14 Thomas Mallon Quotes for You to Enjoy

Thomas Mallon

American Novelist

Born: Nov 2, 1951

American Good Solar Think Writing You

Related authors: Elie Wiesel Ernest Hemingway H. P. Lovecraft James Baldwin John Updike Leo Rosten Nathaniel Hawthorne Richard Bach

Bobby Kennedy's conduct toward Lyndon Johnson was childish and despicable. As the years went on, he displayed nasty, self-pitying, and messianic qualities that would have made him a dangerously authoritarian president. Thomas Mallon

I often tell people who want to write historical fiction: don't read all that much about the period you're writing about; read things from the period that you're writing about. There's a tendency to stoke up on a lot of biography and a lot of history, and not to actually get back to the original sources. Thomas Mallon

History You People Writing Back Tell About Tendency Write Period Read Sources Lot Historical Historical Fiction Up Stoke Get Often Want Fiction Much Who Original Actually Things Biography

The Czech Republic, severed from its old Slovak half, sits in apparent landlocked contentment, inside the European Union but outside the troubled Euro Zone, set into the new Continental mosaic like one of the small sturdy paving stones, just a few inches square, that form the sidewalks under the visitor's ambling feet. Thomas Mallon

Old Half Contentment Few Severed Visitor Inside Small Troubled Outside Mosaic New Feet Like Continental Square Stones Just Form Republic Paving Inches Apparent Euro Union European Czech European Union Czech Republic Zone Set

I'm not convinced that Nixon would have survived in office if he'd burned the tapes, but I do believe he would have served out his presidency if he'd never made them in the first place. Thomas Mallon

Made First Believe Presidency Nixon Out Would Never He First Place His Tapes Survived Office Burned Place Them Convinced Served

The late Tom Wicker's biography of Nixon, called 'One of Us,' is really quite good: you see the biographer discovering dimensions of sympathy for his subject that he hadn't expected to feel. Thomas Mallon

Good You Sympathy Late Dimensions Nixon See He Feel His Subject Discovering Expected Quite Us Really Tom Biography

With 'Fellow Travelers,' I think I was consciously trying to imagine what my own life as a gay man might have been like if I'd been born exactly 20 years earlier. Thomas Mallon

Life Gay Man Own Think Exactly Born My Own Like Fellow Been Years Trying Might Travelers Earlier Imagine

I'd have to say that Nixon feels like the public figure who most dominated my life - from the time I went to fourth grade wearing a Nixon-Lodge button in the fall of 1960, through my college years, which overlapped with Kent State, Cambodia, the China trip and all the rest. Thomas Mallon

Life Time Rest College My Life Fall State Say Nixon Wearing Trip Through Feels Like Most Cambodia Years Dominated Grade Which China Public Public Figure Figure Who Button Fourth Kent

'National Review' came along, in '55, at the moment when American conservatism most needed it. Thomas Mallon

National Conservatism Along Most Came Review American Moment Needed

One's politics are part of one even when one is writing. But if I want to say anything about the state of civil society, I will write an essay. The responsibilities you feel as a novelist are literary ones, I think, not civic ones. And I think politicians are interesting to write about. Thomas Mallon

Politics You Writing Will Politicians Think Society State Say Responsibilities Civic Civil About Civil Society Write Part Feel Essay Want Literary Anything Interesting Even Novelist

I think that the worst form of naivete can be extreme cynicism. If you think that nobody comes to Washington to do any good whatsoever, that is almost as bad as being starry-eyed and thinking that they are all here to advance democracy. Thomas Mallon

Good Democracy You Think Thinking Extreme Worst Bad Advance Almost Nobody Naivete Whatsoever Any Being Form Cynicism Washington Here

One decision I made in writing 'Henry and Clara' was that I would keep Lincoln's appearances and any dialogue by him to an absolute minimum, because I think readers don't quite believe it when novelists have Lincoln walking around and saying things. They just know they're in the presence of stage machinery. Thomas Mallon

Saying Writing Decision Made Stage Believe Think Machinery Minimum Would Absolute Know Him Readers Because Around Lincoln Dialogue Walking Any Quite Just Appearances Novelists Keep Henry Things Presence

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