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8803 Writer Quotes

I don't know how many good books I still have in me; I hope there are another four or five.

Another Books Five Four
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Team sports aren't my thing. I find it easier to pick something up if I can do it at my own speed. And you don't need a partner to go running, you don't need a particular place, like in tennis, just a pair of trainers.

Easier Find Go I Can
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Concentration is one of the happiest things in my life.
Concentration Happiest Life My Life
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Most near-future fictions are boring. It's always dark and always raining, and people are so unhappy.

Always Boring Dark Most
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Before I became a writer, I was running a jazz bar in the center of Tokyo, which means that I worked in filthy air all the time late into the night. I was very excited when I started making a living out of my writing, and I decided, 'I will live in nothing but an absolutely healthy way.'

Absolutely Air Bar Became
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Oh, I love labels, as long as they are numerous. I'm an American writer. I'm a Nigerian writer. I'm a Nigerian American writer. I'm an African writer. I'm a Yoruba writer. I'm an African American writer.

African African American American I Love
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One of the difficulties of photography is that it is much better at being explicit than at being reticent.

Being Better Difficulties Explicit
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Never say 'I went to Harvard.' Say 'I schooled in the Boston area.'

Area Boston Harvard Never
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Old-school hip hop, i.e., whatever was popular when you were nineteen, is great. Everything since then is intolerable.

Everything Great Hip Hip Hop
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Religion is close to theatre; much of its power comes from the effects of staging and framing.

Close Effects Framing Much
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Throughout his career, W.G. Sebald wrote poems that were strikingly similar to his prose. His tone, in both genres, was always understated but possessed of a mournful grandeur.

Always Both Career Genres
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In a Transtromer poem, you inhabit space differently; a body becomes a thing, a mind floats, things have lives, and even non-things, even concepts, are alive.

Alive Becomes Body Concepts
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Because I'm an art historian, I have some experience of writing that comes out of close attention. That's what really art history is. You're looking at something very closely, and you try to write in a meticulous way about it.

About Art Art History Attention
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When I've had enough of words, I go out into the city for a long walk; sometimes I'll go out walking for several miles. And I'll just take photographs and hope for something striking or unusual to happen that I can organize into a picture frame.

City Enough Frame Go
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One of the chief characteristics of a mob is its quickness. It is sudden. It pounces.

Characteristics Chief Mob Quickness
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Punitive murder by the police and by vigilantes has existed in all societies at some point, and probably still exists in most.

Existed Exists Most Point
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A mob is not, as is so often said, mindless. A mob is single-minded.
Mindless Mob Often Said
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I am suspicious of writers who say their work is original and influenced by nobody. If it is, it is probably uninteresting. The biggest source of novels is other novels.

Am Biggest I Am Influenced
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In 'Open City,' there is a passage that any reader of Joyce will immediately recognise as a very close, formal analogue of one the stories in 'Dubliners.' That is because a novel is also a literary conversation.

Also Any Because City
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I'd like to meet fewer people who say 'Oh, I want to write a book, here are 10 pages I've written,' and more 'Oh, I want to write a book, here are 300 pages I've written.'

Book Fewer Here Like
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For purposes of marketing, writers are designated as poets, novelists, or something else. But writing is about matchmaking, an attempt to marry sensations with apt words.

About Apt Attempt Else
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I'm not trying to be a poet on Twitter; I'm trying to be aware of the fact that a very simple sentence, well written, can have a very moving effect without that person knowing why. There's a deep genetic part of you that somehow, even without your permission, recognizes good language when it arrives.

Aware Deep Effect Even
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The art of medicine consists in amusing the patient while nature cures the disease.

Medicine Consist Amusing Nature
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When he to whom one speaks does not understand, and he who speaks himself does not understand, that is metaphysics.

Speaks Understands Whom Metaphysics
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Of all religions, the Christian should of course inspire the most tolerance, but until now Christians have been the most intolerant of all men.

Religions Christian Tolerance Course
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We are rarely proud when we are alone.
Rarely Proud Alone
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A witty saying proves nothing

Witty Saying Proves
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We have a natural right to make use of our pens as of our tongue, at our peril, risk and hazard.

Natural Right Pens Peril
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Common sense is not so common.

Common Sense So
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Think for yourselves and let others enjoy the privilege to do so, too.

Think Yourselves Others Privilege
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What most persons consider as virtue, after the age of 40 is simply a loss of energy.
Person Virtue Age Loss
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Love is a canvas furnished by nature and embroidered by imagination.
Love Nature Canvas Embroidered
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When it is a question of money, everybody is of the same religion.
Question Money Religion
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It is lamentable, that to be a good patriot one must become the enemy of the rest of mankind.

Good Patriot Enemy Rest
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It is forbidden to kill; therefore all murderers are punished unless they kill in large numbers and to the sound of trumpets.

Forbidden Kill Murderer Punished
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What is tolerance? It is the consequence of humanity. We are all formed of frailty and error; let us pardon reciprocally each other's folly - that is the first law of nature.

Law Nature Tolerance Consequence
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I am very fond of truth, but not at all of martyrdom.

Truth Fond Martyrdom
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Better is the enemy of good.

Better Enemy Good
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It is one of the superstitions of the human mind to have imagined that virginity could be a virtue.

Superstition Human Imagine Virginity
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If God did not exist, it would be necessary to invent Him.

God Exist Invent Necessary
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The secret of being a bore... is to tell everything.

Secret Bore Tell
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Chance is a word void of sense; nothing can exist without a cause.
Chance Void Sense Exist
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Who serves his country well has no need of ancestors.

Country Serve Well Ancestor
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Very often, say what you will, a knave is only a fool.
Often Say Knave Fool
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I know many books which have bored their readers, but I know of none which has done real evil.

Book Bored Readers Done
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Opinion has caused more trouble on this little earth than plagues or earthquakes.

Opinion Trouble Earth Plague
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It is not enough to conquer; one must learn to seduce.

Enough Conquer Learn Seduce
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Indeed, history is nothing more than a tableau of crimes and misfortunes.
Indeed History Tableau Crime
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To believe in God is impossible not to believe in Him is absurd.

Believe Impossible God Absurd
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Originality is nothing but judicious imitation. The most original writers borrowed one from another.

Originality Imitation Judicious Writers
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