Quotes from Something Happened

Joseph Heller ·  576 pages

Rating: (6.3K votes)


“Something did happen to me somewhere that robbed me of confidence and courage and left me with a fear of discovery and change and a positive dread of everything unknown that may occur.”
― Joseph Heller, quote from Something Happened


“i know at last what i want to be when i grow up. when i grow up i want to be a little boy.”
― Joseph Heller, quote from Something Happened


“Maybe I am senile already and people are too kind to tell me. People are not kind and would tell me. (Maybe people have told me, and I'm too senile to remember).”
― Joseph Heller, quote from Something Happened


“I get the willies when I see closed doors.”
― Joseph Heller, quote from Something Happened


“I have a feeling that someone nearby is soon going to find out something about me that will mean the end, although I can't imagine what that something is.”
― Joseph Heller, quote from Something Happened



“I frequently feel I'm being taken advantage of merely because I'm asked to do the work I'm paid to do.”
― Joseph Heller, quote from Something Happened


“It's a real problem to decide whether it's more boring to do something boring than to pass along everything boring that comes in to somebody else and then have nothing to do at all.”
― Joseph Heller, quote from Something Happened


“I suppose it is just about impossible for someone like me to rebel anymore and produce any kind of lasting effect. I have lost the power to upset things that I had as a child; I can no longer change my environment or even disturb it seriously.”
― Joseph Heller, quote from Something Happened


“trying to evade the people who frighten us. We come to work, have lunch, and go home. We goose-step in and goose-step out, changing our partner and wander all about, sashay around for a pat on the head, and promenade home till we all drop dead.”
― Joseph Heller, quote from Something Happened


“That's what Paradise is- never knowing the difference.”
― Joseph Heller, quote from Something Happened



“Depreciating motels, junked automobiles, and quick-food joints grow like amber waves of grain.”
― Joseph Heller, quote from Something Happened


“And between us now there is this continual underground struggle over something trivial and nebulous that won't abate and has lasted nearly as long as the two of us have known each other. "I love you.”
― Joseph Heller, quote from Something Happened


“Niet nikoho, kým by som bol radšej než sám sebou - aj keď sa v skutočnosti nemám rád a dokonca som si ani nie istý, kto som.”
― Joseph Heller, quote from Something Happened


About the author

Joseph Heller
Born place: in Brooklyn, New York, The United States
Born date May 1, 1923
See more on GoodReads

Popular quotes

“The head that will become a skull is already empty. Madness is the déjà-là of death.”
― Michel Foucault, quote from Madness and Civilization: A History of Insanity in the Age of Reason


“On the other hand, for years I did not listen to Mozart after I was assaulted by the perverse idea that Mozart does not exist, because when he is good he is Beethoven and when he is bad he is Haydn.”
― Gabriel García Márquez, quote from Living to Tell the Tale


“You still love her.”
“More than my next breath.”
― Abbi Glines, quote from You Were Mine


“But his face was drawn and his eyes were pained as he looked down at me, and there was a strange expression on his face: defiance and fierce pride and something that looked like wonder, all jumbled up. And suddenly, I wanted to stab Lawrence all over again.
I killed him for you, I thought, staring upward.
I know.
― Karen Chance, quote from Fury's Kiss


“It was on my twenty-sixth birthday that it finally hit me: Love was bullshit. There was no happily ever after.”
― Cindi Madsen, quote from Cinderella Screwed Me Over


Interesting books

Riveted
(3.8K)
Riveted
by Meljean Brook
The Touch
(2.7K)
The Touch
by Colleen McCullough
Our Band Could Be Your Life: Scenes from the American Indie Underground, 1981-1991
(11.4K)
Our Band Could Be Yo...
by Michael Azerrad
Daring Greatly: How the Courage to Be Vulnerable Transforms the Way We Live, Love, Parent, and Lead
(66.3K)
Daring Greatly: How...
by Brené Brown
Moon
(11.4K)
Moon
by Laurann Dohner
The Devil's Right Hand
(5.1K)
The Devil's Right Ha...
by Lilith Saintcrow

About BookQuoters

BookQuoters is a community of passionate readers who enjoy sharing the most meaningful, memorable and interesting quotes from great books. As the world communicates more and more via texts, memes and sound bytes, short but profound quotes from books have become more relevant and important. For some of us a quote becomes a mantra, a goal or a philosophy by which we live. For all of us, quotes are a great way to remember a book and to carry with us the author’s best ideas.

We thoughtfully gather quotes from our favorite books, both classic and current, and choose the ones that are most thought-provoking. Each quote represents a book that is interesting, well written and has potential to enhance the reader’s life. We also accept submissions from our visitors and will select the quotes we feel are most appealing to the BookQuoters community.

Founded in 2023, BookQuoters has quickly become a large and vibrant community of people who share an affinity for books. Books are seen by some as a throwback to a previous world; conversely, gleaning the main ideas of a book via a quote or a quick summary is typical of the Information Age but is a habit disdained by some diehard readers. We feel that we have the best of both worlds at BookQuoters; we read books cover-to-cover but offer you some of the highlights. We hope you’ll join us.