Geoff Dyer Quotes

I'm never happier when writing than when I see gags taking shape - ideally, gags at my own expense. What I like is the shuttling back and forth, serious into comedy and vice-versa, ideally, both in the same sentence, or even simultaneously. The best jokes are always ideas in miniature.

Geoff Dyer

• Writing
• Comedy
• Serious

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Quotes to Explore

• We're all concerned about sports rights being so expensive. Obviously, we are funded by the licence fee payers, so it's not always easy to compete with those who can get greater revenue.

  

  Gary Lineker
  • Sports
  • Easy
  • Rights

• Nuclear power plants must be prepared to withstand everything from earthquakes to tsunamis, from fires to floods to acts of terrorism.

  

  Ban Ki-moon
  • Power
  • Plants
  • Be Prepared

• Throughout history, self-styled arbiters have taken it upon themselves to decide the question of what can or cannot be the legitimate purview of art.

  

  Barbara Goldsmith
  • Art
  • History
  • Question

• I tweeted once, and I still stick to this, that I would love to marry a Croatian girl. I want my children to speak Croatian first, and for them to do that, we need someone who speaks very good Croatian.

  

  Nathaniel Buzolic
  • Children
  • Want
  • Girl

• I learned so much in Zimbabwe, in particular about the need for humility in our ambition to extend mental health care in countries where there were very few psychiatrists and where the local culture harboured very different views about mental illness and healing. These experiences have profoundly influenced my thinking.

  

  Vikram Patel
  • Different
  • Thinking
  • Culture

• I almost laughed about the Machiavellian plans of the presidents of the United States.

  

  Fidel Castro
  • United States
  • Plans
  • Almost

• People think I'm just an old Luddite, but that's untrue. I buy every new gizmo as it comes out, play with it until I understand how it works, and then give it away.

  

  Felix Dennis
  • People
  • Think
  • Understand

• Control of a company does not carry with it the ability to control the price of its stock.

  

  J. Paul Getty
  • Control
  • Company
  • Stock

• No offense to music - thank you for Entertainer of the Year and all that stuff. But if you're a father or a mother, there's nothing that beats being a parent, and that's the best time of my life right there.

  

  Garth Brooks
  • Life
  • Time
  • Music

• 'The Sound of Things Falling' may be a page turner, but it's also a deep meditation on fate and death. Even in translation, the superb quality of Vasquez's prose is evident, captured in Anne McLean's idiomatic English version. All the novel's characters are well imagined, original and rounded.

  

  Edmund White
  • May
  • Death
  • Quality

• To understand how Republicans lost the African American vote, we must first understand how we won the African American vote.

  

  Rand Paul
  • American
  • Lost
  • Vote

• Frankly speaking, it's only the script that matters to me the most. If I like the script, then I just commit to myself and go ahead with it. But I also look at the commitment and confidence of the director of the film because it's him who will shape the film.

  

  Vidya Balan
  • Film
  • Confidence
  • Commitment

• The E.U. intends to be one of the biggest humanitarian donors on the Syrian crisis.

  

  Federica Mogherini
  • Crisis
  • Humanitarian
  • Syrian

• This country-right-or-wrong business is getting a little out-of-date.. History is moving pretty quickly these days and the heroes and villains keep on changing parts.

  

  Ian Fleming
  • Country
  • Business
  • History

• Anyone who thus looks up has some chance of becoming worthy to be looked up to in turn.

  

  Irving Babbitt
  • Up
  • Chance
  • Looks

• I think I surprise some people because a lot of the time, I roll out of bed and go to school, and it's like I don't wear anything that interesting sometimes.

  

  Tavi Gevinson
  • People
  • Time
  • School

• Life is a series of steps. Things are done gradually. Once in a while there is a giant step, but most of the time we are taking small, seemingly insignificant steps on the stairway of life.

  

  Ralph Ransom
  • Life
  • Time
  • Done

• I'm absolutely convinced that the very small global warming we are experiencing is the result of natural causes. It's a cyclical phenomenon in the history of the Earth. The role of man is very small, almost negligible.

  

  Vaclav Klaus
  • History
  • Man
  • Earth

• I do lead a careful diet, I don't overeat, I have fruit and vegetables every day and I drink a lot of water. And my darling wife keeps me so young it is ridiculous. Being with her is an inspiration as well.

  

  Bruce Forsyth
  • Wife
  • Water
  • Inspiration

• When I read period material - and it ain't on Google - I am always alert for that one incredible detail. I'll read a whole book and get three words out of it, but they'll be three really good words.

  

  Alan Furst
  • Good
  • Book
  • Words

• And for all I can tell, the only difference is that what many see we call a real thing, and what only one sees we call a dream. But things that many see may have no taste or moment in them at all, and things that are shown only to one may be spears and water-spouts of truth from the very depth of truth.

  

  C. S. Lewis
  • Real
  • May
  • Truth

• A best-seller was a book which somehow sold well because it was selling well.

  

  Daniel J. Boorstin
  • Book

• He may not enter anywhere at the first, unless there be some one of the household who bid him to come, though afterwards he can come as he please.

  

  Bram Stoker
  • May

• I'm never happier when writing than when I see gags taking shape - ideally, gags at my own expense. What I like is the shuttling back and forth, serious into comedy and vice-versa, ideally, both in the same sentence, or even simultaneously. The best jokes are always ideas in miniature.

  

  Geoff Dyer
  • Writing
  • Comedy
  • Serious