“Every moment of one's existence one is growing into more or retreating into less. One is always living a little more or dying a little bit.”

—  Norman Mailer , book Advertisements for Myself

"Hip, Hell, and the Navigator" in Western Review No. 23 (Winter 1959); republished in Conversations with Norman Mailer (1988) edited by J. Michael Lennon.
Source: Advertisements for Myself

Adopted from Wikiquote. Last update June 3, 2021. History

Help us to complete the source, original and additional information

Do you have more details about the quote "Every moment of one's existence one is growing into more or retreating into less. One is always living a little more or…" by Norman Mailer?
Norman Mailer photo
Norman Mailer 165
American novelist, journalist, essayist, playwright, film m… 1923–2007

Related quotes

Jean Rhys photo

“I've been so ridiculous all my life that a little bit more or a little bit less hardly matters now.”

Jean Rhys book Good Morning, Midnight

Source: Good Morning, Midnight

Will Rogers photo

“The more that learn to read the less learn how to make a living. That's one thing about a little education. It spoils you for actual work. The more you know the more you think somebody owes you a living.”

Will Rogers (1879–1935) American humorist and entertainer

Daily Telegram #1597, Will Rogers Finds Larnin' Spoils One For Real Work (4 September 1931)
Daily telegrams

Samuel R. Delany photo

“As one grows older, one lives more and more off the little signs of whatever community one moves through day to day and less and less off the gifts that fall out of individual relationships. If one does not prepare for this change in youth, than age becomes a bitter time. This is not to disparage the beauty of one’s relationships with lover or friend. It is only to acknowledge what, for so many in the city, is a sad truth. Community can, however awkwardly, replace individual relationships. But individual relationships only grow poisonous and resentful if there is no community to support them.”

Samuel R. Delany book Neveryóna

Source: Neveryóna (1983), Chapter 7, “Of Commerce, Capital, Myths, and Missions” (p. 147)

Chuck Klosterman photo

“We are always dying, all the time. That's what living is; living is dying, little by little. It is a sequenced collection of individualized deaths.”

Chuck Klosterman book Killing Yourself to Live: 85% of a True Story

Source: Killing Yourself to Live: 85% of a True Story

Graham Greene photo

“There was a tacit understanding between them that 'liquor helped'; growing more miserable with every glass one hoped for the moment of relief.”

Graham Greene book The Heart of the Matter

Source: The Heart of the Matter

Aldous Huxley photo

“It's a bit embarrassing… to have been concerned with the human problem all one's life and find at the end that one has no more to offer by way of advice than 'Try to be a little kinder.”

Aldous Huxley (1894–1963) English writer

As quoted in Huston Smith, "Aldous Huxley--A Tribute," The Psychedelic Review, (1964) Vol I, No.3, (Aldous Huxley Memorial Issue), p. 264-5
Source: Moksha: Writings on Psychedelics & the Visionary Experience

Gloria Steinem photo

“Dying seems less sad than having lived too little.”

Gloria Steinem (1934) American feminist and journalist
Judy Garland photo

“Wouldn`t it be wonderful if we could all be a little more gentle with each other, and a little more loving, have a little more empathy, and maybe we'd like each other a little bit more.”

Judy Garland (1922–1969) actress, singer and vaudevillian from the United States

As quoted in Little Girl Lost (1974) by Al DiOrio, p. 9

Tressie McMillan Cottom photo

“I want to be able to show up and raise the hell at the precise right moment that might tip the scales in a way that will make something a little more clear, or a little bit more just, for people I care about…”

Tressie McMillan Cottom American writer, sociologist, and professor

On what her writing goals are in “Dr. Tressie McMillan Cottom: Raising Really Good Hell for People Who Cannot” https://www.guernicamag.com/dr-tressie-mcmillan-cottom-raising-really-good-hell-for-people-who-cannot/ in Guernica Magazine (2019 Mar 20)

Related topics