Quote #1

What life means to me is to put the content of Shelley into the form of Zola. The proletarian writer is a writer with a purpose; he thinks no more of 'art for art's sake' than a man on a sinking ship thinks of painting a beautiful picture in the cabin; he thinks of getting ashore - and then there will be time enough for art.

More from Upton Sinclair

  1. Let us redeem our great words from base uses. Let that no longer call itself Love, which knows that it is not free!
  2. I know you are brave and unselfish people, making sacrifices for a great principle but I cannot join you. I believe in the present effort w…
  3. I have lived in Germany and know its language and literature, and the spirit and ideals of its rulers. Having given many years to a study o…
  4. American capitalism is predatory, and American politics are corrupt: The same thing is true in England and the same in France; but in all t…
  5. I am a person who has never used violence himself. My present opinion is that people who have obtained the ballot should use it and solve t…
  6. All art is propaganda. It is universally and inescapably propaganda; sometimes unconsciously, but often deliberately, propaganda.
  7. I am not a giant physically; I shrink from pain and filth and vermin and foul air, like any other man of refinement; also, I freely admit, …
  8. I wrote with tears and anguish, pouring into the pages all that pain which life had meant to me. Externally the story had to do with a fami…

All Upton Sinclair quotes