Deborah Tannen Quotes

Most non-New Yorkers, finding themselves within hearing range of strangers' conversation, think it's nice to pretend they didn't hear. But many New Yorkers think it's nice to toss in a relevant comment.

Deborah Tannen

• Nice

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Quotes to Explore

• I'm extremely fascinated by marriage. I want to study marriage. I want to learn about it. I want to know it. I want to figure out whether or not I want to do it. I'm not just going to leap into it, because that's not good for anybody.

  

  Adam Levine Maroon 5
  • Good
  • Marriage
  • Study

• I didn't make any friends in New York by insisting on moving the league headquarters to Cincinnati. The fact was that my son Bill was in school. His mother had passed away, and I didn't want to take the boy away from his school and to a strange city.

  

  Warren Giles
  • School
  • Friends
  • Mother

• Because the nights bring the threat of invasion and terror to the villages, thousands of children in northern Uganda have become night commuters, leaving the nightmare of capture behind for the safety of the city.

  

  Sam Childers
  • Children
  • Night
  • City

• Literature overtakes history, for literature gives you more than one life. It expands experience and opens new opportunities to readers.

  

  Carlos Fuentes
  • Life
  • Experience
  • History

• I am a Christian guy. And I am kind of quiet about it because I want people to take me seriously before I throw something that serious in their face.

  

  Samuel Larsen
  • People
  • Christian
  • Serious

• You know, one of the only times I ever wrote about art was the obituary of Warhol that I did for the Village Voice.

  

  Barbara Kruger
  • Art
  • Know
  • Voice

• It was not until I was in my forties, in the fifth decade of my life, that the sense of place, the spirit of place, became of paramount importance to me. It was then that I began my travels, that I discovered, through photography, the quality of light, and that I gradually became able to paint the mood of place.

  

  Barbara Cooney
  • Life
  • Me
  • Sense

• Mum's a worrier, she looked after everybody apart from herself - I think it runs in the family.

  

  Gail Porter
  • Family
  • She
  • Think

• I like it when I am in the middle; I am closer to the ball. The manager wants me to pass, to make assists, create chances, and I do more because I think the position is more central, and I don't ask all the time for the ball at my feet.

  

  Eden Hazard
  • Ball
  • Middle
  • Chances

• I have a paranoia that 'Ablutions' is the best thing I'll ever do.

  

  Patrick deWitt
  • Best
  • Ever
  • Paranoia

• My main wish is to get my books into other people's rooms, and to keep other people's books out of mine.

  

  Samuel Butler
  • People
  • Wish
  • Books

• As far as how much you listen to the audience, you listen to them when they really hate something.

  

  Adam McKay
  • You
  • Hate
  • Listen

• Every note is a lifetime for itself.

  

  Daniel Barenboim
  • Lifetime
  • Itself
  • Note

• Mike Tyson was one of the fighters who motivated me. How? We both used to train at the Golden Gloves boxing gym. I used to see his Rolls-Royce, his diamond Rolex on, and I said, 'You know what? Those are the things that I want.'

  

  Floyd Mayweather, Jr.
  • Want
  • Train
  • Diamond

• I love working in New York.

  

  Ian Mckellen
  • Love
  • Working
  • New York

• I came, I studied architecture in America, so my technical background's completely western. But my seventeen years, the formative years of one's life, and I can't say that the Chineseness in me is not there.

  

  I. M. Pei
  • Life
  • America
  • Architecture

• I love doing costumes. The costume is an actor's first line, so it's gotta be right!

  

  Xavier Dolan
  • Love
  • Doing
  • Actor

• I developed 'Trapped' because I was fascinated with the idea of a terrible crime in a small town cut off from the rest of the world.

  

  Baltasar Kormakur
  • World
  • Small
  • Rest

• I feel really proud of my work on 'Sullivan & Son.' It's a really different character for me. I was excited to play this really tough, sweet smart, quirky girl because that's who I am at my core, but that's never who I was playing. The show is like my pride and joy.

  

  Valerie Azlynn
  • Work
  • Different
  • Character

• You want to come home to a nice firm bed with the corners tucked in so you start over, like each night is like a new night.

  

  Gabrielle Union
  • Home
  • Night
  • Nice

• Certain people are like 'Oh, here come the Feminazis!' You end up acting 10 times nicer than you even need to be, to be the opposite of the stereotype like 'You're the man haters!' We're always bending over backwards being extra nice. And I don't know if being nice is my legacy.

  

  Kathleen Hanna Bikini Kill
  • People
  • Up
  • Nice

• I grew up with my cousins, who were as close as brothers, and frankly, I didn't like what girls were expected to do. I liked horseback riding, playing football, going to rodeos. I wanted to be in jeans all the time, and I couldn't figure out why I was supposed to conform to a certain standard, so I didn't.

  

  S. E. Hinton
  • Up
  • Time
  • Why

• It was a matter of not living lavishly but enjoying what you had, growing things with your hands, working hard, but not being tied to a nine-to-five job, and generally feeling that there's more to life than money.

  

  John Sulston
  • Life
  • Money
  • Job

• Most non-New Yorkers, finding themselves within hearing range of strangers' conversation, think it's nice to pretend they didn't hear. But many New Yorkers think it's nice to toss in a relevant comment.

  

  Deborah Tannen
  • Nice