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Quotes by Writer
"I've always been interested in people, but I've never liked them."
49
"Mediocrity knows nothing higher than itself, but talent instantly recognizes genius."
48
"Writing is one of the few professions in which you can psychoanalyse yourself, get rid of hostilities and frustrations in public, and get paid for it."
48
"We can create a different future - one simple, beautifully mundane, daily decision at a time."
48
"You know, this is really a way of cooking. It's not my way. I'm deeply influenced by the Mediterranean way of being. I've spent a lot of time there. And I've sort of translated it; I've tried to make it available to people in this country to whom it might not be familiar."
48
"The lies we tell other people are nothing to the lies we tell ourselves."
48
"The progression of emancipation of any class usually, if not always, takes place through the efforts of individuals of that class."
48
"The book, you understand, was not written for publication. It was the portrayal of my emotions, the analysis of my own soul life during three months of my nineteenth year. I wrote then all the time, just as I do now, but, though the book is in diary form, it is not a diary."
48
"Journalism allows its readers to witness history; fiction gives its readers an opportunity to live it."
48
"It is your turn to say something now, Mr. Darcy. I talked about the dance, and you ought to make some kind of remark on the size of the room, or the number of couples."
48
"It was relatively easy to write 'The Cave of Lost Souls', though, because it came to me one night in a dream. I remember waking up and having this idea for a complete story - from start to finish - in my head, so I jotted it down, then later began writing the thing."
48
"You don't need an explanation for everything, Recognize that there are such things as miracles - events for which there are no ready explanations. Later knowledge may explain those events quite easily."
48
"It is the mark of great people to treat trifles as trifles and important matters as important."
48
"I'm like the guy who prepares your taxes or a dentist. I'm very conservative and boring in a lot of ways."
48
"Though I have no productive worth, I have a certain value as an indestructible quantity."
48
"I have accomplished little enough, but such as it is, it is the result of my own efforts."
48
"It's taken us 10 years, and it was constant excitement. I was constantly shocked by how evil he could be. Mao was very, very shrewd but he didn't have human feeling."
48
"I think I have come to a place where I'm able to feel more comfortable about being honest."
48
"German readers are much like Brits or Americans: They read for the thrill of it, the occasional shudder down the spine, knowing it's not real - but looking over their shoulders anyway, just in case."
48
"At such a loving invitation, Pinocchio, with one leap from the back of the orchestra, found himself in the front rows. With another leap, he was on the orchestra leader's head. With a third, he landed on the stage."
48
"Using the device of an imaginary world allows me in some strange way to go to the central issues - it's one of many ways to express feelings about real people, about real human relationships."
48
"There are certain persons for whom pure Truth is a poison."
48
"Without asking her permission, someone is trying to intrude her life, draw her attention, in short, to bother her."
48
"Books are standing counselors and preachers, always at hand, and always disinterested; having this advantage over oral instructors that they are ready to repeat their lessons as often as we please."
48
"Trotsky rises to give me his hand, then sits at his desk, gently allowing his regard to light on my person."
48
"Corruption is like a ball of snow, once it's set a rolling it must increase."
48
"Don't separate 'real' life from 'creative' life."
48
"And they left the mellow light of the dandelion wine and went upstairs to carry out the last few rituals of summer, for they felt that now the final day, the final night had come. As the day grew late they realized that for two or three nights now, porches had emptied early of their inhabitants. The air hard a different, drier smell and Grandma was talking of hot coffee instead of iced tea; the open, white-flutter-curtained windows were closing in the great bays; cold cuts were giving way to steamed beef. The mosquitos were gone from the porch, and surely when they abandoned the conflict the war with Time was really done, there was nothing for it but that humans also forsake the battleground."
48
"...because love is continual interrogation. I don't know of a better definition of love."
48
"The most wasted day of all is that on which we have not laughed."
48
"Online publication is fine with me, in part because I hope to collect those stories later."
Hope,
48
"You will think you take generous views of her; but you will never begin to know through what a strange sea of feeling she passed before she accepted you. As she stood there in front of you the other day, she plunged into it. She said 'Why not?' to something which, a few hours earlier, had been inconceivable. She turned about on a thousand gathered prejudices and traditions as on a pivot, and looked where she had never looked hitherto."
48
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