James Fenton Quotes

I prefer writing in the mornings, so to that extent I have a routine. I do reading and other things in the afternoon.

James Fenton

• Writing
• Reading

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Quotes to Explore

• North Korea, under its thirtysomething Supreme Leader, Kim Jong-un, is no country for old men. The latest casualty in Kim's ongoing purge of the senior military command was the defense minister, Hyon Yong-chol, who reportedly committed the classic old man's offense of falling asleep in a meeting.

  

  Barbara Demick
  • Men
  • Country
  • Man

• After leaving school, I travelled around Europe for about six months. In Denmark, I thought that was my chance to get an amazing haircut, so I went to what I thought was a great hairdresser. It turned out to be the car wash of hairdressers, and I walked out sporting yet another pudding bowl, but this time with a stripe bleached down the centre.

  

  Becki Newton
  • Time
  • Great
  • School

• Magneto wants to cope with the difficulties thrust upon him by society and by his own nature.

  

  Ian Mckellen
  • Nature
  • Society
  • Him

• Musical compositions can be very sad - Chopin - but you have the pleasure of this sadness. The cheap consolation is: you will be happy. The higher consolation is the pleasure and recognition of your unhappiness, the pleasure of having recognised that fate, destiny and life are such as they are and so you reach a higher form of consciousness.

  

  Umberto Eco
  • Life
  • Happy
  • Sad

• To be honest, I think that I am a bit of a singer, coming from Wales; being Welsh, we are all very proud of our singing heritage.

  

  Ioan Gruffudd
  • Singer
  • Heritage
  • Wales

• I've had the experience of having a book praised but then it doesn't sell. Or not praised but then it sells.

  

  Gail Sheehy
  • Experience
  • Book
  • Sell

• 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.

  

  Utada Hikaru
  • People
  • Up
  • Different

• Morality is the basis of things and truth is the substance of all morality.

  

  Mahatma Gandhi
  • Truth
  • Morality
  • Truth Is

• The hardest thing about being an unpublished writer is that there's always that voice in your head that asks if you're really being a fool. You might just really stink and not know it. You have to have a lot of blind faith in the process. You have to like it so much that you're going to do it anyway.

  

  Watt Key
  • Faith
  • Voice
  • Fool

• The connection that readers have to 'Rookie' has only meant more and more to me as I get older.

  

  Tavi Gevinson
  • Connection
  • Readers
  • Rookie

• Conflict is very much a state of mind. If you're not in that state of mind, it doesn't bother you.

  

  Yotam Ottolenghi
  • Mind
  • You
  • Conflict

• I'm concerned about my daughter because she will not believe in Santa Claus. No matter what I say to her, she just doesn't buy it, and she's 2. I refuse to give it up. I say, 'There is a Santa Claus,' and she says, 'Okay, Mommy. In pretend world, right?' She really doesn't believe.

  

  Salma Hayek
  • Up
  • World
  • Believe

• It's always an honour doing anything for your country.

  

  Gary Kemp Spandau Ballet
  • Country
  • Always
  • Doing

• I can laugh and cry at the drop of a freakin' hat - all at the same time.

  

  Carlene Carter
  • Time
  • Same
  • Hat

• If you actively do something, it will stop making you feel like a victim and you'll start feeling like part of the solution, which is just a huge benefit to your body and your psyche.

  

  Ted Danson
  • Feeling
  • Stop
  • Body

• I come into the peace of wild things who do not tax their lives with forethought of grief... For a time I rest in the grace of the world, and am free.

  

  Wendell Berry
  • Time
  • World
  • History

• I think New York audiences are some of the brightest in the world, and certainly the most enthusiastic.

  

  Ian Mckellen
  • World
  • Think
  • New York

• You're successful if you can get one person to pick it up and put it on the turntable and go, Wow, thanks for writing that!

  

  Dan Fogelberg
  • Up
  • Writing
  • Successful

• Advertising is only evil when it advertises evil things.

  

  David Ogilvy
  • Evil

• You know, when you can play with the greatest players of that particular era, you look forward to going to the ballpark. I mean, you thought it was great to be there in the clubhouse. You thought it was great to be on the field.

  

  Johnny Bench
  • Great

• Love is not just tolerance. It's not just distant appreciation. It's a warm sense of, 'I am enjoying the fact that you are you.'

  

  N. T. Wright
  • Love
  • For Her
  • Sense

• If you've noticed that I don't use long takes, it's not because I don't like them, but because no one gives me the necessary means to treat myself to them. It's more economical to make one image, then this image and then that image, and try to control them later, in the editing studio.

  

  Orson Welles
  • Long
  • Control
  • Myself

• I'm not that guy who thinks I have all the answers. Writing is a means of communicating, and if enough people say, 'I don't get it,' it's worth looking at.

  

  Noah Hawley
  • Writing
  • Answers
  • Communicating

• I prefer writing in the mornings, so to that extent I have a routine. I do reading and other things in the afternoon.

  

  James Fenton
  • Writing
  • Reading