Harry Mathews

She was disgusted with herself...and the disgust permanently cured her of suicide. Her piddling life did not deserve dramatic remedies. ↗

— Harry Mathews

#suicide #life

And then, when I left Princeton in the middle of my sophomore year, I went into the navy. ↗

— Harry Mathews

#into #left #middle #navy #princeton

I think situations are more important than plot and character. ↗

— Harry Mathews

#i #i think #important #more #plot

I graduated in 1952 and went to Europe, with Niki and our first child Laura, who was then a year old. ↗

— Harry Mathews

#europe #first #graduated #i #laura

I left Princeton, but I graduated Harvard, in 1952. ↗

— Harry Mathews

#harvard #i #left #princeton

I love teaching. ↗

— Harry Mathews

#i love #love #teaching

I also had this mistaken dream, fantasy really - perhaps because I'm good at languages - of being able in both Italy and France to become someone else through my fluency in the language. ↗

— Harry Mathews

#also #because #become #being #both

I thought Cheever was magnificent and that if I could write like him that would be the best I could do. And then I realized that what I really wanted to write had nothing to do with what he was doing. ↗

— Harry Mathews

#could #doing #had #him #i

I was immediately smitten with an attraction to this culture, not in the sense of high culture but of the basic way people behaved towards one another. ↗

— Harry Mathews

#attraction #basic #behaved #culture #high

My dream, I remember, when I went to boarding school, was to have a study all my own, a little nook someplace where nobody could get at me - nobody, like the football coach. ↗

— Harry Mathews

#boarding school #coach #could #dream #football