Quotes from The Man With the Golden Arm

Nelson Algren ·  464 pages

Rating: (2.2K votes)


“There's people in hell who want ice water.”
― Nelson Algren, quote from The Man With the Golden Arm


“He was falling between glacial walls, he didn't know how anyone could fall so far away from everyone else in the world. So far to fall, so cold all the way, so steep and dark between those morphine-coloured walls...”
― Nelson Algren, quote from The Man With the Golden Arm


“If Jesus Christ treated me like you do, I’d drive in the nails myself.”
― Nelson Algren, quote from The Man With the Golden Arm


“Then the wooden benches along the walls, where so many outcasts had slept, would be lit by a sort of slow, clocked lightning til the bulb steadied and fastened its tiny feral fury upon the center of the room like a single sullen and manic eye. To burn on there with a steady hate. Til morning wearied and dimmed it away to nothing more than some sort of little old lost gray child of a district-station moon, all its hatred spent.”
― Nelson Algren, quote from The Man With the Golden Arm


“For way down there, in a shot glass's false bottom, everything was bound to turn out fine after all.”
― Nelson Algren, quote from The Man With the Golden Arm



“I couldn't buy the lice off a sick cat," the cabbie answered from the very depths of self-deprecation.”
― Nelson Algren, quote from The Man With the Golden Arm


“Heroin got the drive awright-but there’s not a tingle to a ton-you got to get M to get the tingle-tingle.”
― Nelson Algren, quote from The Man With the Golden Arm


About the author

Nelson Algren
Born place: in Michigan, The United States
Born date March 28, 1909
See more on GoodReads

Popular quotes

“coisa que não era necessário dizer, mas há leitores tão obtusos, que nada entendem, se se lhes não relata tudo e o resto. Vamos ao resto. ”
― Machado de Assis, quote from Dom Casmurro


“and three suicides, though one minister had tried to protest that decision that they be buried in what was now consecrated ground. That protest was greeted with icy rejection from Charlie, who was now a former member of that congregation.”
― William R. Forstchen, quote from One Second After


“Let's put the fun back in funeral!”
― Kresley Cole, quote from Dark Needs at Night's Edge


“Dante to Abby: My God you are going to kill me. Again”
― Alexandra Ivy, quote from When Darkness Comes


“Shakespeare put no children in his plays for a reason," Sir Godfrey muttered, glaring at Alf and Binnie.
"You're forgetting the Little Prince," Polly reminded him.
"Who he had the good sense to kill off in the second act," snapped Sir Godfrey.”
― Connie Willis, quote from All Clear


Interesting books

Gone for Good
(35.5K)
Gone for Good
by Harlan Coben
Johnny Tremain
(34.6K)
Johnny Tremain
by Esther Forbes
Chesapeake
(18.6K)
Chesapeake
by James A. Michener
Memories of My Melancholy Whores
(54.3K)
Memories of My Melan...
by Gabriel García Márquez
The Last Hero
(26.8K)
The Last Hero
by Terry Pratchett
Selling Scarlett
(6.9K)
Selling Scarlett
by Ella James

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.