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

• Hiking is something that I really, really like to do. It's distracting, you're in nature, and you get a nice workout that way. I would tell everyone to hike as much as they can - you just feel so much better when you get outdoors. I'm also into yoga.

  

  Odette Annable
  • Nature
  • Nice
  • Better

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

  

  Pat Barker
  • Hate
  • Better
  • Author

• Often for me, if I hear a song I know, it clicks for me and I hear it in a different way and I think, "I could sing that song. I've got something to say about that song. Wanting to connect with an audience and wanting them to rethink songs; it is actually important to do songs they're familiar with. Also, I love those songs. In a way, I think I've changed people's perceptions of what a cabaret show like this could be.

  

  Alan Cumming
  • People
  • Different
  • Important

• Even the most ardent Obama supporter can't, in good conscience or sound mental state, argue that President Obama has changed the way Washington works. He's just played the game a little better, if you're being charitable on how you keep score on that count.

  

  Cenk Uygur
  • Better
  • Played
  • Washington

• There is no better teacher of rough necessity than bad luck, and you will have great use of me, I promise.

  

  Catherynne M. Valente
  • Teacher
  • Better
  • Bad Luck

• I love the simple poetry of theater, where you can stand in a spotlight on a stage and wrap a coat around you, and say, 'It was 1860 and it was winter...'

  

  Gary Oldman
  • Love
  • Simple
  • Poetry

• The most fascinating part is how fashion just attracts all these social rejects, if you will, from around the world, encourages individuality. They're the people who make the industry tick.

  

  Imran Amed
  • People
  • World
  • Fashion

• 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