John Edgar Wideman Quotes
The whole idea of spellbinding, of being an entertainer, being the center of the stage, making up words - that let me know that writing is nice.
Quotes to Explore
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The fact that we live in a world where black people have to strategize so they're not brutalized by police is insane.
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I have to protect myself because people think that because you come into 25 million homes every week, they know you. I walk the line between being gracious and being rude.
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I drive a car, like an adult. Not brilliantly. I'm not great.
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In China, we don't know about the swimming pool game, but we know about Marco Polo.
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Morality is the basis of things and truth is the substance of all morality.
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I doubt there's any government in the world that guides itself primarily by strategy or conceptual documents or worldview. Anybody who has the reins of power has to look at practical limitations and tradeoffs - the fact that you can focus at most on one or two things at a time, that resources are limited.
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People still kill in the name of religion. We haven't evolved to the point where we're one tribe called humans.
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I don't take pleasure in anyone's demise, really.
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I don't like baseball movies. I like movies about moral courage and people who are indomitable and courageous and right.
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My songs are very personal, which means they are fantastically therapeutic to write, but performing them night after night is emotionally draining.
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I think the American people are very smart in understanding our country is very trustworthy with nuclear weapons. We've had them from the beginning. But they have also been critical for keeping the world more at peace than it would have been if it hadn't been for the American nuclear umbrella.
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'Vanity' means worthlessness.
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You learn something out of everything, and you come to realize more than ever that we're all here for a certain space of time, and, and then it's going to be over, and you better make this count.
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Don't feel sorry for me. I've had a great life, great friends.
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I came up with this statistic that if a kid makes something himself, he's 90 to 95% likely to try it. And of course, then, if it's good, he'll eat it!
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Searches of al Qaeda sites in Afghanistan, undertaken since American-backed forces took control there, are not known to have turned up a significant cache of nuclear materials.
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Every time you treat an Iraqi disrespectfully, you are working for the enemy.
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Suppose that every prospective parent in the world stopped having children naturally, and instead produced clones of themselves. What would the world be like in another 20 or 30 years? The answer is: much like today. Cloning would only copy the genetic aspects of people who are already here.
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People in power need to control others in order to maintain power. One of the ways to do that is to take that which is threatening and demonize it.
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I don't even like old cars. I'd rather have a goddam horse. A horse is at least human, for God's sake.
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I think sexiness in most people - and this is going to sound superficial - is definitely something you don't plan.
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In New York the other day, there was a pro-Martha Stewart rally. Only four people showed up ... and three of them were made out of crepe paper!
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The whole idea of spellbinding, of being an entertainer, being the center of the stage, making up words - that let me know that writing is nice.
