Jesmyn Ward Quotes
I've found that in fiction - and this is just the kind of writer I am - I can't really work from an outline. I have a vague idea of the characters at the beginning of the book, and then I have a vague idea of whatever the end of the book will be, but I can't approach creative nonfiction like that.
Quotes to Explore
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What's great about stand-up is that you can say whatever you want and go around the country, and sometimes the world, and work on it and see how people react. You don't need Standards & Practices or notes from lawyers or producers to tell you what's funny.
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From the consumer perspective, what happened in the U.S. 10 years ago and Europe five years ago is now happening in Russia. People are beginning to understand that e-commerce is easy and safe.
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In my theater work, I've had much more three-dimensional, broader-stroke characters.
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I must be like the princess who felt the pea through seven mattresses; each book is a pea.
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Then about 1951 I began writing again, painfully, a novel I called in the beginning A Life Sentence on Earth, but which developed into The Tree of Man.
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A mate of mine told me recently, 'It's the first time I've seen you work, Worthington.' I thought that was quite funny, but he was right.
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If you are playing someone living, it is a different type of judgment. However much work you do, it is not a documentary. There will be things you can't get right, and ultimately, you have to take a leap because - you weren't there.
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Letters actually work. Even the top dog himself takes time every day to read 10 letters that are picked out by staff. I can tell you that every official that I've ever worked with will tell you about the letters they get and what they mean.
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I am 90. I can work day or night. I'm the same guy, but the polls show the effect of age. That's the issue.
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I don't really know what the Great American Novel is. I like the idea that there could be one now, and I wouldn't object if someone thought it was mine, but I don't claim to have written that - I just wrote my book.
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I'm an immigrant myself. It was a tough road to come to America and work.
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I'm this overachiever type, I'll just work and work and I'll just do it over and over and over again.
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I think with anything where you delve into the back story of an artist, it kind of explains their work more intimately.
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I wish the music business was a much easier thing, but you know what? Nothing easy is worth anything. So it is what it is. There comes a time when things can work out and everybody can be happy. And that's what it's all about in the end - everybody being happy and working it out.
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I don't want to name any names, but I've worked on television shows where there's a guy writing for my generation who's, like, 60 - and it doesn't work.
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I like to work hard and complete my films one after the other.
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I've been lucky to work with people that I like most of the time. If I don't like them, I'll play head games with them to get their minds spinning.
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My work is not about 'form follows function,' but 'form follows beauty' or, even better, 'form follows feminine.'
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I got back from Toronto, where they had a severe outbreak of SARS- you know, Severe Asian Racism Syndrome.
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I believe that connecting with other moms is so important; after all, we are all on this crazy journey together and no one understands what we're going through better than each other.
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A medical man likes to make psychological observations, and sometimes in the pursuit of such studies is too easily tempted into momentous prophecy which life and death easily set at nought.
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I think it's a question which particularly arises over women writers: whether it's better to have a happy life or a good supply of tragic plots.
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With the Stray Cats at least, we really took the music somewhere else. First, we wrote our own songs. That's a real weak point in modern classics if you do rockabilly or blues.
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I've found that in fiction - and this is just the kind of writer I am - I can't really work from an outline. I have a vague idea of the characters at the beginning of the book, and then I have a vague idea of whatever the end of the book will be, but I can't approach creative nonfiction like that.
