W. Somerset Maugham Quotes
The worst of having so much tact was that you never quite knew whether other people were acting naturally or being tactful too. [The human element]
Quotes to Explore
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Age for me is just a number.
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I don't think anyone should write their autobiography until after they're dead.
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In order to lead a country or a company, you've got to get everybody on the same page and you've got to be able to have a vision of where you're going. America can't have a vision of health care for everybody, green economy, regulations - can't have a bunch of piece-meal activities. It's got to have a vision.
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I started making music for fun, but I had two parents who were very much in the business. I didn't run around trying to get the spotlight. I was very shy. I never sang in front of people 'til I was about 17 years old.
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I plan to go to university - but for sure, acting is what I want to do. It's a hard business, but I believe in my heart that I'll be doing it for a very long time.
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The kids from the streets don't want preaching or messages. They want what they can identify with. They want to hear about the reality of their situation, not fairy tales. They don't care if it's ugly; they just want reality.
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I'm all over the place, and I consider myself a bit of a scrounger: 'What will I do next, so I'm not broke?'
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I would probably do anything with David Mamet. He's so great. I just love his writing.
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I take a certain pride in having maintained a reputation for fast copy throughout my newspaper career. Fast-breaking stories left my typewriter in a hurry. Not great literature, perhaps, but fast, and usually accurate.
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Leaving sex to the feminists is like letting your dog vacation at the taxidermist.
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Once you realize just the sort of glut of books that exists out there, it does become incumbent on you not to add to it unless you have a damn good reason.
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I'm vehemently against population transfer. I'm against expelling anyone from his house, ever - whether it be a Jew or an Arab.
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St. Louis sprawls where mighty rivers meet - as broad as Philadelphia, but three stories high instead of two, with wider streets and dirtier atmosphere, over the dull-brown of wide, calm rivers. The city overflows into the valleys of Illinois and lies there, writhing under its grimy cloud.
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I love being a mother. I think it's the best thing I've ever done, and I personally feel that it's had a very positive effect on my work. I think it's an encouraging force for creativity, it feeds creativity - it did for me, certainly.
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Leaks are always bad news.
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It's morally wrong to allow a sucker to keep his money.
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Complex tasks are often better handled in the back of our mind, and that's often true of creative tasks - when you have something complex to deal with in writing or research or responding to an email. I'll start working, put it aside, and sometimes I'll wake up the next morning with a solution, or I'll find one when I exercise.
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So many people love sci-fi, and they're so loyal.
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I came out the box and for seven years I had a huge career. And then it's done, it's dumped. But I ain't gone, and I refuse to be gone.
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Whatever you see - any good results - are all from the pressure.
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America is the only nation in the world based on an idea - freedom and self-government - so if we don't understand that idea and what sacrifices were made to win that freedom and keep it for over two centuries, how can we possibly continue to keep it?
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As a pop star, you don't have to be that smart for people to think you're intelligent.
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What to say? That the end of love is a haunting. A haunting of dreams. A haunting of silence. Haunted by ghosts it is easy to become a ghost. Life ebbs. The pulse is too faint. Nothing stirs you. Some people approve of this and call it healing. It is not healing. A dead body feels no pain.
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The worst of having so much tact was that you never quite knew whether other people were acting naturally or being tactful too. [The human element]
