David Shields Quotes
The thing I hate the most in any kind of writing is self-righteousness. Where you pretend you don't have the same kinds of flaws your subject has.

Quotes to Explore
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The Heat gave me an opportunity when nobody else wanted to.
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The art of storytelling is reaching its end because the epic side of truth, wisdom, is dying out.
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Consciousness is indeed always with us. Everyone knows 'I am!' No one can deny his own being.
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I have no problem with violence, I have no problem playing horrible people.
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The Japanese version comes with a translation, but that's different from the lyrics, so people could look things up and find a translation of their own if they're interested.
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Newspapers are busily experimenting with different models. Traditionally, and I suspect in hindsight very mistakenly, online news was free. And once given free access readers felt it was their entitlement.
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Many people think fairy tales and retellings of fairy tales are only for children, but I'm not the only writer to take an old tale and retell it for a sophisticated adult audience.
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I think actors have a choice of drawing attention to themselves or living on the outskirts.
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I don't like to direct myself.
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You have a new role: family caregiver. It's a role nobody applies for. You don't expect it. You won't be prepared. You probably won't even identify yourself as a caregiver.
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Emilia Clarke has beautiful brunette hair.
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Between 1776 and 1789, Americans replaced a government over them with a government under them. They have worried ever since about keeping it under. Distrust of its powers has been more common and more visible than distrust of the imperial authority of England ever was before the Revolution.
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I talk in subjects and verbs, and sort of wind around in concentric circles until I get far enough away from the beginning so that I can call it the end, and it ends.
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The only questions that really matter are the ones you ask yourself.
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My thinking has always been that the worst problem we have with regard to lack of inclusion is the terribly low labor force participation rates and terribly high unemployment rates of young men, especially young men in ethnic minority groups and, in particular, young black men.
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The value of an arts education is widely accepted, especially in California.
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A poet's work is to name the unnameable, to point at frauds, to take sides, start arguments, shape the world, and stop it going to sleep.
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I wanted this, I wanted to do this, but my work is me, and it has to be right.
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I still have my high school copy of the collected Poe - missing its covers and pretty worse for the wear.
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When you start a novel, it is always like pushing a boulder uphill. Then, after a while, to mangle the metaphor, the boulder fills with helium and becomes a balloon that carries you the rest of the way to the top. You just have to hold your nerve and trust to narrative.
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This is my country, that is your country; these are the conceptions of narrow souls - to the liberal minded the whole world is a family.
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In the inner city, there's a mentality that the government owes you something. My breakthrough came when I stopped feeling sorry for myself and took responsibility for every part of my life. No more pity parties. I've gotta love me more than anybody else loves me.
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Corruption is not a problem just for some countries; this is a global issue.
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The thing I hate the most in any kind of writing is self-righteousness. Where you pretend you don't have the same kinds of flaws your subject has.