Nathaniel Philbrick Quotes
One of the questions I face when working on a book about a historical event is whether I should visit the actual place that I'm writing about. No matter how scrupulously maintained a historic house or battlefield may be, it is nothing like it was in the long-ago past.

Quotes to Explore
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Unfortunately, there is still much to mine in this world and explore creatively.
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The European Union, which is not directly responsible to voters, provides an irresistible opportunity for European elites to seize power in order to impose their own vision on a newly socially regimented Europe.
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When you begin to write poems because you love language, because you love poetry. Something happens that makes you write poems. And the writing of poems is incredibly pleasurable and addictive.
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One theme I ran into over and over while writing about the periodic table was the future of energy and the question of which element or elements will replace carbon as king.
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There's one thing that I like about Rome that was stated by Napoleon: that from sublime to pathetic is only one step away. And in Rome there's a constant shifting between sublime and pathetic.
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I went to this one in Ohio, and then I became a counselor there, and it was just the most fun thing. I was so depressed when I came home from camp.
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I always had dreams as a kid. I definitely sat at home and watched the Oscars every year and got emotional every year at everyone's speeches.
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On the contrary, I'm a strong believer in the necessity of imperfection coming into the film.
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There are so many figures in our history that did not believe they could make a change, and they did.
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A plan is always successful if the plan is good.
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My big thing is to make sure the lipsticks taste good when you kiss. And, well, so far they taste pretty darn good.
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I'm attempting to put myself in a bottle that will one day wash up on the beach for my children.
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I love the way girls in London dress; it's so different to the American 'blow-dry and immaculate grooming' thing.
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It's not unusual for a would-be entrepreneur to get turned down half a dozen times before finding a willing investor - yet in most companies, it takes only one 'nyet' to kill a project stone dead.
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The surface is all you get of me.
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'Miss Rumphius' has been, perhaps, the closest to my heart. There are, of course, many dissimilarities between me and Alice Rumphius, but, as I worked, she gradually seemed to become my alter ego. Perhaps she had been that right from the start.
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Human well-being is not a random phenomenon. It depends on many factors - ranging from genetics and neurobiology to sociology and economics. But, clearly, there are scientific truths to be known about how we can flourish in this world. Wherever we can have an impact on the well-being of others, questions of morality apply.
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I used to get a shiver if I thought about holding balloons, because I was scared of floating away.
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I was familiar with 'Addicted' for a long time, even prior to the movie, way before it got the greenlight. And when it finally got the greenlight, I was very happy to be a part of it.
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You were not supposed to show off in Negroland because you are supposed to be perfectly decorous and well behaved. You were also not supposed to tell any stories that reflected badly on the group because that reflected badly on the race. I use past tense, but it still feels like present tense.
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I write a lot of material you've never heard that live inside my sadness. You'll hear a song that lasts six to seven minutes of just beautiful sadness. But I can't just go out on the stage to ask five thousand people to be sad with me for seven straight minutes.
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When I met Jo Wilder, I fell crazy in love and never thought about homosexuality. And I thought, 'Well, this is what I'm supposed to be doing. This is life.'
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Some things need to be let go before other things can be let in.
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One of the questions I face when working on a book about a historical event is whether I should visit the actual place that I'm writing about. No matter how scrupulously maintained a historic house or battlefield may be, it is nothing like it was in the long-ago past.