Bill Bryson Quotes
I'm definitely an American, because I grew up here. But I've lived very happily in Britain.
Quotes to Explore
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If you make a film too American, it won't travel. It will have no life outside of its own country.
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Guard with jealous attention the public liberty. Suspect everyone who approaches that jewel. Unfortunately, nothing will preserve it but downright force. Whenever you give up that force, you are inevitably ruined.
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When life knocks you down, keep getting up.
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There's a whole lot more to the African-American community than entertainment and sports.
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Much of the conventional wisdom associated with Vietnam was highly inaccurate. Far from an inevitable result of the imperative to contain communism, the war was only made possible through lies and deceptions aimed at the American public, Congress, and members of Lyndon Johnson's own administration.
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Education is a way of empowering people; it opens up so many doors and is fundamental to everybody. And teachers are not often appreciated in the way that they should be.
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Growing up in a small town gives you two things: a sense of place and a feeling of self-consciousness - self-consciousness about one's education and exposure, both of which tend to be limited. On the other hand, limited possibilities also mean creating your own options.
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I lived near Arthur's Seat when I lived in Edinburgh. It was the perfect playground as a child. I always have a wee run up there when I'm back.
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Motivated more by partisan politics than by national security, today's Democratic leaders see America as an occupier, not a liberator. And nothing makes this Marine madder than someone calling American troops occupiers rather than liberators.
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Whenever I go to L.A., the make-up artist or hairdresser will end up having a conversation about how fat they think they are, and I really just can't take it seriously at all.
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What winning is to me is not giving up, is no matter what's thrown at me, I can take it. And I can keep going.
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I don't just want to be a cute girl in a comedy or the actress who just does the same thing over and over again. I want to play roles that are distinct. I want to have a more varied career like actresses Viola Davis or Angela Bassett - those are the people that I grew up watching and admiring.
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I wasn't one of those kids who grew up wanting to write or who read a particular book and thought: 'I want to do that!' I always told stories and wrote them down, but I never thought writing was a career path, even though, clearly, someone was writing the books and newspapers and magazines.
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When I was growing up, I wasn't in bands, and had really no intention of ever doing music. I went out to California for college, and kind of on a whim started making music really as a joke, and over the course of the next five years started playing a lot of shows, and music became this really integral part of my identity.
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A lot of people tend to glorify the role of satire and comedians. They put them up as role models, as fighters for the truth and against tyranny, and I think that's overrated.
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It's not the last one. Five's out, six is coming out in November, that's a single chapter, and then seven is the big horrifying one. And I think a couple after that to wrap the thing up.
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Back when I was growing up, getting caught with a copy of 'Creepy,' 'Eerie' or 'Vampirella' was almost as bad as your parents finding out you were reading 'Playboy.'
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The American people... want change. They want big ideas, big reform.
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I think one of our big problems has been the fact that many Iraqis resent American military presence. And I don't pretend to know exactly Iraqi public opinion. But as soon as we can reduce our visibility as much as possible, the better I think it is going to be.
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Children should be educated and instructed in the principles of freedom.
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As a general rule, whatever Europe is now doing, we should do the opposite - for our very survival in an increasingly scary world.
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Some Republicans gave up on winning the African-American vote, looking the other way or trying to benefit politically from racial polarization. I am here today as the Republican chairman to tell you we were wrong.
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I think the biggest difference is that I've noticed Western parents seem much more concerned about their children's psyches, their self-esteem, whereas tough immigrant parents assume strength rather than fragility in their children and therefore behave completely differently.
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I'm definitely an American, because I grew up here. But I've lived very happily in Britain.
