Quotes from book
Absalom, Absalom!

Absalom, Absalom! is a novel by the American author William Faulkner, first published in 1936. Taking place before, during, and after the Civil War, it is a story about three families of the American South, with a focus on the life of Thomas Sutpen.


William Faulkner photo
William Faulkner photo

“If happy I can be I will, if suffer I must I can.”

Source: Absalom, Absalom!

William Faulkner photo
William Faulkner photo
William Faulkner photo

“I dont hate it he thought, panting in the cold air, the iron New England dark; I dont. I dont! I dont hate it! I dont hate it!”

The Mansion (1959)
Source: Absalom, Absalom!
Context: Or maybe married men dont even need reasons, being as they already got wives. Or maybe it's women that dont need reasons, for the simple reason that they never heard of a reason and wouldn't recognise it face to face, since they dont function from reasons but from necessities that couldn't nobody help nohow and that dont nobody but a fool man want to help in the second place, because he dont know no better; it aint women, it's men that takes ignorance seriously, getting into a skeer [scare] over something for no more reason than that they dont happen to know what it is.

V. K. Ratliff in Ch. 6

William Faulkner photo
William Faulkner photo

“Now I want you to tell me just one thing more. Why do you hate the South?”

"I dont hate it," Quentin said, quickly, at once, immediately; "I dont hate it," he said. I dont hate it he thought, panting in the cold air, the iron New England dark: I dont. I dont! I dont hate it! I dont hate it!

last lines (Chapter 9)
Absalom, Absalom! (1936)

William Faulkner photo

“Happens is never once.”

Absalom, Absalom! (1936)

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