John McGahern Quotes

I think technique can be taught but I think the only way to learn to write is to read, and I see writing and reading as completely related. One almost couldn't exist without the other.

John McGahern

• Writing
• Reading

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Quotes to Explore

• I was certainly a better actor after my five years in Hollywood. I had learned to be natural - never to exaggerate. I found I could act on the stage in just the same way as I had acted in a studio: using my ordinary voice, eliminating gestures, keeping everything extremely simple.

  

  Walter Huston
  • Simple
  • Better
  • Voice

• Disrespect toward Jesus, as we have seen all too often in our society, is very offensive to Muslims.

  

  Ibrahim Hooper
  • Society
  • Jesus
  • Disrespect

• I just want to sit in my room and write books.

  

  M. J. Rose
  • Want
  • Write
  • Room

• The four walls of paper are like a prison because every idea wants to spring out in all directions - everything is connected with everything else, sometimes more than others.

  

  Ted Nelson
  • Sometimes
  • Spring
  • Prison

• I never thought about having a daughter, and then I had a daughter, and it was a remarkable thing. It was very different from having a son and your response to it. With a son, it's much more complex. And it's probably because of my stuff in the past. With a daughter, I was surprised at how simple it is.

  

  Sam Shepard
  • Different
  • Past
  • Simple

• I feel like, growing up, I watched football, obviously, and you see great players, and as a fan, you want to watch the best you can possibly watch, and you want to see what's capable of being made.

  

  J. J. Watt
  • Up
  • Great
  • Growing

• Dance has always been my number one. I started when I was seven years old and I've had the opportunity to work with some really amazing artists.

  

  Caity Lotz
  • Work
  • Opportunity
  • Amazing

• In particular, I found praying very disturbing, like swimming with bricks tied to your feet. And yet I was drawn to it constantly.

  

  Jack Dee
  • Feet
  • Swimming
  • Bricks

• I'm in no way suggesting that my opinion matters more than anyone else's, of course, but the only thing that bothers me is apathy. People that sit out of the process and complain about it, or pretend that politics isn't a part of their everyday lives.

  

  Olivia Wilde
  • People
  • Opinion
  • Politics

• While I have never been more excited about SecondMarket, I have chosen to move on from day-to-day management of the private company/fund business so that I can focus 100% of my energy on our digital currency business.

  

  Barry Silbert
  • Business
  • Energy
  • Focus

• I am an artist, and I have the ability and the free will to choose the way the world will envision me.

  

  Lady Gaga
  • World
  • Artist
  • Ability

• I save everything. I have these carefully organized file boxes. Somewhere in there is a section of the 'New York Times' where I wrote 'The Border Guard' in the margin.

  

  J. D. Souther
  • New
  • Everything
  • New York

• I think who you are in school really sticks with you.

  

  Taylor Swift
  • School
  • Think
  • You

• I always loved Sam Cooke, because he seemed very versatile. He sang gospel, soul, blues, pop music.

  

  Aaron Neville
  • Music
  • Soul
  • Blues

• It's too many questions about what I'm going to do, why I'm retiring, and this and that. So I answer the same question, I don't know, a thousand times.

  

  Marat Safin
  • Why
  • Know
  • Question

• I remember once, we got an interview, and he said, 'Dad, these people are writing about me like I'm an adult. Don't they know I'm a kid?' I have never tried to encourage him to get a music image like other musicians have.

  

  Ornette Coleman
  • People
  • Music
  • Writing

• How do you give smart, accomplished, ambitious women the same opportunities as men to reach their goals? What about universal preschool and after-school programs? What about changing the corporate mind-set about the time commitment it takes to move up the ladder? What about having more husbands step up and take the major load?

  

  Gail Collins
  • Up
  • Time
  • Men

• Friendship needs no words - it is solitude delivered from the anguish of loneliness.

  

  Dag Hammarskjold
  • Words
  • Friendship
  • Solitude

• I'm never the kind of person to say what somebody else should do. I'm very much do what you feel to do.

  

  Andrew Hawkins
  • Person
  • Feel

• You write a book like that you're fond of over the years, then you see that happen to it, it's like pissing in your father's beer.

  

  Ernest Hemingway
  • Writing
  • Book
  • Father

• People always lean toward who's the best guitar player, who's the best singer? I don't see it that way. They're all the best, you know? They've all gotten your attention, you've admired them, you've tried to sing like them. That makes them the best, each and every one of 'em.

  

  Gregg Allman
  • People
  • Attention
  • Player

• I've always found it much more dangerous to fool with a man's mistress than his wife.

  

  Harold Robbins
  • Wife
  • Fool
  • Dangerous

• Why borrow if you are not in need of it? You must lend feet to the maximum of your bed only, and not to borrow except in the case of necessity.

  

  Sulaiman Abdul Aziz Al Rajhi
  • Necessity
  • Case
  • Borrow

• I think technique can be taught but I think the only way to learn to write is to read, and I see writing and reading as completely related. One almost couldn't exist without the other.

  

  John McGahern
  • Writing
  • Reading