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1625 Essayist Quotes

I used to think religion was just more of the same thing. Dump responsibility on the big guy. Now I see an importance in that. It's a relief to accept that not everything is under your control.

Used Think Religion Just
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Readers of fiction read, I think, for a deeper embrace of the world, of reality. And that's brave. I never get over being thankful for that - for the courage of my readers.

Readers Fiction Read Think
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My morning begins with trying not to get up before the sun rises. But when I do, it's because my head is too full of words, and I just need to get to my desk and start dumping them into a file.

Morning Begins With Trying
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It's a funny thing: people often ask how I discipline myself to write. I can't begin to understand the question. For me, the discipline is turning off the computer and leaving my desk to do something else.

It's Funny Thing People
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For me, writing time has always been precious, something I wait for and am eager for and make the best use of. That's probably why I get up so early and have writing time in the quiet dawn hours, when no one needs me.

For Me Writing Always
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Every time I step onto an airplane, I turn to the right and take a good, hard stare into the maw of the engine. I don't know what I'm looking for. I just do it.

Every Time Step Onto
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Motherhood is so sentimentalised and romanticised in our culture. It's practically against the law to say there are moments in the day when you hate your children. Everyone actually has those moments.

Motherhood So Sentimentalised Romanticism
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I love developing children as characters. Children rarely have important roles in literary fiction - they are usually defined as cute or precious, or they create a plot by being kidnapped or dying.

Love Developing Children Characters
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After 'The Poisonwood Bible' was published, several people believed that my parents were missionaries, which could not be further from the truth.

After Poisonous Bible Was
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Most every book I bring into the world is like birthing a baby; it's a lot of effort!

Most Every Book Bring
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The first sentence of a book is a promise.

First Sentence Book Promise
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I live in a rural part of Virginia surrounded by farms and farmers.

Live Rural Part Virginia
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Any healthy man can go without food for two days - but not without poetry.

Any Days Food Go
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Always be a poet, even in prose.

Always Even Poet Prose
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A book is a garden, an orchard, a storehouse, a party, a company by the way, a counselor, a multitude of counselors.

Book Company Counselors Garden
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Everything that is beautiful and noble is the product of reason and calculation.
Beautiful Calculation Everything Noble
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We are homesick most for the places we have never known.
Homesick Places Never Known
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The mind is like a richly woven tapestry in which the colors are distilled from the experiences of the senses, and the design drawn from the convolutions of the intellect.

Mind Richly Tapestry Distilled
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I live with the people I create and it has always made my essential loneliness less keen.

Live People Create Made
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There's nothing that makes you so aware of the improvisation of human existence as a song unfinished. Or an old address book

Makes Improvisation Human Existence
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The theme is the theme of humiliation, which is the square root of sin, as opposed to the freedom from humiliation, and love, which is the square root of wonderful.

Theme Humiliation Square Root
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Coming down was the hardest part of any climbing.

Coming Down Hardest Climbing
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The Heart is a Lonely Hunter.
Heart Lonely Hunter
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A most mediocre person can be the object of a love which is wild, extravagant, and beautiful as the poison lilies of the swamp.
Mediocre Person Object Love
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Owing to the fact he was a mute they were able to give him all the qualities they wanted him to have.

Owing Mute Give Qualities
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Once you have lived with another, it is a great torture to have to live alone.
Once Live Great Torture
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The value and quality of any love is determined solely by the lover himself.
Value Quality Love Determined
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But the hearts of small children are delicate organs. A cruel beginning in this world can twist them into curious shapes.

Heart Small Children Delicate
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To know who you are, you have to have a place to come from.

Who You Are Have
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I was like a cat always climbing the wrong tree
Like Cat Climbing Wrong
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Passion is more important than justice.

Passion Important Justice
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Inspiration comes of working every day.
Every Day Inspiration Working
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The man who says his evening prayer is a captain posting his sentinels. He can sleep.

Captain Evening He His
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The life of our city is rich in poetic and marvelous subjects. We are enveloped and steeped as though in an atmosphere of the marvelous; but we do not notice it.

Atmosphere City Life Marvelous
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Resentment is the most precious flower of poverty.

Resentment Precious Flower Poverty
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I do not have any home. So why should I be homesick?

Do Have Home Homesick
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In his face there came to be a brooding peace that is seen most often in the faces of the very sorrowful or the very wise. But still he wandered through the streets of the town, always silent and alone.

Face Brooding Peace Faces
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There are those who know and those who don't know. And for every ten thousand who don't know there's only one who knows. That's the miracle of all time--the fact that these millions know so much but don't know this.

Those Who Thousand Miracle
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I meditated on love and reasoned it out. I realized what is wrong with us. Men fall in love for the first time. And what do they fall in love with? ...They fall in love with a woman. They start at the wrong end of love. They begin at the climax. Can you wonder it is so miserable? Do you know how men should love? A tree. A rock. A cloud.

Meditated Love Reasoned Realized
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There are the lover and the beloved, but these two come from different countries.

Lover Beloved Two Come
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The most fatal thing a man can do is try to stand alone.

Most Fatal Man Do
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Imagination takes humility, love and great courage.

Imagination Takes Love Humility
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The people dreamed and fought and slept as much as ever. And by habit they shortened their thoughts so that they would not wander out into the darkness beyond tomorrow.

Fought People Slept Habit
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the way i need you is a loneliness i cannot bear.

Way Need Loneliness Bear
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Maybe when people longed for a thing that bad the longing made them trust in anything that might give it to them

People Longed Bad Made
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She was afraid of these things that made her suddenly wonder who she was, and what she was going to be in the world, and why she was standing at that minute, seeing a light, or listening, or staring up into the sky: alone.

Made Suddenly Wonder World
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Falling in love is the easiest thing in the world. It's standing in love that matters.
Failing Love Easiest Thing
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A frenzied passion for art is a canker that devours everything else.

Art Else Everything Passion
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There are as many kinds of beauty as there are habitual ways of seeking happiness.

Beauty Habitual Happiness Kinds
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Everything considered, work is less boring than amusing oneself.

Amusing Boring Considered Everything
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