The only thing that prisons demonstrably cure is heterosexuality. John D. MacDonald More Quotes by John D. MacDonald More Quotes From John D. MacDonald Integrity is not a conditional word. It doesn't blow in the wind or change with the weather. It is your inner image of yourself, and if you look in there and see a man who won't cheat, then you know he never will. John D. MacDonald honesty integrity cheating The dividing line [between friends and acquaintances] is communication, I think. A friend is someone to whom you can say any jackass thing that enters your mind. With acquaintances, you are forever aware of their slightly unreal image of you, and to keep them content, you edit yourself to fit. Many marriages are between acquaintances. You can be with a person for three hours of your life and have a friend. Another will remain an acquaintance for thirty years. John D. MacDonald communication years thinking New York is where it is going to begin, I think. You can see it coming. The insect experts have learned how it works with locusts. Until locust population reaches a certain density, they all act like any grasshoppers. When the critical point is reached, they turn savage and swarm, and try to eat the world. We're nearing a critical point. One day soon two strangers will bump into each other at high noon in the middle of New York. But this time they won't snarl and go on. They will stop and stare and then leap at each others John D. MacDonald new-york two thinking My purpose is to entertain myself first and other people secondly. John D. MacDonald purpose writing people Old friend, there are people—young and old—that I like, and people that I do not like. The former are always in short supply. I am turned off by humorless fanaticism, whether it's revolutionary mumbo-jumbo by a young one, or loud lessons from scripture by and old one. We are all comical, touching, slapstick animals, walking on our hind legs, trying to make it a noble journey from womb to tomb, and the people who can't see it all that way bore hell out of me. John D. MacDonald journey animal people Up with life. Stamp out all small and large indignities. Leave everyone alone to make it without pressure. Down with hurting. Lower the standard of living. Do without plastics. Smash the servo-mechanisms. Stop grabbing. Snuff the breeze and hug the kids. Love all love. Hate all hate. John D. MacDonald hate hurt kids A nonreader is somebody standing there in a blindfold. John D. MacDonald standing-there blindfolds standing You have to start knowing yourself so well that you begin to know other people. A piece of us is in every person we can ever meet. John D. MacDonald knowing self people Night and gin and music-the right setting for peeling off the thin clinging layers of bullshit and finding one's way down closer to the essential self. John D. MacDonald music self night If the cards are stacked against you, reshuffle the deck. John D. MacDonald deck ifs cards I want story, wit, music, wryness, color, and a sense of reality in what I read, and I try to get it in what I write. John D. MacDonald color writing reality The only thing in the world worth a damn is the strange, touching, pathetic, awesome nobility of the individual human spirit. John D. MacDonald touching philosophy world At times it seems as if arranging to have no commitment of any kind to anyone would be a special freedom. But in fact the whole idea works in reverse. The most deadly commitment of all is to be committed only to one's self. Some come to realize this after they are in the nursing home. John D. MacDonald home relationship commitment A man with a credit card is in hock to his own image of himself. John D. MacDonald credit men cards As I holed up in the City of Angels, I was also aware of a comforting feeling of anonymity. In the world's biggest third-class city I could pass unnoticed. I spoke the language. I was familiar with the currency. I could drink the water. I could almost breathe the air, late April air, compounded of interesting hydrocarbons. John D. MacDonald angel air class Now each one of us, black or white, is a symbol. The war is out in the open and the skin color is a uniform. All the deep and basic similarities of the human condition are forgotten so that we can exaggerate the few differences that exist. John D. MacDonald differences white war This was not some pretty little girl, coyly flirtatious, delicately stimulated. This was the mature female of the species, vivid, handsome and strong demanding that all the life within her be matched. Her instinct would detect any hedging, any dishonesty, any less than complete response to her - and then she would be gone for good. John D. MacDonald hedging girl strong I am wary of the whole dreary deadening structured mess that we have built into such a glittering top-heavy structure that there is nothing left to see but the glitter, and the brute routines of maintaining it. John D. MacDonald glitter maintaining structure [To] me organized religion, the formalities and routines, [is] like being marched in formation to look at a sunset. John D. MacDonald sunset looks religion Integrity is not a conditional word. It doesn't blow in the wind or change with the weather. John D. MacDonald blow wind integrity
