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" Quotes and Sayings About d

I had a bad conscience until I discovered that having a bad conscience about something so gravely serious as leaving your children is an affectation, a way of achieving a little suffering that can't for a moment be equal to the suffering you've caused.

About Achieving Bad Caused
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It was around the summer of 1982 when the drug problem really impacted. It became a lifestyle rather than a recreation. When you start lying and stealing, you cannot con yourself you're in control any more.

Any Around Became Cannot
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I don't know where I would place myself in the literary landscape. I really just write the book that I would want to read. And I put on the blinders, and I really - it is, for me, that simple.

Simple Blinders Read Book
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Mother was actually a great doer and organizer. All the special occasions were directed by mother.

Actually Directed Doer Great
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The establishment, the newspapers, they try to create something called Scottish literature, but when people are actually going to write, they are not going to necessarily prescribe to that, they'll write what they feel.

Actually Create Establishment Feel
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My sincere hope is that 'The Da Vinci Code,' in addition to entertaining people, will serve as an open door to begin their own explorations.

Addition Begin Code Door
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I'm fascinated by power, especially veiled power. Shadow power. The National Security Agency. The National Reconnaissance Office. Opus Dei. The idea that everything happens for reasons we're not quite seeing.

Agency Everything Fascinated Happens
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There is a kind of mysticism to writing.
Kind Mysticism Writing There
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The only thing I consider appalling would be to suddenly become a vegetable and a burden on other people. A soul slowly dying out, trapped in a body in which the insides gradually sabotage me - that, I think, would be terrifying.

Appalling Become Body Burden
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I think one reason my books have found mainstream success is that they're written from a skeptical point of view.

Books Found Point Reason
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I don't watch my own films very often. I become so jittery and ready to cry... and miserable. I think it's awful.

Awful Become Cry Films
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When I first started to get into writing, it was via music. I'd generate ideas for songs that would turn into stories, then they'd turn into novels. I was biased toward music.

Biased First Generate Get
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I still get up every morning at 4 A.M. I write seven days a week, including Christmas. And I still face a blank page every morning, and my characters don't really care how many books I've sold.

Blank Face Books Care
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I make all my decisions on intuition.
Decisions Intuition Make
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I have written a lot about the fine arts, but I'd never written about the literary arts, and so on some level Dante really, you know, spoke to me, as new ground but also familiar ground.

Familiar Ground Spoke Level
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When I'm not writing, I read loads of fiction, but I've been writing quite constantly lately so I've been reading a lot of nonfiction - philosophy, religion, science, history, social or cultural studies.

Been Constantly Cultural Fiction
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I love the gray area between right and wrong.

Area Love Gray Between
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I throw a spear into the darkness. That is intuition. Then I must send an army into the darkness to find the spear. That is intellect.

Army Darkness Find Intellect
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The power that religion has is that you think nothing is random: If there's a tragedy in my life, that's God testing me or sending me a message.

God Religion Life Power
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When people start writing there is this idea that you have to get everything right first time, every sentence has to be perfect, every paragraph has to be perfect, every chapter has to be perfect, but what you're doing is not any kind of public show, until you're ready for it.

Any Chapter Doing Every
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Writing is about culture and should be about everything. That's what makes it what it is.

About Culture Everything Makes
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I've learned that universal acceptance and appreciation is just an unrealistic goal.
Goal Unrealistic Just Learned
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I learned early on not to listen to either critique - the people who love you or the people who don't like you.

Critique Early Either Learned
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I know when I go and see a writer, the first thing I think to myself is, 'Are they the character in the book?' You just can't help it; it's the way people are.

Book Character First First Thing
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If you believe the people who love you, you get lazy. And if you believe the people who hate you, you become... maybe intimidated, or whatever the word might be, and you don't write as well.

Become Believe Lazy Hate
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It's that kind of thing that readers have. I have it as a reader myself: that expectation that the writer will be that person. Then I meet other writers and realize that they're not.

Expectation Kind Meet Myself
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It's like nothing's really happening. Our culture is almost dead.
Almost Culture Dead Happening
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When you grow up in a place, you always think it's mundane. Then you travel around and live in different places, and you realise that you've got it the wrong way 'round.

Always Around Different Different Places
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It's where you come from that's the strange, exotic, quirky, mad place.

Come Exotic Mad Place
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When people write a novel, they want to have that reach and that impact. To get it with a first novel, you can either see it as an albatross or a calling card.

Calling Calling Card Card Either
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Futurists don't consider overpopulation one of the issues of the future. They consider it the issue of the future.

Future Issue Consider Issues
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I created something that became a phenomenon without becoming a prisoner to it.

Became Becoming Created Phenomenon
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I will not write a lame follow-up. It could take me 20 years. But I will never turn in a book that I'm not happy with.

Book Happy Lame Could
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I don't want everything to be flowery perfection. I like it there to be a charge behind it, you know?

Behind Charge Everything Know
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I've been through a lot. I've thought a lot about life, and I've spent a lot of time studying history and science.

About Been History Life
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I just want to get on and tell stories.
Get Just Stories Tell
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We have to give feminism a shot. Out of sheer self preservation, we have to stand aside and let women run the show.

Aside Feminism Give Out
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It's not about what you tell the reader, it's about what you conceal.

Conceal About Reader Tell
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Historically, men have a hard time getting onboard with feminism, but I think that's changing.

Changing Feminism Getting Hard
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I grew up in a very religious household. My mom was a church organist. I was a religious kid.

Church Grew Kid Very
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'Ulysses' is like a big box of tricks that you can dive into. Each time you read it, you find something new.

Big Box Dive Each
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The thing that's going to make artificial intelligence so powerful is its ability to learn, and the way AI learns is to look at human culture.

Ability Artificial Culture Human
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Sometimes a book influences me because it winds me up. There'll be something that gets under my skin and makes me think that I can do better.

Because Better Book Gets
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Standard English is very imperialistic, controlled, and precise; it's not got a lot of funk or soul to it.

Controlled English Funk Got
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I'm the worst employee in the world. I'll cheat and steal time and resources from my employer, although I'll con everybody into believing I'm essential to the operation.

Although Believing Cheat Con
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When I left school at 16, I became an apprentice television and radio technician, and was paid £17 a week, which was decent money in 1976. But the job turned sour when I gave myself an electric shock while repairing a television set.

Apprentice Became Decent Electric
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It's very difficult to be objective about yourself and your own circumstances, but one thing I do know about is that I grew up surrounded by storytellers.

About Circumstances Difficult Grew
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Everybody in my family were great storytellers. My dad and his brothers would just go on and on; they could tell amazing stories. I think it was something to do with the Celtic, oral storytelling tradition. People very much had that propensity towards telling tales.

Amazing Brothers Celtic Could
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I feel like if I'm going to take time reading, I better be learning.

Better Feel Going Learning
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The idea is not enough. And the most annoying thing for me as a writer is that people will come up to me and say, 'Hey, I've got a great idea for a book. I'm not a writer, but I've got a great story.'

Annoying Book Come Enough
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