Pico Iyer Quotes

I think it's in human nature to want to have more, to compete with the other and, at some level, to be dissatisfied if someone else has more than you.

Pico Iyer

• Nature

• Previous
• Next

Quotes to Explore

• I think there's something very dark in the South African psyche. I think we live a lot of the time in a state of a very low-grade civil war; the levels of violence in South Africa are extremely high. In a way, the civil war that never happened is being played out in a covert way, so we live with a lot of very ugly things.

  

  Damon Galgut
  • Time
  • Live
  • War

• I gave up on the delusion that these players enjoy soccer as much as I do, that they play for the love of the game.

  

  Rabih Alameddine
  • Game
  • Play
  • Enjoy

• Don't manage - lead change before you have to.

  

  Jack Welch
  • You
  • Change
  • Lead

• Acting is doing. It's not speaking; it's behavior. It's something happening, even if you're only listening.

  

  Wayne Rogers
  • Listening
  • Acting
  • Behavior

• I was a bit odd. I read books and wanted to draw and go to art school.

  

  Mal Peet
  • School
  • Art
  • Odd

• Satan, the leader or dictator of devils, is the opposite, not of God, but of Michael.

  

  C. S. Lewis
  • God
  • Leader
  • Satan

• You get to a point where you really can't manage more artists, because representing artists takes a lot of time.

  

  Larry Gagosian
  • Time
  • You
  • Where

• The man who promises everything is sure to fulfil nothing, and everyone who promises too much is in danger of using evil means in order to carry out his promises, and is already on the road to perdition.

  

  Carl Jung
  • Man
  • Evil
  • Road

• 'Where is your million-dollar shirt?' I'm like, 'It's underneath these $25 Hanes T-shirts I've got on.'

  

  J. R. Smith
  • Like
  • Where
  • Got

• I knew David Lynch going to television was going to be something. It was either going to not work, nobody was going to get it and it would disappear, or it was going to be something special and really stand out.

  

  Madchen Amick
  • Work
  • Television
  • Stand

• To have success in your professional life is not so hard. To succeed as a man is more difficult.

  

  Yann Arthus-Bertrand
  • Life
  • Success
  • Man

• 'Sesame Street' is awesome - not only because they teach, edify and entertain kids but because they savvily make it possible to do so with parental engagement, because the show is loaded with references for Mom and Dad.

  

  Rachel Sklar
  • Kids
  • Dad
  • Mom

• If we don't change, we don't grow. If we don't grow, we aren't really living.

  

  Gail Sheehy
  • Change
  • Living
  • Grow

• I made the cover of 'Sports Illustrated,' 'Newsweek' and 'Time' all in one week, and I didn't even know what that meant.

  

  Nadia Comaneci
  • Time
  • Sports
  • Week

• When you locate good in yourself, approve of it with determination. When you locate evil in yourself, despise it as something detestable.

  

  Xun Kuang
  • Good
  • Evil
  • Determination

• Every label thinks, when they sign someone, 'This is the perfect pedigree to sign. They're cute, they can sing, they can dance, et cetera.' And they say to the public, 'Here, this is what you're gonna like.' But you might say, 'No, I don't like that!' You'll probably say 'no' many more times than you'll say 'yes!'

  

  Randy Jackson Breakfast Club
  • Perfect
  • Dance
  • Cute

• Autumn in New York, why does it seem so inviting?

  

  Vernon Duke
  • Why
  • New York
  • Autumn

• I like Tel Aviv; I live in Tel Aviv, but our right of return is Jerusalem. We did not return after 2,000 years for Tel Aviv but for Jerusalem.

  

  Yair Lapid
  • Live
  • Years
  • Jerusalem

• Difficulty is our most reliable narrative engine.

  

  Leslie Jamison

• There are always signs that a reign is ending, and they are usually spotted not in the king himself but in his court. In the inner circle, latent jealousies between advisers spill into open conflict, as they angrily debate who is to blame for the calamity, chewing over each other's past errors and pointing the finger at old and nascent enemies.

  

  Hanna Rosin
  • Past
  • King
  • Conflict

• The function of a writer is to make sense of life. It is such a mystery, it changes all the time, like the light.

  

  Nadine Gordimer
  • Life
  • Time
  • Light

• To try something longer, I entered a half-hour radio drama contest with the national public broadcaster, CBC. To my surprise, I won. And that opened doors in film and television, because that broadcaster was looking to cultivate new Canadian talent, especially women who could write.

  

  Karen Walton
  • Writing
  • Hours
  • Surprise

• One of the treasures of nature is beauty; this, too, should be preserved.

  

  Yehuda Levi
  • Nature
  • Should
  • Treasure

• I think it's in human nature to want to have more, to compete with the other and, at some level, to be dissatisfied if someone else has more than you.

  

  Pico Iyer
  • Nature