Quotes by Christopher Bollen - Page 2 | QuoteForever

A
B
C
D
E
F
G
H
I
J
K
L
M
N
O
P
Q
R
S
T
U
V
W
X
Y
Z

If you've been in the art world for more than eight years, you realize another generation is making the exact same work as the previous generation - but treating it like it's never been done before. It becomes very cyclical very quickly.
Christopher Bollen / Novelist
Art
Done
World
Copy Quote
I like change. I've never really had much consistency in my life, you know, from everyday work to my living situation to whether or not I'm going to be in L.A. The one constant thing in my life is my friends and family, which is all I need
Christopher Bollen / Novelist
Consistency
Everyday
Family And Friends
Copy Quote
I like to be alone, I mean, I really love to be alone more than anything else, and I don't really like to talk about myself to death, and I don't like to share too much, and I don't really have dreams of extreme fame or even extreme respect.
Christopher Bollen / Novelist
Dream
Fame
Mean
Copy Quote
It's always fun to welcome new people into your life. When dating anyone or becoming friends with anyone who has a different profession, a different life, it opens doors. All my friends here do such different creative things. It's so awesome.
Christopher Bollen / Novelist
Dating
Fun
People
Copy Quote
It's really hard to write about art in general. But it's exceptionally hard to fictionalize art and make work that isn't a parody, or is something that could withstand critique and exist in the art world as a valuable object, or a true piece.
Christopher Bollen / Novelist
Art
World
Writing
Copy Quote
As much as I adore Agatha Christie - and I think people make this claim about murder mysteries in general - it's often a very conservative mode of storytelling. Usually it's the greedy, climbing, new-money slimeball who wants to take from the aristocracy.
Christopher Bollen / Novelist
Climbing
Murder Mysteries
Thinking
Copy Quote
I would stay at my grandma's house on my birthday every year and I remember she had a bookshelf of murder mystery books along with really frightening books, like one on Jack the Ripper. She also had a poster of a shark in the closet which also terrified me at the time.
Christopher Bollen / Novelist
Book
Grandma
Sharks
Copy Quote
I really believe there is something in the nature of a democracy that naturally leads people to distrust the government, to assume because a democracy is built by people just like themselves that there must be secret plots and cover-ups and wizards behind the scenes running the machine.
Christopher Bollen / Novelist
Running
Believe
People
Copy Quote
An album for me as a teenager in the '70s was a fully formed concept. It was a body of work from an artist I liked or trusted or who excited me. Maybe one of the songs is really poppy and you listen to it on the radio as a hit single and then more of the world is about to find out about this artist by buying the record.
Christopher Bollen / Novelist
Artist
Song
Teenager
Copy Quote
I definitely don't take any of intrusions in my private life personally. You learn how to have a sense of humor pretty quickly. I honestly don't keep up on it unless it's something that would hurt someone else. I can take care of myself, that's not the problem. But it's just not fair to bring anyone else into the picture.
Christopher Bollen / Novelist
Care
Hurt
Sense Of Humor
Copy Quote
It is a little out of touch to presume that someone wants to follow your every observation and insight over the course of hundreds of pages without any sort of payoff. That's why writing isn't a one-way street. You have to give something back: an interesting plot, a surprise, a laugh, a moment of tenderness, a mystery for the reader to piece together.
Christopher Bollen / Novelist
Giving
Laughing
Writing
Copy Quote
Someone asked me when it was that I felt confident enough in my writing that I could rely on it as a career. The truth is, I never have. I'm always on the hunt for second, third, or fourth careers. Private detective and cinematographer were previous career choices, but now that I'm older I think I'd be a good portrait painter, rug merchant, or florist.
Christopher Bollen / Novelist
Choices
Thinking
Writing
Copy Quote
I wanted to reexamine the idea of the album for generations of people who are not my age, who love music or learning about music or are finding this band called R.E.M. or have just previously heard "Losing My Religion" and "Everybody Hurts" as their elevator music. I wanted to present an idea of what an album could be in the age of YouTube and the Internet.
Christopher Bollen / Novelist
Hurt
Ideas
People
Copy Quote
For me, cultivation of my own style really started by looking at people. There are just some really beautiful people in the world. When you're walking down the street, or you're at a restaurant, someone catches your eye because they have their own look. It goes way beyond what they're wearing-into their mannerisms, the way they smile, or just the way they hold themselves.
Christopher Bollen / Novelist
Beautiful
Eye
People
Copy Quote
I like the idea of the book being wiser than the person who wrote it. None of the novels I've written are direct transcriptions of me blathering over dinner with a glass of wine in my hand. I don't hold any illusion of those conversations being of particular value. The books, though, are - I hope - bigger than my opinions, investigations that go beyond my own intellect or wit.
Christopher Bollen / Novelist
Book
Opinion
Wine
Copy Quote
The Greeks really believed in history. They believed that the past had consequences and that you might be punished for the sins of your father. America, and particularly New York, runs on the idea that history doesn't matter. There is no history. There is only the never-ending present. You don't even have your family because you moved here to get away from them, so even that idea of personal history has been cut at the knees.
Christopher Bollen / Novelist
Running
Cutting
Father
Copy Quote
I also remember when I watched Henry: Portrait of a Serial Killer [1990] at, like, age 15. That scared the crap out of me. Because it didn't operate inside the usual conventions of the horror genre in the way that I could accept. I can accept horny teenager counselors being murdered at camp. But I couldn't accept the derangement of Henry: Portrait of a Serial Killer, which was that anyone could be murdered at any moment - whole families, with no build-up music and no meaning. It terrified me.
Christopher Bollen / Novelist
Horny
Horror Genre
Teenager
Copy Quote
There’s a great scene in The Texas Chain Saw Massacre [1974] that I’m obsessed with: Sally is being chased by Leatherface with a chainsaw... And she runs into thorn bushes. And she’s getting tangled up in it because she’s running fast... But Sally needs to move slowly in order to get through the bushes - she will get farther faster by going slowly because her hair and clothes won’t get tangled and caught. There’s something really beautiful about understanding that, while someone’s chasing you with a chainsaw, you have to move more slowly in order to get away.
Christopher Bollen / Novelist
Running
Beautiful
Moving
Copy Quote
You sit at a fashion show in another country and you watch all of these paparazzi swarm around a celebrity, only they're a local celebrity, maybe a soap opera star, so you don't have any idea who they are, you just know they're famous to a bunch of stunned Italians. It's weird, because when you can't identify who a celebrity is, they can just look like overslicked stand-ins. That might sound awful, but what I mean is, when you think about most actresses, even in Hollywood, they really aren't that fascinating or glamorous in their own right once you strip away the flashbulbs.
Christopher Bollen / Novelist
Country
Fashion
Mean
Copy Quote

Related Novelist Authors

Zoran Drvenkar
Novelist
Wednesday, Jul 19, 1967
Zia Haider Rahman
Novelist
Zelda Fitzgerald
Novelist
Tuesday, Jul 24, 1900
Wednesday, Mar 10, 1948
Zakes Mda
Novelist
Zadie Smith
Novelist
Saturday, Oct 25, 1975
Zachary Lazar
Novelist
Yxta Maya Murray
Novelist
Yury Olesha
Novelist
Friday, Mar 03, 1899
Tuesday, May 10, 1960
Yasutaka Tsutsui
Novelist
Monday, Sep 24, 1934
Yasmine Galenorn
Novelist
Xiaolu Guo
Novelist
Wu Cheng'en
Novelist
Wright Morris
Novelist
Thursday, Jan 06, 1910
Saturday, Apr 25, 1998
Wladyslaw Stanislaw Reymont
Novelist
Tuesday, May 07, 1867
Saturday, Dec 05, 1925
Witold Gombrowicz
Novelist
Thursday, Aug 04, 1904
Thursday, Jul 24, 1969

View All Novelist Quotes

Top Authors

Michael Jordan
Basketball Player
Sunday, Feb 17, 1963
Vincent Van Gogh
Painter
Wednesday, Mar 30, 1853
Tuesday, Jul 29, 1890
Pope John Paul Ii
Priest
Tuesday, May 18, 1920
Saturday, Apr 02, 2005
Ralph Waldo Emerson
Essayist
Wednesday, May 25, 1803
Thursday, Apr 27, 1882
Julius Caesar
Roman Dictator
Thursday, Jan 01, 1970
Robert Frost
Poet
Thursday, Mar 26, 1874
Tuesday, Jan 29, 1963
Socrates
Philosopher
Thursday, Jan 01, 1970
Thursday, Jan 01, 1970
Mother Teresa
Saint
Friday, Aug 26, 1910
Friday, Sep 05, 1997
Elon Musk
Investor
Monday, Jun 28, 1971
Zig Ziglar
Author
Saturday, Nov 06, 1926
Wednesday, Nov 28, 2012
Alfred Lord Tennyson
Poet
Saturday, Aug 05, 1809
Thursday, Oct 06, 1892
Peter Drucker
Author
Friday, Nov 19, 1909
Friday, Nov 11, 2005
Chanakya
Teacher
Thursday, Jan 01, 1970
Thursday, Jan 01, 1970
Nelson Mandela
Former President Of South Africa
Thursday, Jul 18, 1918
Thursday, Dec 05, 2013
Epictetus
Philosopher

View All Authors

Share This Page