H. L. Mencken Quotes
Why writers write I do not know. As well ask why a hen lays an egg or why a cow stands patiently while an underprivileged farmer burglarizes her.
Quotes to Explore
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The beauty of 'The Hunger Games' and also 'Game of Thrones,' in fairness, both projects have really complex, three-dimensional, contradictory, strong women... The writing of female characters is extraordinary and equal to the men.
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I taught English and history, so my education for that really helped prepare me for writing historical fiction.
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Writing a tribe is fun. They have their own language, their own slang; they repeat it, and it becomes part of the texture of the play. For a writer, that's thrilling. That's when my pen flies.
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I like the performing. And interviews, even. And the stuff that's not sitting in a room by yourself with empty paper. But I never loved writing, to tell you the truth.
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You get on the radio by writing your own songs. But we had the dilemma of not being able to play anywhere because we weren't able to play anything that anyone wanted to hear. So we learned songs that we thought that we could do without puking.
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I was going to try to get into the creative writing program at Berkeley; it's just that the acting thing worked out.
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When I was a little girl, I used to walk around with a towel on my head, pretending I was a nun. And then one day my mother said, 'Why don't you just become an actress, and then you can pretend you're a nun.'
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When I came to Congress, like our first panel, small business people, 64 percent of the people had health insurance. We'd buy it. Now, we're down to about 34 percent. That's why we have to do something on health care in this country because the cost is killing us.
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I have yet to see a piece of writing, political or non-political, that doesn't have a slant. All writing slants the way a writer leans, and no man is born perpendicular, although many men are born upright.
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As a matter of personal philosophy, I have generally said, 'Why not?' far more often than either 'Why?' or 'Not.'
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People often write after they finish their career, or they don't play anymore, or they are not anymore active. So I say, why do that? And let's do it differently.
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It brings up happy old days when I was only a farmer and not an agriculturist.
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I think that's why often people in creative fields can feel so alone is because there's a constant third eye, that constant watcher.
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It is not hard to see why the FBI wants wiretapping backdoors. It would certainly make its job easier. But rejiggering the Internet so government can conveniently monitor everything we say and do online is too high a price to pay for making law enforcement more efficient.
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I think if you're fame-hungry, go out to a nightclub and get drunk... why do that? I don't understand how some people would want fame so bad that they'd go out and get negative attention to earn it.
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Lebanon was under Israeli occupation, up to its capital, but we did not consider that a disaster. Why? Because it was very clear that there are ways to resist.
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But in the meantime I became accustomed to the writing life and it would be hard to change now - partly because of the salary cut if I went to my other love, teaching; and partly because I still have stories to tell, even though it isn't all that fun doing the work anymore.
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Storytelling is storytelling. Good stories need compelling characters and interesting conflicts. That's the bottom line no matter what medium you're writing for.
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As chairman of the House Ways and Means Committee - the chief tax-writing body in Congress - I understand that true comprehensive tax reform is tremendously difficult.
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Writing 'Hoop Roots' was a substitute or a surrogate activity. I can't play anymore - my body won't cooperate - so in the writing of the book, I was looking to tell a good story about my life and about basketball, but I was also looking to entertain myself the way that I entertain myself when I play.
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When you see government leaders really bullying business, you know that government's economic policy is failing. They get angry and they get desperate.
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We have to define and put into practice a better, more coherent and effective policy on income security.
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Why writers write I do not know. As well ask why a hen lays an egg or why a cow stands patiently while an underprivileged farmer burglarizes her.
