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" Quotes and Sayings About and

When once I got to America I fell in love with hippie culture, and I've always wanted to live in the country and grow organic vegetables.

Always America Country Culture
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I like to be in my pajamas all day. Sometimes I don't wash for days because I like to read and sit around. I like to eat in bed.

All Day Around Because Bed
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I like melancholy. I like to pretend that I'm alone in the world and I'm just sort of abandoned.

Abandoned Alone Just Like
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Race is not particularly interesting to me. Power is. Who has power and who doesn't. Slavery interests me because it's an incredible violation that has not stopped. It's necessary to talk about that. Race is a diversion.

About Because Diversion Incredible
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One doesn't have to pursue unhappiness. It comes to you. You come into the world screaming. You cry when you're born because your lungs expand. You breathe. I think that's really kind of significant. You come into the world crying, and it's a sign that you're alive.

Alive Because Born Breathe
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I loved Charlotte Bronte when I was little, and I wanted to be Charlotte Bronte the way people want to be a princess.

Charlotte Little Loved People
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I picked a name that was a combination of an island name and a very English name. Havana was one choice and Dominico was another, but I liked the combination of Jamaica Kincaid.

Another Choice Combination English
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I grew up in this poor place, with very limited circumstances, at about 16 years of age was sent by my family to work, and instead of remaining in the position into which I was sent, I somehow worked my way out of it without any help from anyone, just luck.

About Age Any Anyone
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The English language started out as a distortion in my life, but nothing remains the same, and so the distortion is now just normal. That is one of the things that will happen to all distortions: They become normal and turn into something else.

Become Distortion Else English
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You know how some people write every day at a certain point? I'm not like that. I carry something around for a long time. I weigh the words and the sentences. I weigh the paragraphs. The process is much more meditative for me.

Around Carry Certain Certain Point
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Children like their mothers especially to be standing still and watching them, even if they are sleeping. At least that's how I felt. There's nothing wrong with the self-interest of children; it's just the way they are.

Children Even Felt How
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I write a lot in my head. The revision goes on internally. It's not spontaneous and it doesn't have a schedule.

Goes Head I Write Lot
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People only say I'm angry because I'm black and I'm a woman. But all sorts of people write with strong feeling, the way I do.

Angry Because Black Feeling
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I have no credentials. I have no money. I literally come from a poor place. I was a servant. I dropped out of college. The next thing you know I'm writing for the 'New Yorker,' I have this sort of life, and it must seem annoying to people.

Annoying College Come Credentials
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I have a photograph of myself when I was 2 years of age, and I don't recognize the person in the photograph. She doesn't look anything like me, and I can't find any trace of her in me physically. And yet I remember her very, very well - even her anxiety.

Age Anxiety Any Anything
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I grew up in a place where books were very, very scarce, and I loved to read. I used to read the writing on my breakfast Ovaltine over and over again because it was in front of me, and I couldn't help but read anything that was in front of me.

Again Anything Because Books
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I come from a little island with the Caribbean Sea on one side and the Atlantic Ocean on the other. I come from, really, nowhere, and for me, the fiction and the nonfiction, creative or otherwise, all come from the same place.

Atlantic Atlantic Ocean Caribbean Come
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When I write nonfiction, it's always absolutely true. There will be no moment in my nonfiction where I have made something up and have to apologize to the bullying hostess of a talk show.

Absolutely Always Apologize Bullying
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If you reject the food, ignore the customs, fear the religion and avoid the people, you might better stay at home.

Avoid Better Customs Fear
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I love writing. I love the swirl and swing of words as they tangle with human emotions.

Emotions Human Human Emotions I Love
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I was a Navy officer writing about Navy problems and I simply stole this lovely Army nurse and popped her into a Navy uniform, where she has done very well for herself.

About Army Done Her
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Character consists of what you do on the third and fourth tries.
Character Consists Fourth Third
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Russia, France, Germany and China. They revere their writers. America is still a frontier country that almost shudders at the idea of creative expression.

Almost America China Country
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The arrogance of the artist is a very profound thing, and it fortifies you.

Arrogance Artist Profound Thing
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The really great writers are people like Emily Bronte who sit in a room and write out of their limited experience and unlimited imagination.

Emily Experience Great Imagination
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I think the crucial thing in the writing career is to find what you want to do and how you fit in. What somebody else does is of no concern whatever except as an interesting variation.

Career Concern Crucial Does
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I was brought up in the great tradition of the late nineteenth century: that a writer never complains, never explains and never disdains.

Brought Century Complains Disdain
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For this is the journey that men and women make, to find themselves. If they fail in this, it doesn't matter much else what they find.

Else Fail Find Journey
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I am the product of the American education system. It is a system that has always been on the lookout for bright boys and girls. It spotted me when I was 14, and I owe a tremendous debt to my alma mater.

Always Am American Been
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I attended seminars where many social issues were discussed abstractly, outside the pressures of an immediate situation, and there I developed certain attitudes which permitted me to face the real thing when it came along.

Along Attended Attitudes Came
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My work as a naval officer in World War II enabled me to serve on 49 different South Pacific islands so that I came to know the area about as well as anyone.

About Anyone Area Came
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Very early on in life, I decided the hell with it: material things weren't for me. Christmas would come, and other kids would have all these presents, and it wouldn't bother me a bit.

Bit Bother Christmas Come
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A person on dialysis undergoes very heavy and irritating treatment, and in time, it seems more than you can bear.

Bear Heavy Irritating More
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Hawaii and Fiji are two of the best island groups in the world to visit as a vacationer. The great hotels, the fascinating local people, the exciting history of the two contrasting island groups, and the unmatched scenery make these two of the most enticing stopovers.

Best Contrasting Exciting Fascinating
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When I first pitched my Navy tent on the island of Espiritu Santo to the north of Vila, the natives on nearby Malakula were cannibals. Today, they have representation in the United Nations.

Cannibals First Island Nations
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Whenever I start a book, I swear it's going to be a short one. But then it's, 'Who was his grandfather? And how did he get there in the first place? And what kind of animals is he chasing?'

Animals Book Chasing Did
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I have only one bit of advice to the beginning writer: Be sure your novel is read by Rodgers and Hammerstein.

Advice Beginning Bit Hammerstein
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Work joyfully and peacefully, knowing that right thoughts and right efforts inevitably bring about right results.

About Bring Efforts Inevitably
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Dream lofty dreams, and as you dream, so you shall become. Your vision is the promise of what you shall one day be; your ideal is the prophecy of what you shall at last unveil.

Become Day Dream Dreams
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Above all be of single aim; have a legitimate and useful purpose, and devote yourself unreservedly to it.

Above Aim Devote Legitimate
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The greatest achievement was at first and for a time a dream. The oak sleeps in the acorn, the bird waits in the egg, and in the highest vision of the soul a waking angel stirs. Dreams are the seedlings of realities.

Achievement Acorn Angel Bird
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In all human affairs there are efforts, and there are results, and the strength of the effort is the measure of the result.

Affairs Effort Efforts Human
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Let there be nothing within thee that is not very beautiful and very gentle, and there will be nothing without thee that is not beautiful and softened by the spell of thy presence.

Beautiful Gentle Nothing Presence
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The law of harvest is to reap more than you sow. Sow an act, and you reap a habit. Sow a habit and you reap a character. Sow a character and you reap a destiny.

Act Character Destiny Habit
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Man is made or unmade by himself. By the right choice he ascends. As a being of power, intelligence, and love, and the lord of his own thoughts, he holds the key to every situation.

Being Choice Every He
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A man is not rightly conditioned until he is a happy, healthy, and prosperous being; and happiness, health, and prosperity are the result of a harmonious adjustment of the inner with the outer of the man with his surroundings.

Adjustment Being Conditioned Happiness
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If your real desire is to be good, there is no need to wait for the money before you do it; you can do it now, this very moment, and just where you are.

Before Desire Good Just
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Our life is what our thoughts make it. A man will find that as he alters his thoughts toward things and other people, things and other people will alter towards him.

Alter Find He Him
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They who have conquered doubt and fear have conquered failure.

Conquered Doubt Failure Fear
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The more intense the nature of a man, the more readily will he find meditation, and the more successfully will he practice it.

Find He Intense Man
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