Anything that happens to you has some bearing upon what you write.
John Dos PassosRead
A satirist is a man whose flesh creeps so at the ugly and the savage and the incongruous aspects of society that he has to express them as brutally and nakedly as possible in order to get relief.
Interpretation
What this quote means
A satirist critiques society's flaws, using harsh expression to cope with its unpleasantness.
In this quote, John Dos Passos highlights the role of a satirist as someone deeply affected by the negative and absurd elements of society. The satirist's need to confront and articulate these harsh truths serves both as a form of personal relief and a call for societal reflection, showcasing the uncomfortable realities that many choose to ignore.
Themes
SatireSocietyCritiqueTruthExpression
In practice
Example use cases
In a speech addressing social issues, one might quote this to emphasize the importance of honest critique.
More from John Dos Passos
All quotes →Breaking with old friends is one of the most painful of the changes in all that piling up of a multitude of small distasteful changes that constitutes growing older.
John Dos PassosRead
Love is cheap. You can buy it anywhere. Lives are cheap. It's money that's dear. You have to work days and sit up nights thinking how to make money.
John Dos PassosRead
There's something wonderfully exciting about the quiet sing song of an aeroplane overhead with all the guns in creation lighting out at it, and searchlights feeling their way across the sky like antennae, and the earth shaking snort of the bombs and the whimper of shrapnel pieces when they come down to patter on the roof.
John Dos PassosRead
The mind cannot support moral chaos for long. Men are under as strong a compulsion to invent an ethical setting for their behavior as spiders are to weave themselves webs
John Dos PassosRead
U.S.A. is the speech of the people
John Dos PassosRead
Similar quotes
And Noah he often said to his wife when he sat down to dine, "I don't care where the water goes if it doesn't get into the wine."
Gilbert K. ChestertonRead
I did toy with the idea of doing a cook-book . . . The recipes were to be the routine ones: how to make dry toast, instant coffee, hearts of lettuce and brownies. But as an added attraction, at no extra charge, my idea was to put a fried egg on the cover. I think a lot of people who hate literature but love fried eggs would buy it if the price was right.
Groucho MarxRead
Skewered through and through with office-pens, and bound hand and foot with red tape.
Charles DickensRead
Whenever I want to laugh, I read a wonderful book, 'Children's Letters to God.' You can open it anywhere. One I read recently said, 'Dear God, thank you for the baby brother, but what I prayed for was a puppy.'
Maya AngelouRead
You can't study comedy; it's within you. It's a personality. My humor is an attitude.
Don RicklesRead
I'm going to open another vottle. not a vottle, but a bottle. you open it and I'll drink it. and you try to write as much as I did without falling off of your chair.
Charles BukowskiRead