David Levering Lewis Quotes

I have always been averse to theorizing about the art or craft of biography. Like Disraeli's biographer, Lord Blake, who offers the cautionary analogy of the biographical centipede unsure of her next step because of too much cerebration, I have made it my practice to let the facts find the theory.

David Levering Lewis

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Quotes to Explore

• If you're in a hit movie, it's good to be in another hit movie straight away.

  

  Val Kilmer
  • Good
  • Movie
  • You

• Some desire is necessary to keep life in motion, and he whose real wants are supplied must admit those of fancy.

  

  Samuel Johnson
  • Life
  • Real
  • Desire

• I was unbelievably lucky.

  

  Wendy Hiller
  • Lucky
  • Unbelievably

• I am not an enemy of the Negro. We want him here among us; he is the only laboring class we have.

  

  Nathan Bedford Forrest
  • Enemy
  • Negro
  • Laboring Class

• I have a general sense of mission, and I intuitively know when something is influencing that mission. I think this is what I'm supposed to be doing. Doors keep opening. In the end, it's the best use of my skills. I've finally consented to the idea that I'm an artist.

  

  Abigail Washburn
  • Best
  • Artist
  • End

• I weighed 25 stone, and I didn't stand nine feet tall, so the weight didn't sit well on me. As big as a house? No. I was as big as an estate.

  

  Victor LaValle
  • House
  • Me
  • Weight

• It's totally mistaken to suppose that an armed escort is going to give a journalist any protection - on the contrary, journalists who turn up surrounded by armed personnel are just turning themselves into targets and in even worse danger.

  

  Kate Adie
  • Up
  • Danger
  • Protection

• Sometimes, especially when it's cold, I get dry skin, so I scratch a lot. I scratch my arms incessantly.

  

  Zac Efron
  • Sometimes
  • Cold
  • Skin

• I just don't tend to cook eggplant at home.

  

  Yotam Ottolenghi
  • Home
  • Just
  • Cook

• I remember 'Hannah Montana' came out, and I was so depressed, I started crying because I was like, 'I want to do that.'

  

  Zendaya
  • Remember
  • Want
  • Like

• I have a sidekick, Keith Robinson, who's very funny. I've known Keith for over 20 years; he's my best friend.

  

  Wanda Sykes
  • Funny
  • Friend
  • Best

• It's taken me time to find my feet in L.A.

  

  Caitlin Stasey
  • Time
  • Me
  • Taken

• You don't need to wear Spanx if you buy my clothes. The dress, the trousers, the pencil skirt - they should do the work.

  

  L'Wren Scott
  • Work
  • Clothes
  • Dress

• I am a self-critical perfectionist.

  

  Victoria Pendleton
  • Perfectionist
  • Self-Critical

• If it squares with the Scripture, then let's go. If it's in conflict with the Scripture, then it's heresy.

  

  Randall Terry
  • Conflict
  • Scripture
  • Then

• Toronto is exploding with cyclists, with more and more people wanting to cycle and being turned off driving because of the incredible congestion. Biking is a much more efficient way of getting around, and you get there faster.

  

  Dan Hill
  • People
  • You
  • Driving

• One thing is that I wasn't getting booked that well, and they had control over who got the awards, they had control over who sold. And they really did not want Willie or me, either one, to have a hit record. They wanted the money, but they didn't want us to be the ones.

  

  Waylon Jennings
  • Money
  • Me
  • Control

• I was reading Omar Khayyam, Kahlil Gibran, Rumi, L. Ron Hubbard, all sorts of philosophy. Bebop cats are like that. Curious. I wanted to know about everything.

  

  Quincy Jones
  • Reading
  • Philosophy
  • Cats

• Whatever was required to be done, the Circumlocution Office was beforehand with all the public departments in the art of perceiving - HOW NOT TO DO IT.

  

  Charles Dickens
  • Done
  • Art

• Queen Victoria did not regard art, letters, or music as in any way springing from national character: they were something quite apart, elegant decorations resembling a scarf or a bracelet, and in no way expressive of the soul of the country.

  

  E. F. Benson
  • Music
  • Country
  • Art

• But movies as much as anything developed what I thought was right and wrong, what was honorable, what wasn't, what was funny what wasn't... what had some depth to it, what didn't.

  

  Dabney Coleman
  • Funny
  • Thought
  • Movies

• War is not women's history.

  

  Virginia Woolf
  • War
  • Inspiring
  • Empowering

• There was no difference between my characters and the life my readers were going to have to face.

  

  Carl Barks
  • Life
  • Difference
  • Face

• I have always been averse to theorizing about the art or craft of biography. Like Disraeli's biographer, Lord Blake, who offers the cautionary analogy of the biographical centipede unsure of her next step because of too much cerebration, I have made it my practice to let the facts find the theory.

  

  David Levering Lewis
  • Art
  • Practice