Jesmyn Ward Quotes

I feel like in the reading I did when I was growing up, and also in the way that people talk and tell stories here in the South, they use a lot of figurative language. The stories that I heard when I was growing up, and the stories that I read, taught me to use the kind of language that I do. It's hard for me to work against that when I am writing.

Jesmyn Ward

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Quotes to Explore

• As one grows older one becomes more critical of oneself and less of other people.

  

  Basil Rathbone
  • People
  • More
  • Less

• Five to six thousand people die every year waiting for organs, but nobody cares.

  

  Jack Kevorkian
  • People
  • Die
  • Waiting

• That's what happens nowadays with people working on computers. They can so easily fix things with their mouse and take out all the, 'Oh, somebody coughed in the background; we need to take that out' - or somebody hit a bad note. Those are all the best moments.

  

  Jack White The White Stripes
  • People
  • Bad
  • Moments

• These are people who are capable of devotion, public devotion, to justice. They meant what they said and every day that passes, they mean it more.

  

  Wendell Berry
  • People
  • Day
  • Justice

• I gave up painting by 16. I secretly thought I would have been Rembrandt by then.

  

  Damien Hirst
  • Up
  • Thought
  • Painting

• I get so excited when a song I wrote that's very personal to me goes No. 1 and I look down and see people singing the words back to me.

  

  Taylor Swift
  • People
  • Song
  • Words

• Growing up in a small town gives you two things: a sense of place and a feeling of self-consciousness - self-consciousness about one's education and exposure, both of which tend to be limited. On the other hand, limited possibilities also mean creating your own options.

  

  E. L. Konigsburg
  • Up
  • Feeling
  • Small

• I love writing songs.

  

  Sade Adu
  • Writing
  • Love
  • Songs

• I don't consider Los Angeles home anymore; ultimately, it was pretty negative, but I did spend my formative years in the Valley and all around L.A. proper. Through my teenage years and into my young adulthood, up until the age of 30, I spent a good amount of time there.

  

  Patrick deWitt
  • Up
  • Time
  • Good

• If I like something, I will pick it up from anywhere and wear it. I don't believe that only branded stuff looks good on you. If it doesn't look good in my eyes, I'll never wear it.

  

  Kajol
  • Up
  • Good
  • Believe

• I would say that my fatal flaw, as a human being, is that I need people to like me, and if they don't like me, I will obsess over it - and try to change my personality until they like me - even if they don't like me for reasons that have nothing to do with me, and even if they're strangers.

  

  Damon Lindelof
  • People
  • Change
  • Personality

• Profitability comes from loyalty, productivity, and having a character base from which to work.

  

  Zig Ziglar
  • Work
  • Character
  • Loyalty

• I'd been kind of a hiccup in my parents' lives. They lost track of me and I didn't know what I was going to do with myself. And then fate reached in and took me in its hands. I was discovered right out of high school and started getting work.

  

  Sally Field
  • Work
  • School
  • High

• Positive social emotions like compassion and empathy are generally good for us, and we want to encourage them. But do we know how to most reliably raise children to care about the suffering of other people? I'm not sure we do.

  

  Sam Harris
  • People
  • Good
  • Children

• And then in 1956 or 1957 my family went over to Europe and I moved over with them, and immediately people in Europe thought my perspective on that issue was 100% correct.

  

  Warren Farrell
  • People
  • Family
  • Thought

• To lead people walk behind them.

  

  Lao Tzu
  • People
  • Walk
  • Lead

• Exercise is more important than diet for me because it's a twofer. It keeps me in good physical shape, and it relieves stress. And when you're a representative of the public, there's never a shortage of things to do.

  

  Aaron Schock
  • Good
  • Important
  • Exercise

• It really matters whether people are working on generating clean energy or improving transportation or making the Internet work better and all those things. And small groups of people can have a really huge impact.

  

  Larry Page
  • People
  • Work
  • Small

• I think, in the future, people are going to look back and say, 'I can't believe that gay and lesbian people had to fight to be able to get married.'

  

  Edy Ganem
  • People
  • Believe
  • Future

• Apparently, the prerequisite to being a gay public figure is to appear on the cover of a magazine with the caption 'I am gay'. I apologize for not doing so if this is what was expected!

  

  Jonathan Knight
  • Gay

• I really appreciate the moments that I was able to win rap album of the year or whatever.

  

  Kanye West
  • Moments
  • Win
  • Rap

• If you're an old pro, you know how well you're doing when you're doing it, and your inner government spanks you if you're not doing well.

  

  Jerry Lewis

• The way I saw the world as a child was not wrong. And it's okay to see the world that way. If it doesn't hurt anybody.

  

  Claire Messud
  • World
  • Hurt

• I feel like in the reading I did when I was growing up, and also in the way that people talk and tell stories here in the South, they use a lot of figurative language. The stories that I heard when I was growing up, and the stories that I read, taught me to use the kind of language that I do. It's hard for me to work against that when I am writing.

  

  Jesmyn Ward
  • People
  • Up
  • Work