Pico Iyer Quotes
The recipe to an unhappy life in Japan is to want to be Japanese if you are not. Anyone who wants to penetrate the country is setting themselves up for tears and disappointment.
Quotes to Explore
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I hate to say it but I think it has become very obvious that our system for devising trade agreements, so very important to this country's functioning around the world, has not only broken, but it has broken completely.
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These years after my liberation were years of reconstruction, and I think I made the right decisions... I mean, I lost everything: my life; my father died; I didn't know anything about my children.
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This opinion, however, is held by most, that the devil was an angel, and that, having become an apostate, he induced as many of the angels as possible to fall away with himself, and these up to the present time are called his angels.
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In retrospect, I have devoted my scientific life mainly to the question to what extent infectious agents contribute to human cancer, trusting that this will contribute to novel modes of cancer prevention, diagnosis and, hopefully, later on, also to cancer therapy.
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When you are growing up, everyone will help you. When you reach the top, everyone will start pulling you down. The same people who help you will be the same people who try to pull you down.
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In New York, you walk everywhere, so you're amongst people all of the time, and everybody is in a hurry and going somewhere or has something on their minds. And in L.A., it's still much more of a laid-back life, at least in my experience.
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Have an earnestness for death and you will have life.
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I don't want to let the rest of this country drift into the abyss. I want to fight for it.
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Once you wake up and smell the coffee, it's hard to go back to sleep.
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Whenever you hear a man speak of his love for his country, it is a sign that he expects to be paid for it.
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I am a total workaholic. If I don't shoot for two days, I get uncomfortable at home. I won't comment on my personal life. That is totally out of bounds. When I do get married, everyone will know.
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I guess if you have an original take on life, or something about you is original, you don't have to study people who came before you. You don't have to mimic anybody. You just have a gut feeling inside, an instinct that tells you what's right for you, and you can't do it in any other way.
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My hope for this country is that we remain a people who value freedom, who have the courage to face the realities with faithful hearts instead of anxious ones.
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When I was a lad in my 20s, as carefree and debonair as any other underpaid newspaperman, I happened to be a golfer who could flirt with par fairly often, and I was adventurous enough in those days to play any known or unknown thief who showed up at Goat Hills for whatever amount he fancied.
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I've run my whole life - for more than exercise, for mental health.
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Yes, I believe the will is very important. It's how I have succeeded in life.
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Cyberpunk was really a reaction against old boy sci-fi which was about white guys in space who would come up with some kind of technological thing.
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She teaches me to be kind, punctual... and to stand up for myself. And when I think about it, aren't these things every mother should teach their daughter?
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Being gloomy is easier than being cheerful. Anybody can say 'I've got cancer' and get a rise out of a crowd. But how many of us can do five minutes of good stand-up comedy?
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We may encounter many defeats but we must not be defeated.
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Looking at the players that are truly successful, you see the durability and long careers. Those are the players I respect and look up to. I hope to become a player like that.
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Too little is it considered, while we gaze on aristocratic beauty, how much good food, soft lying, warm wrapping, ease of mind, have to do with the attractions which command our admiration.
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It's difficult for me to have a large story, a very large story - a novel is a large story. I'm used to writing and doing these little miniature paintings.
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The recipe to an unhappy life in Japan is to want to be Japanese if you are not. Anyone who wants to penetrate the country is setting themselves up for tears and disappointment.
