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Frank Harris Quotes

Frank Harris was an Irish-American editor, novelist, short story writer, journalist and publisher, who was friendly with many well-known figures of his day.

Born in Ireland, he emigrated to the United States early in life, working in a variety of unskilled jobs before attending the University of Kansas to read law. After graduation, he quickly tired of his legal career and returned to Europe in 1882. He traveled on continental Europe before settling in London to pursue a career in journalism. In 1921, in his sixties, he became a US citizen. Though he attracted much attention during his life for his irascible, aggressive personality, editorship of famous periodicals, and friendship with the talented and famous, he is remembered mainly for his multiple-volume memoir My Life and Loves, which was banned in countries around the world for its sexual explicitness. Wikipedia  

✵ 14. February 1856 – 27. August 1931
Frank Harris photo
Frank Harris: 10   quotes 0   likes

Famous Frank Harris Quotes

“Happiness is not essential to the artist; happiness never creates anything but memories.”

Frank Harris

Oscar Wilde ([1916] 1997) ch. 21, p. 254.

“My dear Duke, I know nothing of the joys of homo-sexuality. You must speak to my friend Oscar about that. And yet, if Shakespeare had asked me, I would have had to submit.”

Frank Harris

Hugh Kingsmill Frank Harris (1932) pp. 100-101.

“Just as work is the curse of the drinking classes of this country," [Wilde] said laughing, "so education is the curse of the acting classes.”

Frank Harris

Oscar Wilde (1916) ch. 11.

“I am, really, a great writer; my only difficulty is in finding great readers.”

Frank Harris

Quoted in George Jean Nathan The World of George Jean Nathan (1952) p. 252.

“The pleasure of being with you is in the clash of personality, the intellectual battle, the war of ideas. To survive you one must have a strong brain, an assertive ego, a dynamic character. In your luncheon-parties, in old days, the remains of the guests were taken away with the débris of the feast. I have often lunched with you in Park Lane and found myself the only survivor.”

Frank Harris

Oscar Wilde, letter to Frank Harris, June 13, 1897, in The Letters of Oscar Wilde (1962) p. 608.
Criticism

“Frank Harris has no feelings. It is the secret of his success. Just as the fact that he thinks other people have none either is the secret of the failure that lies in wait for him somewhere on the way of Life.”

Frank Harris

Oscar Wilde, letter to More Adey, May 12, 1897, quoted in Hugh Kingsmill Frank Harris (1932) p. 102.
Criticism

Frank Harris Quotes

“Christ goes deeper than I do, but I have had a wider experience.”

Frank Harris

Hugh Kingsmill Frank Harris (1932) p. 164.

Christ

“Shaw's relations with women have always been gallant, coy even. The number he has surrendered to physically have been few – perhaps not half a dozen in all – the first man to have cut a path through the theatre and left it strewn with virgins.”

Frank Harris

Bernard Shaw (1931) p. 191.

Women

“Strong men are made by opposition; like kites they go up against the wind.”

Frank Harris

Oscar Wilde ([1916] 1997) ch. 6, p. 59.

Men , Strong

“Casanova! My dear man, Casanova is not worthy to untie my bootstrings!”

Frank Harris

A. I. Tobin and Elmer Gertz Frank Harris: A Study in Black and White (1931) p. 324.

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