John Edgar Wideman Quotes
Quotes to Explore
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My inspiration for writing is all the wonderful books that I read as a child and that I still read. I think that for those of us who write, when we find a wonderful book written by someone else, we don't really get jealous, we get inspired, and that's kind of the mark of what a good writer is.
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I don't see myself as ever being like anybody else.
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With every bathroom renovation, there are three areas that I focus on: budget, function and style.
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This field is not necessarily glamorous, nor does it often produce immediate results, but it seeks to increase our basic understanding of living processes.
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There is no point in pointing fingers because there are three fingers pointing back at you.
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You don't actually have control of the position people want you to be in. If they say, 'You king of the blacks,' you're king of the blacks - whether you like it or not.
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Public opinion polls are rather like children in a garden, digging things up all the time to see how they're growing.
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Sometimes it takes dealing with a disability - the trauma, the relearning, the months of rehabilitation therapy - to uncover our true abilities and how we can put them to work for us in ways we may have never imagined.
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And if you don't have your ears open, you're not going to be able to figure out what you should be doing.
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I didn't start off as a journalist; I started off as a poet. My ambition was to practise poetry. Then I found journalism, but that other voice never fled from me.
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In my home country, there was a little shop with old books, but it was really in the countryside. You couldn't find English books. I found this very avant-garde American art book that had information about Georgia O'Keeffe. I was very much impressed by her.
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Americanism demands loyalty to the teacher and respect for his lesson.
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I think about architecture all the time. That's the problem. But I've always been like that. I dream it sometimes.
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I know it's a cliche, but I see myself as a citizen of the world. I was brought up in Switzerland by German and Turkish parents but I've very much grown up in San Francisco. I have a European sense of aesthetic, but I'm also deeply steeped in the notion of change and entrepreneurship that is associated with Silicon Valley.
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To try to fashion something from suffering, to relish our triumphs, and to endure defeats without resentment: all that is compatible with the faith of a heretic.
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I started performing opera when I was 10 years old. I didn't perform as Zola Jesus until I was probably 18.
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It pays to be obvious, especially if you have a reputation for subtlety.
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Where there is sorrow there is holy ground.
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I'm over this thing of being champion, having the title.
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The burning of rebellious thoughts in the little breast, of internal hatred and opposition, could not long go on without slight whiffs of external smoke, such as mark the course of subterranean fire.
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I don't want to spread myself so thin that I achieve nothing.
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Musically, what happened was this: I retired twice. I retired after The Black Crowes, and I retired after Brand New Immortals. Then, we started buying real estate, which really took up my time. I was busy. I was still teaching yoga, but I was mostly busy running business, and I was fine. I was happy.
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As I let go of the past, the past let go of me.
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Books were my Internet, my TV, my movies all rolled into one.
