David Morrell Quotes
One of the advantages of having gone to Penn State was having had a scholar for a mentor - Philip Young. Also, a professional writer named Philip Klass taught there. He was a science fiction writer whose pseudonym was William Tenn. As a professional writer, he brought wisdom to teaching because he'd done it for a living.
Quotes to Explore
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Wisdom and penetration are the fruit of experience, not the lessons of retirement and leisure. Great necessities call out great virtues.
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Neither science, nor the politics in power, nor the mass media, nor business, nor the law nor even the military are in a position to define or control risks rationally.
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Democracy is a pathetic belief in the collective wisdom of individual ignorance.
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Writing requires the concentration of the writer, demands that nothing else be done except that.
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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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I don't look at emails, Internet or newspapers before 1 P.M. I wake at 7 A.M., eat fruit, drink tea or coffee, and read what I've achieved, or not achieved, the previous day. Then I take a shower and work on my next sentence until 1 P.M. After I've done emails and so on, I write again from 3 P.M. until 8 P.M.; then I socialise.
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I'd like to do something where there's a strong female character and some action. I've done a few stunts in the past.
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Thankfully I'm not endlessly ambitious, but I have done some crazy ambitious things like buying an island off the west coast of Scotland in the late Sixties.
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The best job goes to the person who can get it done without passing the buck or coming back with excuses.
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I have three Defensive Players of the Year. Only one other player has done that. But being a defensive lineman, it's hard to control the game.
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Politics are for foreigners with their endless wrongs and paltry rights. Politics are a lousy way to get things done. Politics are, like God's infinite mercy, a last resort.
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No matter how senior you get in an organization, no matter how well you're perceived to be doing, your job is never done. Every day, you get up and the world is changing; your customers are expecting more from you. Your competitors are putting pressure on you by doing more and trying to beat you here and beat you there.
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Science fiction is trying to find alternative ways of looking at realities.
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Segregation is that which is forced upon an inferior by a superior. Separation is done voluntarily by two equals.
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I haven't done a marathon for a long time. So we'll see. I will need good luck.
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When he would give you direction, it was not sitting in a chair saying, 'Hey, babe! Do this and that and the other thing.' Mr. Sirk would ask, 'May I speak with you?' and sit down and say, 'I think this should be done this way. And how do you feel about it? Do you feel it that way?'
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When you wait to the last minute, you rush to get things done, and the closer you get to the deadline, the less options you have.
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Adopt the pace of nature: her secret is patience.
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If I let myself go, nothing will get done.
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To actually feel like you've done something good with your life and you're useful to others is what I was always wanting, and was always looking for.
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You might think that religion was the one area in which professional jealousy would take a back seat. But no: ecclesiastical memoirs are as viperish as any, though their envy tends to cloak itself in piety.
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My wife has to be the worst cook. I've got the only dog who begs for alka-seltzer.
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[Children] use up the same part of my head as poetry does. To deal with children is a matter of terrific imaginative identification. And the children have to come first. It's no use putting off their evening meal for two months.
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One of the advantages of having gone to Penn State was having had a scholar for a mentor - Philip Young. Also, a professional writer named Philip Klass taught there. He was a science fiction writer whose pseudonym was William Tenn. As a professional writer, he brought wisdom to teaching because he'd done it for a living.
