Quotes for All
There is nothing like lying flat on your back on the deck, alone except for the helmsman aft at the wheel, silence except for the lapping of the sea against the side of the ship. At that time you can be equal to Ulysses and brother to him. Errol Flynn
Concerning the Gods, there are those who deny the very existence of the Godhead; others say that it exists, but neither bestirs nor concerns itself not has forethought far anything. A third party attribute to it existence and forethought, but only for great and heavenly matters, not for anything that is on earth. A fourth … Read more
In translation studies we talk about domestication – translation styles that make something familiar – or estrangement – translation styles that make something radically different. I use a lot of both in my translation, and modernism does both. For instance, if you look at the way James Joyce presents Ulysses, is that domesticating a classic? … Read more
Every few years, I think, ‘Maybe now I’m finally smart enough or sophisticated enough to understand ‘Ulysses.” So I pick it up and try it again. And by page 10, as always, I’m like, ‘What the hell?’ Elizabeth Gilbert
If I can leave a single message with the younger generation, it is to lash yourself to the mast, like Ulysses if you must, to escape the siren calls of complacency and indifference. Edward Kennedy
To live with the work and the letters of James Joyce was an enormous privilege and a daunting education. Yes, I came to admire Joyce even more because he never ceased working, those words and the transubstantiation of words obsessed him. He was a broken man at the end of his life, unaware that Ulysses … Read more
Ulysses … is a dogged attempt to cover the universe with mud, an inverted Victorianism, an attempt to make crossness and dirt succeed where sweetness and light failed, a simplification of the human character in the interests of Hell. E. M. Forster
In one particular chapter in Ulysses, James Joyce imitates every major writing style that’s been used by English and American writers over the last 700 years – starting with Beowulf and Chaucer and working his way up through the Renaissance, the Victorian era and on into the 20th century. Frederick Lenz
I think perhaps the greatest book ever written was Ulysses by James Joyce. Frederick Lenz
Trying to imagine E. M. Forster, who found Ulysses indecorous, at a London performance of Lenny Bruce—to which in fact he was once taken. Trying to imagine the same for a time-transported Nathaniel Hawthorne—who during his first visit to Europe was even shocked by the profusion of naked statues. David Markson