Inspirational Quotes by Joseph Heller (American Novelist)

Joseph Heller (1923–99) was an American novelist. He is best known for the début novel Catch-22 (1961,) an absurdist black comedy satirizing war. Catch-22 is not only the source of the expression ‘catch-22,’ the proviso that trips one up no matter which way one turns, but also a byword for war’s absurdity.

Born in Brooklyn, New York City, Heller was educated at New York and served in the U.S. Air Force in World War II, flying 60 combat missions. After receiving an M.A. at Columbia University in 1949, he studied at the University of Oxford (1949–50) as a Fulbright scholar. He taught English at Pennsylvania State University (1950–52) and worked as an advertising copywriter for Time (1952–56) and Look (1956–58) and as a promotion manager for McCall’s (1958–61,) meanwhile writing Catch-22 in his spare time.

Drawing on his war experience, Heller wrote Catch-22 (1961; film 1970,) which is based on the simple premise that men on dangerous missions must be considered insane, and may, therefore, ask to be excused from duty, but by making the request, they prove that they are sane and fit to fly.

Upon its release, many considered Catch-22 off-the-wall and outlandish—The New Yorker review called it “a debris of sour jokes, stage anger, dirty words, and synthetic looniness.” After selling modestly for some years, Catch-22 became an international bestseller when published as a mass-market paperback.

Heller returned to the theme of war in the plays We Bombed in New Haven (1968) and Clevinger’s Trial (1974.) His later novels include Something Happened (1974,) Good as Gold (1979,) God Knows (1984,) and Picture This (1988.) Closing Time (1994) is a sequel to Catch-22. Portrait of an Artist, as an Old Man (2000,) was published posthumously.

Heller wrote several screenplays, among them Sex and the Single Girl (1964,) Casino Royale (1967,) and Dirty Dingus Magee (1970.)

Heller described his neurological ailment in the autobiographical account No Laughing Matter (1986.) Notable biographies include Tracy Daugherty’s Just One Catch (2011,) and his daugther Erica Heller’s Life Was a Catch-22 (2011.)

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