Matthew Desmond Quotes
When I talk to booksellers, they tell me how hard it is to hand-sell some of my books because I do keep popping around.

Quotes to Explore
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I've never gotten thick skin. If you close yourself off and you get this protective armor, there is a price you pay with that - of not feeling. And feeling is important when you are a songwriter.
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I think you have to keep a childlike quality to play music or make a record.
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I am in love with myself, with my friends, with my family, with kids, with life and my movies.
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If North American musicians would only know how uncomfortable life is for European musicians.
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If you're not kind, then you won't be attractive to me personally because that spirit shines through and makes people attractive.
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May Heaven be propitious, and smile on the cause of my country.
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I loved London. In the 1970s... it was very exciting, really wild.
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There are four ways, and only four ways, in which we have contact with the world. We are evaluated and classified by these four contacts: what we do, how we look, what we say, and how we say it.
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In our local Baptist church, I sang in the choir and formed a gospel quartet. When our minister caught me messing with his guitar, he taught me three positions – one, four and five. After that, I taught myself to play.
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As far as everyone else's opinion, I mean, if I would have thought that everyone was right, I probably wouldn't have left Compton, so I don't get too caught up on what the next person thinks.
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I enjoy passing time in my house. I'll get up, head out on the terrace, think about what to do, fool around oiling the floorboards or hanging pictures askew.
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Discouragement, fear, doubt, lack of self-confidence, are the germs which have killed the prosperity and happiness of tens of thousands of people.
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I don't wear plaid shirts.
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I just butcher a book. Everything I underline I assume is important to me.
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You have to take criticism with a grain of salt because you're never going to please everybody.
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I'm a dilettante. My governing word is 'curiosity.'
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My father was very clear; I had to have an ordinary upbringing. I was put to work as a lowly-paid trainee after college. I didn't like it at the time, but I can't help but feel that that was probably the best thing for me.
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The most important thing to realise is that everyone is capable of telling a story. It doesn't matter where we were born or how we grew up.
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One of the most adventurous things left us is to go to bed. For no one can lay a hand on our dreams.
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The faith that stands on authority is not faith.
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It's like this - because I travel so much, I crave certain foods or certain things, like from certain places that I've been.
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The happiest times in my life were the days when I was traveling with Les Brown and his band.
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I prefer short stories, but publishers would, of course, rather that writers produce novels, since novels are still more commercially viable.
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When I talk to booksellers, they tell me how hard it is to hand-sell some of my books because I do keep popping around.