Harold Brodkey Quotes
So an autobiography about death should include, in my case, an account of European Jewry and of Russian and Jewish events - pogroms and flights and murders and the revolution that drove my mother to come here.
Quotes to Explore
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Immaturity is the incapacity to use one's intelligence without the guidance of another.
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I have a rebellious teenage thing. If my mom says I can't do it, I'm gonna do it. But I'm pretty good. That's why it was fun to play Sam in 'The Bling Ring.' I got to be someone crazy and wild to the extreme, then go home and relax and get rid of the burden.
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We stole a box of honey jars one time and went out in the woods and took care of the whole box. I don't think I touched honey again for 20 years. I never wanted to see honey again.
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Every time a blast happens, people ask, 'But why would someone do this?' Weirdly, it hasn't been answered well anywhere - neither in fiction nor non-fiction.
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I wanted to be a Teacher with a big T: teach the whole planet. It led me into writing and speaking to large groups.
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Truth never damages a cause that is just.
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I've never been tempted to do these hideous furniture shoes.
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I heard what was said of the universe, heard it and heard it of several thousand years; it is middling well as far as it goes - but is that all?
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There is an important idea in psychology: The 'just world theory,' which says that it is very important for us to convince ourselves that the world is just and things happen for a reason. That there is some elemental fairness in everything, which creates the illusion of justice.
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I don't feel that I've had a life of abuse or that I am a victim in any way. My life is pretty typical of a lot of Americans of my generation who grew up in the sixties in families like mine that were sort of unconventional.
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The patterns of big-band music are smooth and classical. It's got to be fresh. The brass section should crackle, like the sound of eggs being dropped into hot grease.
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New York for a long time was a kind of conductor's graveyard.
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Ever since I was a kid, I've wanted to set a time that nobody can touch for many years.
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I have my own past and my own personality. I'm going to relate to the material in a completely different way than somebody else might.
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I am really honoured, but if the prize had gone to Mahatma Gandhi before me, I would have been more honoured.
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What we see today is an American economy that has boomed because of policies and developments of the 1950s and '60s: the interstate-highway system, massive funding for science and technology, a public-education system that was the envy of the world and generous immigration policies.
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I genuinely liked all of the cast members very much. Steve had a wicked sense of humor. I remember Russell coming to my rescue, once. I watched Eric evolve before everyone's eyes. Maurice loved what he did, so. He treated his character with respect, down to the costuming.
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You cannot say we are a healthy, dynamic democracy when one party wins almost two-thirds of the vote.
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Winston Peters: 'the only member of Parliament named after a concrete block, and I can understand that.' 1
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We become pitiable and ridiculous when we imbibe an unreasoned mysticism in our life without any natural or substantial basis. People like us, who are proud to be revolutionary in every sense, should always be prepared to bear all the difficulties, anxieties, pain and suffering which we invite upon ourselves by the struggles initiated by us and for which we call ourselves revolutionary.
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My mother lived till she was 95 and never had a line on her face or a frown line. She was beautiful.
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If I had to imagine omniscient, omnipresent, omnipotent power in the universe that chose to make my mother suffer, I don't know how I would make that make sense in the universe.
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My mother had been an English teacher in India before she came to the U.K., and she taught me to read early on - not only in English, but in Hindi, too. My teachers didn't like the fact that I was reading more quickly than they were teaching, and as a consequence, I would sometimes get bored in class.
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So an autobiography about death should include, in my case, an account of European Jewry and of Russian and Jewish events - pogroms and flights and murders and the revolution that drove my mother to come here.
