Thomas Kennerly "Tom" Wolfe, Jr. (b. March 2, 1931) is an American
author and journalist, best known for his association and influence over
the New Journalism literary movement in which literary techniques are
used in objective, even-handed journalism. Beginning his career as a
reporter he soon became one of the most culturally significant figures
of the sixties after the publication of books such as The Electric
Kool-Aid Acid Test, a highly experimental account of Ken Kesey and
the Merry Pranksters, and his collections of articles and essays, Radical
Chic & Mau-Mauing the Flak Catchers and The Kandy-Kolored
Tangerine-Flake Streamline Baby. His first novel entitled The
Bonfire of the Vanities, released in 1987, was met with critical
acclaim and was a great commercial success. (Click
here for full Wikipedia article)
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A cult is a religion with no political power.
A lie may fool someone else, but it tells you the truth: you're weak.
Criminal law is a thing unto itself, because the stakes are not money
but human life and human freedom, and I tell you, that sets off a lot of
crazy emotions.
Culture is the arts elevated to a set of beliefs.
Don't confuse the water with the pump.
For the debut of Las Vegas as a resort in 1946, Bugsy Siegel hired Abbot
and Costello, and there, in a way, you have it all.
Frankly, these days, without a theory to go with it, I can't see a
painting.
I never forget. I never forgive. I can wait. I find it very easy to
harbor a grudge. I have scores to settle.
I'd rather be a lightning rod than a seismograph.
If a conservative is a liberal who's been mugged, a liberal is a
conservative who's been arrested.
If you label it this, then it can't be that.
It is very comforting to believe that leaders who do terrible things
are, in fact, mad. That way, all we have to do is make sure we don't put
psychotics in high places and we've got the problem solved.
Perhaps this is our strange and haunting paradox here in America- that
we are fixed and certain only when we are in movement.
Sometimes we don't even realize what we really care about, because we
get so distracted by the symbols.
That's mostly what the Internet is, just passing the time. But
unfortunately you are dealing with words that can have meaning.
The attitude is we live and let live. This is actually an amazing change
in values in a rather short time and it's an example of freedom from
religion.
The dark night of fascism is always descending in the United States and
yet lands only in Europe.
The surest cure for vanity is loneliness.
We are always acting on what has just finished happening. It happened at
least 1/30th of a second ago. We think we're in the present, but we
aren't. The present we know is only a movie of the past.
You can be denounced from the heavens, and it only makes people
interested.
You never realize how much of your background is sewn into the lining of
your clothes.
You're either on the bus or off the bus.
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Tom Wolfe, Jr.
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