Peter Ackroyd Quotes
None of my books has been ever in my head; after they're finished, they go. It's like being a sort of medium; you just grab it when it's there then just release it when it's time to go. There's a lot of instinct, not planning.
Quotes to Explore
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I had read Plato and Kant, but I had forgotten it.
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Good comedy is ageless.
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I hadn't learned to read by third grade, which wasn't unusual for some kids. I knew something was wrong because I couldn't see or understand the words the way the other kids did. I wasn't the least bit bothered - until I was sent back to the second-grade classroom for reading help after school.
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When the simple word processors came in, writing became crisper, less dense - just because of the way we could instantly edit on the screen. Now the ability to mash up words and pictures and links and songs and tweets is what matters. I can't imagine what writing will be like in 2154.
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I personally don't like to rehearse so much. I really sort of trust my instinct.
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Retiring for good wasn't difficult. I knew at the time it was right. I was no longer capable of achieving the standards I'd set myself and there was no light at the end of the tunnel.
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We are so Post-Modern that we don't realize how Post-Modern we are anymore.
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All writers are the same - they forget a thousand good reviews and remember one bad one.
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I always loved all kinds of music. I would watch musicals a lot as a kid, on TV, watch the Fred Astaire movies. I'd watch 'The Wizard of Oz.' I was a big Jerry Lewis fan, and they'd have these big bands and someone singing - some siren, or some guy singing some gorgeous song. I was always enamored of that style of music.
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In 1995, I founded a storytelling program for children called Neighborhood Bridges in collaboration with the Children's Theatre Company of Minneapolis, which is 15 elementary schools in the Twin Cities.
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We are not interested in cloning the Michael Jordans and the Michael Jacksons of this world. The rich and the famous don't participate in this.
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I'm an entrepreneur, a businessman. I've got a lot of money, and that doesn't go very well with the whole 'starving artist in a garret' routine.
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Writing is only the frosting on my cake. I'm whole without it.
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Since the end of the Cold War, Soviet aggression had been replaced by a number of particularly venomous threats, from Timothy McVeigh to Osama bin Laden.
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So being two different people in one day unnerved me to no end.
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There are lines that I know are going to get a belly laugh, but after a few shows I get sick of hearing myself say them so I drop them.
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Every generation is obsessed with the decade before they were born.
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When the EPA says that property owners, farmers, and livestock producers must stomach higher costs, longer delays, and bigger headaches, it's up to Congress to put up a roadblock.
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I can live without fast food.
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I'm pretty professional. I'm very aware when I'm not playing well and what I need to improve. I'm pretty motivated to fix things. There are guys out there who are not realistic; they don't like to take blame for certain things they don't do well. That's the nature of doubles sometimes: it's easy to find faults in your partner.
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'The New World Haggadah' is meant for American Jews in the 21st century.
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My mom used to call me 'Oprah' because I was always in a corner crying with somebody. I've always been attracted to storytelling around women's lives.
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When I write songs, I like to write lyrics first, and I think that's different from a lot of singer-songwriters. But I heard Sammy Cahn was asked what comes first, the lyrics or the music, and he said, 'The paycheck.'
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None of my books has been ever in my head; after they're finished, they go. It's like being a sort of medium; you just grab it when it's there then just release it when it's time to go. There's a lot of instinct, not planning.
