Ta-Nehisi Coates Quotes
One cannot, at once, claim to be superhuman and then plead mortal error. I propose to take our countrymen's claims of American exceptionalism seriously, which is to say I propose subjecting our country to an exceptional moral standard.
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Quotes to Explore
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I was interned in Auschwitz for one year. I didn't bring back anything, except for a few jokes, and that filled me with shame. Then again, I didn't know what to do with this fresh experience. For this experience was no literary awakening, no occasion for professional or artistic introspection.
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When movies first came out, maybe they were in black and white and there wasn't any sound and people were saying the theater is still the place to be. But now movies and theater have found their own place in the world. They are each legitimate art forms.
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I don't know whether the universe contains any evidence of intelligent design, but I can assure you that thousands of everyday products do not.
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I don't even know how to define myself. I'm a person who writes. It's something I enjoy, and hopefully people enjoy it as well.
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I found one had to do some work every day, even at midnight, because either you're professional or you're not.
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The man who is intent on making the most of his opportunities is too busy to bother about luck.
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My English teachers gave me a copy of Atwood's 'The Handmaid's Tale' when I left high school, which has always been very special to me - it was the novel that introduced me to dystopian fiction. I'm also influenced by Edgar Allan Poe, Dickens, John Wyndham and Middle English dream-visions.
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My life is black and white and mixed. My mother's a Rastafarian, my dad was a short white guy - it's not an affectation. It's also the lives of millions of people throughout the world.
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If men possessed wisdom, which stands in the same relation to the form of man as the sight to the eye, they would not cause any injury to themselves or to others; for the knowledge of truth removes hatred and quarrels, and prevents mutual injuries.
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Political theatre presents an entirely different set of problems. Sermonising has to be avoided at all cost. Objectivity is essential. The characters must be allowed to breathe their own air. The author cannot confine and constrict them to satisfy his own taste or disposition or prejudice.
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Let someone else be the world's greatest actress. I'll be the world's greatest baseball fan.
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There was no religion in my life growing up. Did God invent us or did we invent God?
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There are those people that eat to live and those that live to eat. I am of the latter, as many of you already know. To me, eating is an adventure.
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Dried porcini add a substantial, deep flavour to otherwise more neutral vegetables. I use them in risottos, mashed roots and winter soups.
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There was a verse that said if you are lukewarm rather than hot or cold, God will spit you out of his mouth on Judgment Day. And I felt like, I mean, I don't know. I'm lukewarm.
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Life isn't fair, and it isn't government's job to make life fair. But if you're not willing to give up on yourself, then we shouldn't give up on you, either.
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I did model for a little while part-time, but I wasn't a bloody model, and I am definitely not that horrible thing 'model-turned-actress.'
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America's got amazing presentation, especially New York - the most potent, strongest, concentrated, amazing presentation.
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I always tell writers that it's good to have an area of expertise. It's a really practical answer, I know, but know about science or about sports or about medicine, so you can work as a science writer or a sports writer. Don't just know about yourself.
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Many of my students assume that government protection is the only thing ensuring decent wages for most American workers. But basic economics shows that competition between employers for workers can be very effective at preventing businesses from misbehaving.
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I have found that many other countries will buy off on anything American. As much as they hate us, they want to be us more than anything.
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See others as yourself. See families as your family. See towns as your town. See countries as your country. See worlds as your world.
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One cannot, at once, claim to be superhuman and then plead mortal error. I propose to take our countrymen's claims of American exceptionalism seriously, which is to say I propose subjecting our country to an exceptional moral standard.