Betty Smith Quotes
Quotes to Explore
-
The rule of improvisation I took to heart was, 'Don't think.' I tend to over-think things, so that was a big lesson for me.
-
We think of writing a book as a process, but the very word - process - suggests that there is one: a template to follow, a map to guide us. If that were true, someone would have surely figured out some marketable method we could all buy.
-
A film is made in somebody's head - out of their determination to do it at all.
-
But who knows, some years from now if there's a global emissions trading scheme agreement, as many have hoped for, then I'm sure Australia would be part of it.
-
Some people ask me, Do they put aging makeup on you? It's just this very nice street makeup.
-
I'm a woman who eventually will get married and have kids - adopted at this point - but I see myself with a family and less time to commit to wanting to be a lead character.
-
I would gladly admit women are superior to men if only they would stop trying to be the same as us.
-
The colonel replied that he didn't care how my men had got the job done. He was happy that it had been accomplished. He said that, obviously, no matter how much or how little I knew technically, I was able to get the best out of people I worked with.
-
My health is fine.
-
Trust is the lubrication that makes it possible for organizations to work.
-
As long as a film stays unmade, the book is entirely yours, it belongs to the writer. As soon as you make it into a film, suddenly more people see it than have ever read the book.
-
Reverence is fatal to literature.
-
I know people think that a lot of sports stars are a little bit up themselves, but they all have their heroes, too.
-
It's almost an impossible thing to get a movie made that is written by two actors who want to star in it, when no one knows who they are. The only time it happened that I know of was when Sylvester Stallone did it in 'Rocky.'
-
Gautham was a premature baby. I remember when doctors said that his health condition was critical, I was tense. I could afford the treatment, but a lot of commoners can't. I believe more children's lives can be saved if we work towards it.
-
You can't say what the outcome of a competition is going to be, so now I am ready to accept any result that comes my way, if I give my best shot.
-
In the absence of justice, what is sovereignty but organized robbery?
-
I'm obsessive. That's the word for me. I obsess – perhaps to the point where it's moderately dysfunctional. I tend to put a book through about 100 revisions. If anything, that's an understatement. If there's another author out there who does this sort of revision, I would really like to meet him. Maybe we could form some sort of support group.
-
I've been active all my life. In 1990 I retired from my firm, I.M. Pei & Partners, and for two years I didn't do much. Then I started to get kind of antsy, so I decided, I'm going to do some more work. And I chose to do work outside the U.S. because I've spent 45 years here and I wanted to learn more about what's happening in the rest of the world.
-
Every decorative piece in this house is my feeling, my choice.
-
The first time I toured the U.K. was in the early '90s with Billy Pilgrim, so I know how much the people there love music.
-
We don't need anymore empowered people who are all about the ego.
-
Most of the time most people know the right thing to do ...its the doing of it that gives them trouble...
-
There are very few bad people. There are just a lot of people that are unlucky.