John Kennedy Toole

John Kennedy Toole (December 17, 1937 – March 26, 1969) was an American novelist best known for his posthumously published comic novel A Confederacy of Dunces, which won the Pulitzer Prize for Fiction in 1981. Quotes A Confederacy of Dunces (1980, posthumous) Quotations are cited from the 1981 Grove Press reprint "Is it the part of the police department to harass me when this city is a flagrant vice capital of the civilized world?" Ignatius bellowed over the crowd in front of the store. "This city is famous for its gamblers, prostitutes, exhibitionists, anti-Christs, alcoholics, sodomites, drug addicts, fetishists, onanists, pornographers, frauds, jades, litterbugs, and lesbians, all of whom are only too well protected by graft." Ch. 1, sec. 1 "With the breakdown of the Medieval system, the gods of Chaos, Lunacy, and Bad Taste gained ascendancy." Ch. 2, sec. 1 (Ignatius writing in one of his Big Chief tablets) "The United States needs some theology and geometry, some taste and decency. I suspect that we are teetering on the edge of the abyss." Ch. 2. sec. 3 (Ignatius) When Fortuna spins you downward, go out to a movie and get more out of life. Ch. 2, sec. 5 Ignatius...stared raptly at the previews of coming attractions. One of the films looked bad enough, he thought, to bring him back to the Prytania in a few days. Ch. 2, sec. 5 Ignatius...noted that several of the actors, the composer, the director, the hair designer, and the assistant producer were all people whose efforts had offended him at various times in the past. Ch. 2, sec. 5 thumb|I do believe that I shall have another of these savories. "What degenerate produced this abortion?" Ch. 2, sec. 5 (Igantius) "That fat mother got him the green cap." Ch. 4, sec. 2 (Jones) "Miss Trixie considers luncheon meat a rather toothsome delicacy." Ch. 5, sec. 2 (Ignatius) "I do believe that I shall have another of these savories." Ch. 7, sec. 1 (Ignatius) "The human desire for food and sex is relatively equal. If there are armed rapes, why should there not be armed hot dog thefts?" Ch. 7, sec. 1 (Ignatius) You can always tell employees of the government by the total vacancy which occupies the space where most other people have faces. Ch. 9, sec. 1 (Ignatius) "A new film featuring my favorite female star, whose recent circus musical excess stunned and overwhelmed me, is opening shortly at one of the downtown movie palaces. I must somehow get to see it. Only my wagon stands in the way. Her new film is billed as a 'sophisticated' comedy in which she must certainly reach new heights of perversion and blasphemy." Ch. 9, sec. 4 (Ignatius in one of his Big Chief tablets) The Neon Bible The war had been on for quite a while now when Poppa got his notice from the draft. He didn't have to go, but he more or less enlisted. Mother and I and Aunt Mae went down to the train to see him off, and when he left he kissed Mother and he cried, and I'd never seen a man cry before. The train pulled away, and we stood there and watched it go, and Mother kept looking long after it had passed around the hill. Ch. 4, opening paragraph External links Category:Pulitzer Prize winners Category:1969 deaths Category:Novelists from the United States Category:People from Louisiana Category:People from New Orleans Category:Suicides