himself, but of what he seemed to be: the victim of the world.

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Try as much as possible to be wholly alive, with all your might, and when you laugh, laugh like hell and when you get angry, get good and angry. Try to be alive. You will be dead soon enough.

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The role of art is to make a world which can be tolerated.

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Good people are good because they've come to wisdom through failure.

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In the time of your life, live - so that in that wondrous time you shall not add to the misery and sorrow of the world, but shall smile to the infinite variety and mystery of it.

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Nothing good ever ends.

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Doctors don't know everything really. They understand matter, not spirit. And you and I live in spirit.

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I can't hate for long. It isn't worth it.

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The most solid advice for a writer is this, I think: Try to learn to breathe deeply, really to taste food when you eat, and when you sleep really to sleep. Try as much as possible to be wholly alive with all your might, and when you laugh, laugh like hell. And when you get angry, get good and angry. Try to be alive. You will be dead soon enough.

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