Jesmyn Ward Quotes
I couldn't run from that desire to tell stories, that desire to tell stories about us, and about the people I loved.

Quotes to Explore
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The hatred Muslim extremists feel against the West feeds on certain conflicts in the world.
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To become self-aware, people must be allowed to hear a plurality of opinions and then make up their own minds. They must be allowed to say, write and publish whatever they want. Freedom of expression is the most basic, but fundamental, right. Without it, human beings are reduced to automatons.
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I've had the good fortune of studying the 17th-century art of Amsterdam in preparation for a film.
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There is a triangular relationship between poverty, child labour and illiteracy who have a cause and consequence relationship. We will have to break this vicious circle.
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I write poems, I meditate. I don't live up to people's expectations. I don't do the conventional cool things - I know I am the coolest person.
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Moderation is a fatal thing. Nothing succeeds like excess.
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I am genuinely into soul, R&B and hip hop - all these genres that get slapped under the 'soul' genre. That spoke to me more than it did to my punk-rock friends. And punk spoke more to me than it did to my soul friends. I basically didn't fit comfortably in either world.
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I was being groomed to be a tennis player for sure. My grandparents and parents realised I had a natural athletic ability and if I was forced to do it, I could probably do well. But all I wanted was to play pretend.
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Few men desire liberty; most men wish only for a just master.
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The idea of revenge coming from a 14-year-old girl isn't, you know, exactly right.
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Besides the actual reading in class of many poems, I would suggest you do two things: first, while teaching everything you can and keeping free of it, teach that poetry is a mode of discourse that differs from logical exposition.
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We have to embrace the good over the bad. That has to be one's personal project.
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Village cricket spread fast through the land.
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Our best thoughts come from others.
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I think I've learned the difference between the things I can control and the things I can't control. And hopefully, by doing the things I can control well, I'll have more favor in the other category.
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It's unacceptable to just sit on the couch and say I'm not doing anything. You've got to get out and do everything you can.
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Whatever our bedtime was as kids, we could stay up an extra half hour if we were reading. My parents didn't care as long as I was under the spell of a Stephen King or a Douglas Adams. Now I read in bed. I read at work. I read standing in line. It's like, 'Hello, my name is Nathan and I am a reader.'
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I was sick and tired of being an English actor who did a lot of American movies because I was cheap and good.
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I think Americans have every reason to be worried about ISIS and the network of terrorist groups, because they have proven to be sophisticated and effective in wreaking violence and murder in many parts of the world, including in San Bernardino with their somehow connected radicalization of that couple there.
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I've lived this very dramatic life, with high points and terrible low points. Nothing has been ordinary, and I want to have the experience of the last breath. I want a little drama to it.
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The film of tomorrow appears to me as even more personal than an individual and autobiographical novel, like a confession, or a diary.
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If you asked people, "Do you like jazz?" they would be like, "not at all." But I think that if you're really putting yourself out there and really communicating, music can put you beyond people's preconceptions, beyond their playlist.
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I've known from a very early age that singing was what I was supposed to do. There was this unmistaken, undeniable passion within me to sing country music.
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I couldn't run from that desire to tell stories, that desire to tell stories about us, and about the people I loved.