David Quammen Quotes
I was a prodigy who learned how difficult writing was only after getting published. I paid my dues later.

Quotes to Explore
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When I was about four, people used to walk up to my mom and say I should be in commercials.
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One can never know enough. The unknown and its call lies even in what we know.
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I'm the complete opposite of every clean cut, decent-looking guy you could ever think of. Yet, I have the biggest heart in the world.
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Let me just say as one who has been speaker of the House, I've had to have a very thick skin about every kind of thing that was thrown at me.
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In truth, opinion may be taken for understanding; understanding cannot be taken for opinion. How so? Surely because opinion may be deceived; understanding cannot be. If it could, it would not be understanding but opinion. For true understanding has not only certain truth, but the knowledge of truth.
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Playing different characters in different films helps keep you excited about what you do. It always seems like a whole new adventure.
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Banks are concerned the central bank is imposing too many regulations. If the trend continues, we'll swing to heavy regulation. We need to have balanced regulation to encourage the economy.
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While girls average a healthy five hours a week on video games, boys average 13. The problem? The brain chemistry of video games stimulates feel-good dopamine that builds motivation to win in a fantasy while starving the parts of the brain focused on real-world motivation.
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I'm a hybrid, and I kind of like that. Raised by African parents, growing up I lived between Burkina Faso and Stains, a suburb just outside of Paris. In Stains, I had all the cultures in the world on my doorstep, and that opens up your mind.
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As a woman, I've learned that having a uniform of your staples or setting your look and saying what distinguishes you - like red lips or hair or whatever - leaves so much time for the rest of the day.
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It was a small provincial place with great people and I had a happy childhood growing up in Queens.
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How can we educators claim credit for understanding, let alone teaching, the 'global mind' without a single course on the impact of religion on every day life?
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'Wicked' gave us a story that 'The Wizard of Oz' did not. Two sides to every story.
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I don't need fame and I don't need power and I don't need wealth. I'm in need of friends, which I have found in abundance.
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When I was writing my dissertation, I wrote about Freud and the process of sublimation, which is when you learn to stop breast-feeding, or stop going to the toilet whenever you want to. It's about learning to repress a desire for instant gratification.
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I stayed away from mathematics not so much because I knew it would be hard work as because of the amount of time I knew it would take, hours spent in a field where I was not a natural.
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I don't think of myself as a role model. I do try to live in a compassionate, considerate and positive way. The only advice I can offer is to find what you love to do, find the joy in it, and express yourself through your passion.
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Let me tell you that I love the United States.
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I just wanted to fit in as a teenager, but it was hopeless.
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The world is a courtroom, but your life is the judge.
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I don't think you can ever regain your ignorance.
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I look like a gorilla, just the way I'm built.
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I get up every morning and chop wood, and I pretty much do it seven days a week, and I like to do it. I still have time for my wife and my son, who's 14, and at this point, my head is still above water.
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I was a prodigy who learned how difficult writing was only after getting published. I paid my dues later.