David Liss Quotes
I went with the old adage that you should write what you know. What I knew was 18th century Britain, so what I decided I would do is write a novel based on my dissertation research.
Quotes to Explore
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Do I not destroy my enemies when I make them my friends?
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People are struggling. They're trying to make ends meet, and they're looking for Washington to deliver for them. And they don't feel that that's been happening as quickly as it should. We share that frustration. There's no one more frustrated than President Obama.
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When people go through something rough in life, they say, 'I'm taking it one day at a time.' Yes, so is everybody. Because that's how time works.
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Plays by people like Martin McDonagh and Brian Friel attract huge audiences, not because they're Irish, but because they're brilliant plays.
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Lillian Gish thought that there should be a cabinet position for the arts and I think she was right. I think she was right.
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You've got to be closer to the edge than ever to win. That means sometimes you go over the edge, and I don't mean driving, either.
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I'm fascinated with the stories that we tell. Real histories become fantasies and fairy tales, morality tales and fables. There's something interesting and funny and perverse about the way fairytale sometimes passes for history, for truth.
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A dream is a scripture, and many scriptures are nothing but dreams.
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I learned the mechanics of how to fly a plane, but I never lifted a plane off the ground.
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I've always wanted to do a shoot with snakes - big snakes, like pythons.
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Youth is that period when a young boy knows everything but how to make a living.
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The wise through excess of wisdom is made a fool.
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Markets will rise and fall, but this is the United States of America. No matter what some agency may say, we've always been and always will be a AAA country.
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Starvation, and not sin, is the parent of modern crime.
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Crime, especially crime involving money, reflects the gap between the expectation to provide and the ability to provide… If we really want men to commit crime as infrequently as women, we can start by not expecting men to provide for women more than we expect women to provide for men.
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I'm a tough old broad from Brooklyn. Don't try to make me into something I'm not. If you want someone to tiptoe down the Barkley staircase in crinoline and politely ask where the cattle went, get another girl.
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When you are guilty, it is not your sins you hate but yourself.
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It's always wise to raise questions about the most obvious and simple assumptions.
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Life's too short not to laugh about yourself and the cards you're dealt.
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If you break things down to goodies and baddies, the baddies are always a bit more alluring in fiction, and that's true from a narrative point of view. But I wanted to write a novel about real life, and real life is a bit more nuanced than that.
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The things that mount the rostrum with a skip, And then skip down again, pronounce a text, Cry hem; and reading what they never wrote Just fifteen minutes, huddle up their work, And with a well-bred whisper close the scene!
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I think I learned years ago when I went to Hawaii that you don't bring puka shells back. You've got to be careful of your vacation purchases.
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I went with the old adage that you should write what you know. What I knew was 18th century Britain, so what I decided I would do is write a novel based on my dissertation research.
