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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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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Whatever you see - any good results - are all from the pressure.
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When you catch other people with a sound like yours, that's when you know you did something.
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I have written two nonfiction books, I'm embarrassed to say.
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'Amazing Grace' is not a book of interviews or onetime snapshots. It's a memoir of a journey that took me into a place I had never been and took over two years of my life. I don't think the people in this book would have said the things to me that they did if they perceived me as a reporter.
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You don't want people thinking you're a cheat just because you're really fast and have broken the world record by a second.
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Christians need to take the lead in educating people that children are gifts, as my autistic grandson most surely is. By going down the path we're currently on, we might one day get rid of genetic diseases, but only at the cost of our own humanity.
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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]
