Ian Mcewan Quotes

How often one reads a contemporary full-length novel and thinks quietly, mutinously, that it would have worked out better at half or a third the length.

Ian Mcewan

• Better
• Half
• Often

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Quotes to Explore

• Buildings are always better than drawings and models.

  

  Rafael Moneo
  • Always
  • Better
  • Buildings

• The role of designers and product makers is to really become much better editors. What kind of functionality is actually needed - and truly delightful - to consumers? Remove all the extraneous stuff.

  

  Yves Behar
  • Kind
  • Better
  • Product

• I think the show does better with newsmakers and politicians than it does with actors.

  

  Samantha Bee
  • Think
  • Better
  • Politicians

• What other grown-up gets told how to do their job so often as a writer?

  

  Rachel Cusk
  • Up
  • Job
  • Writer

• Perhaps misguided moral passion is better than confused indifference.

  

  Iris Murdoch
  • Passion
  • Moral
  • Better

• In American films, Russians are often portrayed like cartoon villains without clear motivations.

  

  Yuliya Snigir
  • American
  • Often
  • Cartoon

• I know so many people who are so much better at it than I am, and I think I'm a goofier person rather than a serious, dramatic actress, so I probably belong in comedy.

  

  Paget Brewster
  • Comedy
  • Serious
  • Actress

• The economy in Ireland has been rampaging ahead for the last 15 years. Barring an international, political or natural catastrophe, things can only get better for the Irish.

  

  Eddie Murphy
  • Political
  • Better
  • Economy

• What I'm most pleased about is that there's no particular decline. The songs I wrote 40 years ago are no worse and no better - there's a consistency.

  

  Randy Newman
  • Years
  • Better
  • Consistency

• Brad Pitt is a dude who just wants to make good movies. He's not afraid to surround himself with the greatest actors, which I always appreciate because I've also seen actors who only want to surround themselves with weak actors because it makes them look better. That ends up making a poorer movie.

  

  Garret Dillahunt
  • Up
  • Good
  • Movie

• Sometimes the kids come up with better endings than the real story.

  

  Gail Carson Levine
  • Up
  • Real
  • Kids

• I always wanted to be a singer, and so, when I was 5 years old, I started acting classes so I could be a better performer. I wanted to have a powerful voice so I could be heard.

  

  Q'orianka Kilcher
  • Powerful
  • Better
  • Acting

• Every time I go out there and compete, my number is, of course, $100 million or better.

  

  Floyd Mayweather, Jr.
  • Time
  • Better
  • Million

• Nobody wants to be against technology, but I think that regulators should not - and people should not - assume that faster is always better in markets. We need to question technology to insure that markets continue to perform their fundamental purposes.

  

  Bart Chilton
  • People
  • Question
  • Technology

• If Northern Ireland had better weather, it would be like New Zealand. It's an immensely beautiful country.

  

  Ian Beattie
  • Country
  • Beautiful
  • Better

• The great apologist has to have lived large and wild. If he's going to kiss the world's boo-boos and make up, he'd better plant some bruises first. A master apologizer has to be a Lord Byron, a Rick in Casablanca, a Lee Atwater, anyway.

  

  P. J. O'Rourke
  • Up
  • World
  • Great

• What I hate in fiction is when the author knows better than the characters what they should do.

  

  Pat Barker
  • Hate
  • Better
  • Author

• Excellence is the gradual result of always striving to do better.

  

  Pat Riley
  • Better
  • Excellence
  • Striving

• The less I talk about being black, the better.

  

  Idris Elba
  • Black
  • Better
  • Talk

• The question is whether we're ready to undertake responsibility for overcoming the crisis or will again sink in debates, mutual recriminations and half-steps

  

  Yevgeny Primakov
  • Question
  • Responsibility
  • Overcoming

• I've always loved Victorian melodrama. And I've always liked larger-than-life theater, providing it's truthful and honest. I like what the theater can provide in energy and bombast - I enjoy it when it's large, and by that I don't mean in size, I mean in emotions. Shakespeare did that.

  

  Harold Prince
  • Life
  • Energy
  • Enjoy

• If you weren't around, I'd probably be someplace way the hell off. In the woods or some goddamn place. You're the only reason I'm around, practically.

  

  J. D. Salinger

• One of the main ways that leadership stays in power is by, in various ways, convincing people that they should just let those who are in government govern: 'Trust us. Trust me. Just let us take care of things. Stay out of it.' Your opinions don't really matter. You are isolated. You are insignificant.

  

  Viggo Mortensen
  • People
  • Power
  • Trust

• How often one reads a contemporary full-length novel and thinks quietly, mutinously, that it would have worked out better at half or a third the length.

  

  Ian Mcewan
  • Better
  • Half
  • Often