Literature has been the salvation of the damned, literature has inspired and guided lovers, routed despair and can perhaps in this case save the worl…

- John Cheever

If there is anybody I detest, it is weak-minded sentimentalists-all those melancholy people who, out of an excess of sympathy for others, miss the th…

- John Cheever

The main emotion of the adult American who has had all the advantages of wealth, education, and culture is disappointment.

- John Cheever

You can't expect to communicate with anyone if you're a bore.

- John Cheever

I love you not for the person you are, but for your possibilities.

- John Cheever

A lonely man is a lonesome thing, a stone, a bone, a stick, a receptacle for Gilbey's gin, a stooped figure sitting at the edge of a hotel bed, heavi…

- John Cheever

It was a splendid summer morning and it seemed as if nothing could go wrong.

- John Cheever

The deep joy we take in the company of people with whom we have just recently fallen in love is undisguisable.

- John Cheever

When the beginnings of self destruction enter the heart, it seems no bigger than a grain of sand.

- John Cheever