William Faulkner adds to our running archive of wisdom on writing.
Pair with Faulkner’s little-known and lovely children’s book.
William Faulkner
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A newly discovered trove of William Faulkner’s writings and illustrated letters, the best thing since his long-lost only children’s book.
The strange story of William Faulkner’s only known children’s book, with stunning illustrations and a side of controversy.
[October, 1924]
As long as I live under the capitalistic system, I expect to have my life influenced by the demands of moneyed people. But I will be damned if I propose to be at the beck and call of every itinerant scoundrel who has two cents to invest in a postage stamp.
This, sir, is my resignation.
(Signed)
A letter of resignation from (terrible postman) William Faulkner.
We must be free not because we claim freedom, but because we practice it.
William Faulkner, who was born on this day in 1897, in Essays, Speeches & Public Letters.
I was against compulsory segregation. I am just as strongly against compulsory integration.
William Faulkner in LIFE, 1956
Politics and political office are not and never have been the method and means by which we can govern ourselves in peace and dignity and honor and security, but instead our national refuge for our incompetents who have failed at every other occupation by means of which they might make a living for themselves and their families; and whom as a result we would have to feed and clothe and shelter out of our own private purses and means. The surest way to be elected to office in America is to have fathered seven or eight children and then lost your arm or leg in a sawmill accident: both of which - the reckless optimism which begot seven or eight children with nothing to feed them but a sawmill, and the incredible ineptitude which would put an arm or a leg in range of a moving saw – should already have damned you from any form of public trust.
William Faulkner on political office in The Mansion, 1959
