I gave no prescriptions, And those who have taken my moods for prophecies Mistake the matter.

- Louis Simpson

For people may not know what they think about politics in the Balkans, or the vexed question of men and women, but everyone has a definite opinion ab…

- Louis Simpson

The treasures of Cathay were never found. In this America, this wilderness Where the axe echoes with a lonely sound, The generations labor to possess…

- Louis Simpson

It's complicated, being an American, Having the money and the bad conscience, both at the same time.

- Louis Simpson

Being shelled is the main work of an infantry soldier, which no one talks about. Everyone has his own way of going about it. In general, it means lyi…

- Louis Simpson

The Open Road goes to the used-car lot.

- Louis Simpson

Paranoia imposes its own vision on the external world; it differs from other kinds of visionary experience in that the paranoid wants others to share…

- Louis Simpson

The aim of military training is not just to prepare men for battle, but to make them long for it.

- Louis Simpson

In my grandmother's house there was always chicken soup And talk of the old country--mud and boards, Poverty, The snow falling down and necks of love…

- Louis Simpson