John Knowles
Born: 01-01-1926
John Knowles was an American novelist best known for his debut novel, "A Separate Peace," published in 1959. Born in 1926 in Fairmont, West Virginia, Knowles attended Phillips Exeter Academy and Yale University, experiences that heavily influenced his writing. His work often explores themes of youth, identity, and the complexities of friendship. Throughout his career, Knowles continued to write novels and short stories, leaving a lasting impact on American literature.
Book summaries for books written by John Knowles
Quotes
I felt fear's echo, and along with that I felt the unhinged, uncontrollable joy which had been its accompaniment and opposite face.
I could not escape a feeling that this was my own funeral, and you do not cry in that case.
He was everywhere, he enjoyed a unity and a wholeness I would never know.
It seemed clear that wars were not made by generations and their special stupidities, but that wars were made instead by something ignorant in the human heart.
I was beginning to see that Phineas could get away with anything. I couldn't help envying him that a little, which was perfectly normal. There was no harm in envying even your best friend a little.
The more things remain the same, the more they change after all.
We were careless and wild, we were heavy and ready to fall, we were floundering in the same ditch.
The real world is cold, and the trick is not to notice it.
I lost part of my life. I could not speak about it. I could not change it.
In the same way, he loved the school, because it was a world without the war, without the big angry world, without the big, well-fed men who had created it.
The tree was not only stripped by the cold season, it seemed weary from age, enfeebled, dry. I was thankful, very thankful that I could see a thing so clearly. I was moved and a little saddened by it.
Wars are not made by generations and their special stupidities, but that wars are made instead by something ignorant in the human heart.