John Banville Quotes
I'm a little surprised that commercial success has arrived. I used to think that it was hopeless, that it would never happen.

Quotes to Explore
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I like the diversity that my children are exposed to every day.
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Let's make sure that we don't close down 37 of the 42 clinics in Texas and leave women with nowhere to go and put them in a situation where their health will be at risk, because what we do know is that closing down the ability to access that service unfortunately does not take the need away or women's confronting that issue away.
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I believe marriage is between a man and a woman. I am not in favor of gay marriage. But when you start playing around with constitutions, just to prohibit somebody who cares about another person, it just seems to me that's not what America's about. Usually, our constitutions expand liberties, they don't contract them.
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In recording, you're trying to make something work sonically - getting the right inflection on the right guitar sound - and maybe a part that would be musically great doesn't sound as cool.
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Acting is an odd lifestyle. You make deep bonds quickly and, though you move on, you go around on a loop and see people again.
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No critic writing about a film could say more than the film itself, although they do their best to make us think the oppposite.
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Actually, I didn't make the claim that Ruby follows the principle of least surprise. Someone felt the design of Ruby follows that philosophy, so they started saying that. I didn't bring that up, actually.
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To do more of a concert thing, it takes so much preparation. You don't just show up and wing it. You're putting countless hours in the studio, not just to write and produce stuff, but to come up with edits and special things for the show.
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The secret is to make sure your family comes before anything else, because no matter what you do you've got to come home.
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A lot of people have asked me whether I am a cynic or take a cynical view of politics and are often surprised when I say that I consider myself an optimist, but an optimist dressed in the robes of a realist.
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The first concert that my parents took me to was in this canyon in Saudi Arabia called Buttermilk Canyon. You sleep under the stars in the desert, and ex-pats - German, Swiss, Canadian, American - would play classical music that filled the whole canyon.
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Playing in Wembley Stadium in front of 83-some-thousand fans to win a gold medal was unreal.
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The great fun for me is these collaborators. I'm nothing by myself. Being with these people, whether it's the 'Homeland' cast or stage collaborators, they make you everything you are. They make you come to work. They make you be alive.
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We Belgians love when we can go to L.A. because the city is amazing and the climate is fantastic.
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Stay calm and aggressive.
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With TV, the pace is so fast, the scripts are coming at you, the directors are firing things at you, it's breathtaking.
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You might call me an accidental entrepreneur.
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Theater owners are exerting a lot of power over the studios to withhold access to content that people want to see. That's bad for consumers, that's bad for studios, and ultimately, I think it will be bad for theaters.
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I do have advice for any kid actors. Just go in there and own it like you own the job already. You just have to say, 'I'm going to get this. I'm going to get this.'
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Then it had not been merely the stars to which he had aspired on that June night. He came alive to me, delivered suddenly from the womb of his purposeless splendour.
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I think every family is dysfunctional, and some manage to control it better than others.
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My success is that I have these two great cultures behind me. One is Italian. I've continued to nurture that. But I also feel very American.
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It may be remarked in passing that success is an ugly thing. Men are deceived by its false resemblences to merit.
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I'm a little surprised that commercial success has arrived. I used to think that it was hopeless, that it would never happen.