A biography for Gertrude Steinhasn’t been written yet.
“At any moment when you are you, you are you without the memory of yourself because if you remember yourself while you are you, you are not for the purposes of creating you.”
“In France one must adapt oneself to the fragrance of a urinal.”
“Nature and man are opposed in Spain.”
“War is never fatal but always lost. Always lost.”
“An audience is always warming but it must never be necessary to your work.”
“The nineteenth century believed in science but the twentieth century does not.”
“The contemporary thing in art and literature is the thing which doesn't make enough difference to the people of that generation so that they can accept it or reject it.”
“Action and reaction are equal and opposite.”
“There ain't no answer. There ain't gonna be any answer. There never has been an answer. That's the answer.”
“Money is always there but the pockets change; it is not in the same pockets after a change, and that is all there is to say about money.”
“It is extraordinary that when you are acquainted with a whole family you can forget about them.”
“It is the soothing thing about history that it does repeat itself.”
“Silent gratitude isn't much use to anyone.”
“I rarely believe anything, because at the time of believing I am not really there to believe.”
“Everybody knows if you are too careful you are so occupied in being careful that you are sure to stumble over something.”
“The thing that differentiates man from animals is money.”
“I've been rich and I've been poor. It's better to be rich.”
“Is it worse to be scared than to be bored, that is the question.”
“The minute you or anybody else knows what you are you are not it, you are what you or anybody else knows you are and as everything in living is made up of finding out what you are it is extraordinarily difficult really not to know what you are and yet to be that thing.”
“A village explainer. Excellent if you were a village, but if you were not, not."(on Ezra Pound)”