James A. Michener Quotes
Very early on in life, I decided the hell with it: material things weren't for me. Christmas would come, and other kids would have all these presents, and it wouldn't bother me a bit.
Quotes to Explore
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You know, it's a hugely difficult thing to take any work of art or drawing and say 'make that real.'
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Most of the time, the lyrics are kind of like my secret messages to my friends or my boyfriend or my mom or my dad. I would never tell them that these songs are about them or which specific lyric is about somebody. Often, when I sit down to write a lyric, it is in the heat of the moment, and something has just happened.
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I think, for me, Julian Schnabel set a great precedent in being able to cross over so successfully. I feel like his artwork is kind of big, grand, and bombastic, yet the films that he makes are very beautifully sensitive, and I just feel that his filmmaking sensibility is very different from his artwork.
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I never wanted to give up my given name. I'm proud of it, but the only problem was that no one remembered it. It was just a little too awkward, and they mispronounced it so frequently.
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All the women in my family are very dramatic by themselves. They make the biggest things out of nothing. I think that's where I learned a lot about being emotional.
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It didn't scare me to be vulnerable because I think that's when you get something great.
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It is literally true that you can succeed best and quickest by helping others to succeed.
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My life has been a dream. If someone had to write a story about it, it would seem a little unreal. It's the kind of story I would read and say, 'Nah, that's not possible.'
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I don't know how to make Harper and Alloy want me, not just my name.
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Men must turn square corners when they deal with the Government.
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'Vanity' means worthlessness.
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The future ain't what it used to be.
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If you only believe that you're an artist when you have a big advance in your pocket and a single coming out, I would say that's quite soulless. You have to have a sense of your own greatness and your own ability from a very deep place inside you. I am the one with the litmus test in my hands of what people need to hear next.
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Touring helped me understand where I needed to be better in my music.
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I think what probably happens when you put two awkward/clunky people together is that their awkward/clunky world seems like a normal world.
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Find something that you love to do, and find a place that you really like to do it in. I found something I loved to do. I'm a mechanical engineer by training, and I loved it. I still do. My son is a nuclear engineer at MIT, a junior, and I get the same vibe from him. Your work has to be compelling. You spend a lot of time doing it.
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My mother taught me to drive using the 'Detroit Method,' where speed limits and traffic lights are taken as cute suggestions.
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I love coming to London and seeing what people on the street are wearing.
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When I was a teenager, I was really into hair; I dyed it different colours and had loads of haircuts. I shaved my head when I was 17 - it was pretty radical!
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The reason I go for the designers is because they make me feel good. It's about finding clothes that make you feel good as a woman. If I like it, I'll wear it. You have to go with your instincts and not be led by trends.
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To the poet fated to be a poet, self-expression is as natural and as involuntary as breathing is to us ordinary mortals.
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Practice is everything. This is often misquoted as Practice makes perfect.
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After touring with David Bowie last year, I was inspired to look at what I wanted to do as an artist, and I realized I wanted to go back to the music I fell in love with when I was eight years old.
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Very early on in life, I decided the hell with it: material things weren't for me. Christmas would come, and other kids would have all these presents, and it wouldn't bother me a bit.
