Chester Himes Quotes
I would sit in my room and become hysterical about the wild incredible story I was writing. And I thought I was writing realism. It never occurred to me that I was writing absurdity. Realism and absurdity are so similar in the lives of American blacks one cannot tell the difference.
Quotes to Explore
-
The American people deserve a budget that invests in the future, protects the most vulnerable among us and helps to create jobs and economic security.
-
In American films, Russians are often portrayed like cartoon villains without clear motivations.
-
Writing 'William Shakespeare's Star Wars' was a fun exercise in mixing just the right amount of the Bard with just the right amount of everyone's favorite galaxy far, far away.
-
Writing is like a contact sport, like football. You can get hurt, but you enjoy it.
-
The Obama administration and the Democratic Congress have taken the biggest lurch to the left in policy in American history. There've been no - no Congress, no administration that has run this far to the left in such a small period of time. And there is a reaction to that.
-
When you're writing a story in bits and pieces, month in and month out, there really isn't time or space for reflection, no room to learn what those scripts had to teach you.
-
I think that Richard Nixon is a great man and that he is very dedicated to what he does. I had the pleasure of meeting him when I attended the Republican National Convention in Miami. You can really tell that he is willing to go out of his way to help the American people.
-
Revision is the heart of writing. Every page I do is done over seven or eight times.
-
I was a star in Italy, Austrailia, Germany and Japan before the American stations ever paid attention at all.
-
Writing an essay is like a school assignment: I have my topic, I organize my thoughts, and I write it. I have complete control over what I'm doing. Writing a novel is like setting out on a journey without knowing who or what I'll encounter, how long it's going to take, or where I'm going to end up.
-
One of the things that's really, really present in 'Between the World and Me' is, I am in some ways outside of the African-American tradition.
-
A fighter lives in his training camp, and I'm not always paying attention to what is happening on the outside. But I do know the Mexican people and the Mexican-American people in this country are very hard-working people. That's my only comment about Donald Trump.
-
I listened to country music my whole life. I started writing music when I was a teenager. It all came out country.
-
Writing is a solitary journey, so I am always excited to go out on book tour and meet readers one-on-one.
-
The biggest accomplishment, in racial terms, for Barack Obama was being elected. He had to overcome his blackness to be elected. He climbed the Mt. Everest of American politics, becoming an historic first.
-
I wrote small stories here and there, then bigger ones. Some were even written for money. I signed up for a writing class and snuck my first assignment on a yellow legal pad in a partner's office while he read through my memo.
-
Every job is important because each one represents an American's livelihood and ability to raise a family. Yet spending our time building walls around America will do nothing to help us compete for the millions of new jobs being created.
-
I left for New York expecting to repeat my success, only to be turned down by almost every publisher in that city, till the Viking Press, my American publishers of a lifetime, thought of taking me on.
-
I tend to read more nonfiction, really, because when I'm writing I don't like to read other fiction.
-
There are people who read Tolstoy or Dostoevski who do not insist that their endings be happy or pleasant or, at least, not be depressing. But if you're writing mysteries - oh, no, you can't have an ending like that. It must be tidy.
-
It is horrible to say, but I was stigmatized by being a bridal designer for a long time. I am amazed I have been able to move beyond it. I had really all but given up trying, but I did it because it was my lifelong dream.
-
I come to sing for the people, not for the government. God made the sunshine for everyone and made the moon for everyone. We have to follow his example so we have to play music for everyone too. We have a message, and in order for our message to reach the people, we have to play.
-
The key to realizing a dream is to focus not on success but significance.
-
I would sit in my room and become hysterical about the wild incredible story I was writing. And I thought I was writing realism. It never occurred to me that I was writing absurdity. Realism and absurdity are so similar in the lives of American blacks one cannot tell the difference.
