I have always felt that historians spend far too much time on wars and revolutions, the rise and falls of kingdoms, the pontificating of congresses and diets, councils and assemblies, the appearance and actions of villains and heroes, for they say or change remarkably little about us in the long run, one set of bureaucrats simply replaces another; whereas whatever alters the nature of the human mind, such as the creation of abstract ideas, the discovery of logic, the invention of musical notation, Arabic numerals, or the alphabet, the adoption and abandonment of perspective, the operation of the printing press, the menace of the motorcar, the three alleged burnings of the library of Alexandria,the critique of narrative and other modes of linear thinking, the development of non-Euclidean geometries, the continued triumph of scientific procedures in the face of repeated Luddite attacks, the tendency of technology to destroy civility, the eventual disappearance of baseball…these events and others like them belong in the center of the stage, since it is human consciousness that counts, it is its presence that determines whether we are alive, it is its quality which figures our value, and it is its discoveries, its decisions, which will save us and every living other from destruction, or, worse, mediocrity if there is to be any salvation at all.

— William Gass, “There Was an Old Woman Who”

Were there anything worthy of worship, then, we should ignore it; look at it, if we must, cockeyed; keep clear; never let on; invent no curses which employ and preserve its name; await the time when the vines of all our lives will grow over and hide it so it may lie safe like a city left empty and forgotten, silent inside us, solely in the deeps of us, so we might wonder about it like some wonder about Atlantis and, lost and alone, so it may remain worthy of worship, and a star shining in the midst of our dirty earth.

— William Gass, Were There Anything in the World Worth Worship

The golden calf is a good joe; he doesn’t need feed; he doesn’t do doodoo, or moo morosely, or low like a languishing lover; he can’t require much dough, upkeep is minimal. I guess you’d have to guard against theft and now and then polish the animal. Good glow. Over Jehovah and the rest of the monomolochs he has the further advantage of actually existing and being really worth something is sent to market or auctioned at Sotheby’s.

— William Gass, Were There Anything in the World Worth Worship

Action is everything. Most movies understand this. Does anyone suppose the story of Jonah is about Jonah? Jones would do. God needs someone to scare the people of Nineveh into docility. It’s the scaring that counts. Yes, verbs need nouns to be the agents of their doing and the objects of their wrath, but only the way strings need puppets.

— William Gass, The Nature of Narrative

Beauty overcomes her loathing for the Beast and eventually falls in love with him. Upon her kiss and the affection it represents, the prince is released from the spell which has imprisoned him in a ape suit or lion’s skin - whatever. The meaning is, again: look beyond mere appearance, seek and value inner qualities. Right. Because the significance is: kiss the frog, bat, cat, and receive in the next day’s mail a handsome young man of high social position full of the kind of gratitude which will make him putty in your hands. If you really loved the Beast, you’d be bereft when the prince appears. No, you are to love the Beast because the prince will be your reward.

Who’s kidding who?

— William Gass, The Nature of Narrative

All future cities are invisible as a matter of course, including the Chicago which my train has not yet entered; or they have no substance, like the suburb which will be appended to Des Moines, and not even seen then by the people who live in Moline. In addition their are dreamtowns, Disneylands, various Parises of pleasure. Venice is easily each of these.

— William Gass, on Calvino’s Invisible Cities