John Ortberg Quotes
Quotes to Explore
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I'm good at description and imparting flow to a story, but I don't necessarily understand the value of long scenes.
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When I lead essay workshops, I ask students to come up with at least five topics, which they'll narrow down to one. The winning idea should be the story the student is most excited to tell because it honestly reflects his or her best self.
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But, I swear, they're turning Donna into Annie Hall this season. More ties. More suits. But they're also keeping her really motivated, ya know? Like, wanting to be a rock journalist. Wanting to be the first woman president.
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I don't think the Taliban will ever come back to take Afghanistan, no.
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One of the most tragic things I know about human nature is that all of us tend to put off living. We are all dreaming of some magical rose garden over the horizon instead of enjoying the roses that are blooming outside our windows today.
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I've always enjoyed making people laugh. But in order for me to be funny, I have to get ticked off about something.
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There's no handbook for parenting. So you walk a very fine line as a parent because you are civilizing these raw things. They will tip the coffee over and finger-paint on the table. At some point, you have to say, 'We're gonna have to clean that up because you don't paint with coffee on a table.'
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I have a great office.
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Reality TV is easier to digest if it comes in small amounts.
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In the U.S., diversity is a politically correct slogan. In India, it is a historical fact. Much as we in the West may resent it, India has a lot to teach us when it comes to religious tolerance.
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I would love to work with Matt Damon.
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I'm a benefit to the city. I'm not a detriment.
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I grew up with a tribe of amazing women, but certainly my mother and my godmother really modeled women as actors.
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I've been asked to interview for many managing jobs, and I never said yes because I was never serious about it, and I thought it would be wrong to go through that process.
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China may censor YouTube. China may censor Twitter. They won't be able to censor Bitcoin. There's no central authority. There's no one you can go to and say, 'We're going to turn Bitcoin off.'
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I like my hands. They do most of the talking.
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I fight fairly, and in good faith.
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There are people who want me to do a cologne. They want to call it 'Patrick.' I was offered a fortune to make exercise videos. Posters, all kinds of stuff – something like $10 million worth. It's insanity. I'm not going to do any of it.
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It got so bad that by the time I was graduated, the only reading I did was in order to get the grade and the only writing I did was in order to get the grade.
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Let's just say I decided that while my son is young I don't want to do projects that would take me away for months.
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Mark Twain had a way of telling stories that shifts your consciousness away from labels.
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Actually, I was having dinner with Michael (Stipe, of R.E.M.) when our second album went platinum, which up until that point was the highest success we'd ever had. And he turned to me during dinner and said, 'Welcome to the deep waters, kid.' I'll never forget that.
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I went on a cross-country trip with three buddies to find out what our generation is about. I bought a video camera, started shooting, learned as I went, and ended up with 'Our Time,' a feature-length documentary about what it's like to be young in America. I was hooked.
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Nobody lives up to the norms that God had in mind when he first created human beings.
