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.
Quotes to Explore
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Buildings are always better than drawings and models.
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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.
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I think the show does better with newsmakers and politicians than it does with actors.
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What other grown-up gets told how to do their job so often as a writer?
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Perhaps misguided moral passion is better than confused indifference.
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In American films, Russians are often portrayed like cartoon villains without clear motivations.
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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.
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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.
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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.
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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.
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Sometimes the kids come up with better endings than the real story.
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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.
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Every time I go out there and compete, my number is, of course, $100 million or better.
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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.
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If Northern Ireland had better weather, it would be like New Zealand. It's an immensely beautiful country.
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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.
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What I hate in fiction is when the author knows better than the characters what they should do.
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Excellence is the gradual result of always striving to do better.
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I'm usually very attracted to things that I can't define. If something's too clear, it's very often not inspiring to me anymore.
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One always wonders about roads not taken.
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The genuine truth, and I do think about this a lot, is that I'm one of the least competitive people you'll ever meet. Except with myself.
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I feel like a tree. A tree doesn't feel a duty to start doing something about the earth from which it comes. A tree just has to bear fruit, and leaves and blossoms. It doesn't feel grateful to the earth.
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When people from organizations like the World Bank descended on Third World countries, they always tried to remove obstacles to development, to reduce economic anxiety and uncertainty.
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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.
