American novelist & short story writer (1876-1941)
Would it not be better to have it understood that realism, in so far as the word means reality to life, is always bad art -- although it may possibly be very good journalism?
SHERWOOD ANDERSON
"A Note on Realism", The Literary Review, Oct. 25, 1924
If our family was poor, of what did our poverty consist? If our clothes were torn the torn places only let in the sun and wind. In the winter we had no overcoats, but that only meant we ran rather than loitered.
SHERWOOD ANDERSON
A Story Teller's Story
Those who are to follow the arts should have a training in what is called poverty. Given a comfortable middle-class start in life, the artist is almost sure to end up by becoming a bellyacher, constantly complaining because the public does not rush forward at once to proclaim him.
SHERWOOD ANDERSON
A Story Teller's Story
I'll do something, get into some kind of work where talk don't count. Maybe I'll just be a mechanic in a shop. I don't know. I guess I don't care much. I just want to work and keep quiet. That's all I've got in mind.
SHERWOOD ANDERSON
"The Thinker", Winesburg, Ohio
"You can make it all right if you will only be satisfied to remain small," I told myself. I had to keep saying it over and over to myself. "Be little. Don't try to be big. Work under the guns. Be a little worm in the fair apple of life."
SHERWOOD ANDERSON
Memoirs
On the walls were pictures he had made, crude things, half finished. His friends talked of these. Leaning back in their chairs, they talked and talked with their heads rocking from side to side. Words were said about line and values and composition, lots of words, such as are always being said.
SHERWOOD ANDERSON
"Loneliness", Winesburg, Ohio
Others besides practicing artists have imaginations. But most people are afraid to trust their imaginations and the artist is not.
SHERWOOD ANDERSON
"A Note on Realism", The Literary Review, Oct. 25, 1924