Tom Wolfe

"What has been called the American dream is in fact a compulsion to change, a refusal of stasis."

"A cult is a religion with no political power."

"The secret of getting ahead is getting started."

"In literature, as in politics, it is the man who says the unsayable that eventually makes a name for himself."

"The fear of death is stronger than the fear of life in most of us."

"Status seeking and social climbing are fundamental to human nature."

"The public, more often than not, will forgive virtue but seldom forgive failure."

"What we call good intentions are often merely the desire to look good to ourselves."

"The greatest killer of dreams is the fear of failure."

"A writer must think he is much better than everyone else or he is wasting everyone's time."

"The American character is the only truly revolutionary thing in the world."

"Ambition is the desire to improve, but vanity is the desire to be seen improving."

"To be unknown is to be unhappy in the modern world."

"The modern American family does not actually communicate; it watches television."

"Memory is a curious medium for storing experience, particularly the experience of place."

"The most important thing in life is to like yourself."

"Real art has the power to make us see the world differently forever."

"Status is everything in the human hierarchy; we are obsessed with it."

"The only way to cope with an unfree world is to become so absolutely free that very existence becomes an act of rebellion."

"Men are creatures of habit, and habit is stronger than love."

"The secret of wealth is knowing what matters and what does not."

"Every generation needs a new revolution."

"Style is substance. The substance of a writer is his style."

"In America, the greatest sin is not falling down; it is staying down."

"The truth is, you have to feel your words before you write them."

"Conviction gives a beautiful keenness to thought and expression."

"No one in the history of humanity has ever willingly given up status once obtained."

"The battlefield of the future is the battlefield of ideas."

"Authenticity is the only real luxury available to us."

"The modern city is one of the great creations of human civilization, and it is also a complete failure."