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"I'm not ashamed of heroic ambitions. If man and woman can only dance upon this earth for a few countable turns of the sun... let each of us be an Artemis, Odysseus, or Zeus... Aphrodite to the extent of the will of each one."
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"Colon has always thought that heroes had some special kind of clockwork that made them go out and die famously for god, country and apple pie, or whatever particular delicacy their mother made. It had never occurred to him that they might do it because they'd get yelled at if they didn't."

"Heroes need monsters to establish their heroic credentials. You need something scary to overcome."

"I have never accepted what many people have kindly said namely that I have inspired the nation. It was the nation and the race dwelling all around the globe that had the lion heart. I had the luck to be called upon to give the roar."

"Heroes are hero no matter if everybody is watching them or nobody watching them."

"I stare at him, trying to comprehend what he's done. He saved Magiano from falling overboard. He saved me. He is taking this mission seriously, however much he loathes us."Maybe next time, he says to me with that smile, "you won't be so lucky."
Explore more quotes by Roman Payne

"Rest in Peace?' Why that phrase? That's the most ridiculous phrase I've ever heard! You die, and they say 'Rest in Peace!'. Why would one need to 'rest' when they're dead?! I spent thousands of years of world history resting. While Agamemnon was leading his ships to Troy, I was resting. While Ovid was seducing women at the chariot races, I was resting. While Jeanne d'Arc was hallucinating, I was resting. I wait until airplanes are scuttling across the sky to burst out onto the scene, and I'm only going to be here for a short while, so when I die, I certainly won't need to rest again! Not while more adventures of the same kind are going on."

"People wonder why so many writers come to live in Paris. I've been living ten years in Paris and the answer seems simple to me: because it's the best place to pick ideas. Just like Italy, Spain.. or Iran are the best places to pick saffron. If you want to pick opium poppies you go to Burma or South-East Asia. And if you want to pick novel ideas, you go to Paris."

"Who worries for dying? If I close my eyes tonight, I will either dream, or not, or my eyes will open and I will be here again. And if none of those happen, and I do not wake? Who worries for dying?"

"The youthful body untouched decays the fastest, for no living hands record its splendor; and here youth and time are wasted."

"I wandered everywhere, through cities and countries wide. And everywhere I went, the world was on my side."

"He was no god, just an artist; and when an artist is a man, he needs a woman to create like a god."

"After joyfully working each morning, I would leave off around midday to challenge myself to a footrace. Speeding along the sunny paths of the Jardin du Luxembourg, ideas would breed like aphids in my head-for creative invention is easy and sublime when air cycles quickly through the lungs and the body is busy at noble tasks."

"Without knowing why or how, I found myself in love with this strange Wanderess. Maybe I was just in love with the dream she was selling me: a life of destiny and fate; as my own life up until we met had been so void of enchantment. Those things: mystery, fate, enchantment... they are things that young people offer us as soon as we get close to them. And if we're not careful, we can be seduced by, and drawn back into, the youthful world they preside over."

"From all that I saw, and everywhere I wandered, I learned that time cannot be spent. It can only be squandered."

"If you love my work, you are a good critic. If you do not love my work, you are a 'not good' critic."
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