Quotes of All Topics . Occasions . Authors
I've never related to the work geek at all-it sounds much more horrible than nerd. Like a freak biting a chicken's head off in a sideshow.
Filipinos don't realize that victory is the child of struggle, that joy blossoms from suffering, and redemption is a product of sacrifice.
I believe truly that Canada is a living history and we're going through some of the most important time in this country's short 150 years.
You know, that might be the answer - to act boastfully about something we ought to be ashamed of. That's a trick that never seems to fail.
It is the anonymous "they," the enigmatic "they" who are in charge. Who is "they"? I don't know. Nobody knows. Not even "they" themselves.
How many persons condemned to the horrors of solitary confinement have gone mad - simply because the thinking faculties have lain dormant!
Although filmmaking is collaborative and involves trust, ultimately it is the director who holds the whole picture together in their head.
Literature has done great work for feminism - writing and reading are a practice of empathy - and great literature will continue to do so.
Basically if you burst into my office the walls themselves will flutter as if alive - maybe that's the reason for all the wings in 'Pure.'
Why have we had to invent Eden, to live submerged in the nostalgia of a lost paradise, to make up utopias, propose a future for ourselves?
Pride! In English it is a Deadly Sin. But in Urdu it is fakhr and nazish - both names that you can find more than once on our family tree.
It's funny, for a long time I would go watermelon-red and deny that I was a magical realist. It felt imprecise to me, a misrepresentation.
And why? Because they are suffocating within the lines that define their town and their times. And sometimes lines are made to be crossed.
What interests me is the surprising enormous extent to which most people accept the fate that's been given to them, and find some dignity.
I think it's quite difficult to understand what kind of life a writer leads. They might be millionaires, or they might be starving people.
When I was younger, I didn't read that much. I was more interested in film and music. Now I'm curious. I want to know what it's all about.
In many parts of the world, a man's accusing finger always finds a woman. But I think we need women to solve the problems that men create.
I finally had what I'd wantes all those years. Except now that I had it, i felt as empty as this unkempt pool I was dangling my legs into.
Must have been quite the culture shock, going there.” “Yes it was.” Idris doesn’t say that the real culture shock has been in coming back.
I brought Hassan’s son from Afghanistan to America, lifting him from the certainty of turmoil and dropping him in a turmoil of uncertainty
I have a particular disdain for Islamic extremism, and of course, in both 'The Kite Runner' and 'A Thousand Splendid Suns' that's obvious.
I want a dish to taste good, rather than to have been seethed in pig's milk and served wrapped in a rhubarb leaf with grated thistle root.
Historical novels, in particular, allow us to relive the past without the neatness of history, and with all the complexity of the present.
We loved each other in the same difficult, unusable way where you took turns doing it, instead of ever managing to do it at the same time.
There are patterns because we try to find them. A desperate attempt at order because we can't face the terror that it might all be random.
The most accomplished way of using books is to serve them as some people do lords; learn their titles and then brag of their acquaintance.
Escapism has value, even if I don't know what its value is, exactly. Maybe it's just part of some healthy way that we deal with the world.
An unfamiliar city is a fine thing. That's the time and place when you can suppose that all the people you meet are nice. It's dream time.
If you don't tell the truth the whole truth and nothing but the truth about your own life, someone may claim the right to tell it for you.
Follow Through is elegant, sure footed, smart—a nest of sticks that won’t stay sticks—a nest of sticks that snowballs—scary and marvelous.
Loneliness sucks. It's a slog. It feels wonderful and exhilarating when someone makes it go away. But love is a whole different ball game.
It makes me proud not just to be a Canadian writer but to be a Canadian, to live in a country where we treat our writers like movie stars.
I lay back and tried not to think of the minutes passing. Just yesterday we had a wealth of them. Now each was a drop of heartsblood lost.
When you work to please others you can't succeed, but the things you do to satisfy yourself stand a chance of catching someone's interest.
For one cannot change, that is to say become another person, while continuing to acquiesce to the feelings of the person one no longer is.
We are part of a mystery, a splendid mystery within which we must attempt to orient ourselves if we are to have a sense of our own nature.
Her mind emptied of everything but the gusting wind and how fragile Wolf looked in that heartbeat, like one movement could break him open.
I'm a very individualistic person. That is why I don't belong to any political party or anything. I really believe in justice and freedom.
Every life is narrow. Our only escape is not to run away, but to learn to love the people we are and the world in which we find ourselves.
Lots of things are mysteries. But that doesn't mean there isn't an answer to them. It's just that scientists haven't found the answer yet.
Gradually I came to realize that people will more readily swallow lies than truth, as if the taste of lies was homey, appetizing: a habit.
[On Paris:] I do not know any city so beautiful and you can be unhappy there and notice your unhappiness less, having the city to look at.
The satirist isn't just looking at things ironically but militantly - he wants to change them, and intends to have an effect on the world.
I have people introducing themselves to me: 'I am your publicist; what can I do for you?' But I have never learned how to use a publicist.
Look forward to future years, if not with eager anticipation, yet with a calm reliance upon the power of good, wholly remote from despair.
Italian is the language of song. German is good for philosophy and English for poetry. French is best at precision; it has a rigour to it.
Politically I don't believe anymore that we can only have one voice to a story, it's like having one radio station to represent a country.
Be a terror to the butchers, that they may be fair in their weight; and keep hucksters and fraudulent dealers in awe, for the same reason.
You know one of the causes of modern despair is the fact that we have had proposed to us, from various quarters, an impossible perfection.
Levin delights in the forgetfulness that movement brings, where the pleasure of doing is marvellously foreign to the striving of the will.