Umberto Eco Quotes

The book is like the spoon, scissors, the hammer, the wheel. Once invented, it cannot be improved. You cannot make a spoon that is better than a spoon... The book has been thoroughly tested, and it's very hard to see how it could be improved on for its current purposes.

Umberto Eco

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Quotes to Explore

• Speaking of trust, ever since I wrote this book, 'Liespotting,' no one wants to meet me in person anymore - no, no, no, no, no. They say, 'It's okay. We'll email you.' I can't even get a coffee date at Starbucks. My husband's like, 'Honey, deception? Maybe you could have focused on cooking. How about French cooking?'

  

  Pamela Meyer
  • Book
  • Trust
  • Husband

• I think the show does better with newsmakers and politicians than it does with actors.

  

  Samantha Bee
  • Think
  • Better
  • Politicians

• Everyone has something to sell. The greatest thing you can ever sell is an idea or talent.

  

  T.I.
  • You
  • Talent
  • Greatest

• Never go out to meet trouble. If you just sit still, nine cases out of ten, someone will intercept it before it reaches you.

  

  Calvin Coolidge
  • You
  • Trouble
  • Go

• You can only govern men by serving them. The rule is without exception.

  

  Victor Kiam
  • Men
  • You
  • Serving

• What I'm trying to do is to write a story. If you take something from it, that's wonderful; if you don't, that's wonderful as well.

  

  Malorie Blackman
  • Trying
  • You
  • Story

• Where I'm from, you're a square if you go to church or if you decide to read the Koran or Bible.

  

  Lamar Odom
  • You
  • Church
  • Bible

• The world can be very small. That's why you have to be very careful, whoever you meet.

  

  Bebe Rexha
  • World
  • Why
  • You

• Women have to be active listeners and interrupters - but when you interrupt, you have to know what you are talking about.

  

  Madeleine Albright
  • Women
  • You
  • Know

• I'm not going to break up my family, not for a book.

  

  Ta-Nehisi Coates
  • Up
  • Family
  • Book

• If you publish something in traditional media, it's one-way. With social media, we get all this info coming back from those who read our posts.

  

  Ma Jun
  • You
  • Media
  • Social Media

• Music is really nothing if you think about it - it only becomes something when somebody listens to it. And then it becomes uncontrollable.

  

  Gael Garcia Bernal
  • Music
  • Think
  • You

• Read over your compositions, and when you meet a passage which you think is particularly fine, strike it out.

  

  Samuel Johnson
  • Think
  • You
  • Meet

• When you write as a woman, there's this feeling there's going to be a softness.

  

  Karin Slaughter
  • Feeling
  • You
  • Woman

• What I hate in fiction is when the author knows better than the characters what they should do.

  

  Pat Barker
  • Hate
  • Better
  • Author

• Excellence is the gradual result of always striving to do better.

  

  Pat Riley
  • Better
  • Excellence
  • Striving

• That's the great thing about entering a convent: There are things that you simply can't do, so you don't have to worry about them.

  

  Lars von Trier
  • Great
  • You
  • Worry

• I know from an editor's point of view or a publisher's point of view it's easier to slot me into a particular niche. But I know that I'd be bored unless I wrote a book that in some senses was a challenge.

  

  Vikram Seth
  • Book
  • Me
  • Challenge

• I shall state silences more competently than ever a better man spangled the butterflies of vertigo.

  

  Samuel Beckett
  • Man
  • Better
  • More

• I influence anybody who is able to get through the chaos of my first impression.

  

  Gary Vaynerchuk
  • First
  • Influence
  • Chaos

• I went through a low phase for two years when I had a string of flops. At that time, I even felt that I was in the wrong profession and that I should leave acting. But thankfully, I utilised that time to introspect and went on a self-exploration trip. I did theatre in between, and it helped grow the fire within me.

  

  Randeep Hooda
  • Time
  • Fire
  • Theatre

• Every idea has its time.

  

  Vicente Fox
  • Time
  • Idea
  • Every

• We have to look at the figures of speech a writer uses, his images and symbols, to realize that underneath all the complexity of human life that uneasy stare at an alien nature is still haunting us, and the problem of surmounting it still with us.

  

  Northrop Frye
  • Writing
  • Problem
  • Realizing

• The book is like the spoon, scissors, the hammer, the wheel. Once invented, it cannot be improved. You cannot make a spoon that is better than a spoon... The book has been thoroughly tested, and it's very hard to see how it could be improved on for its current purposes.

  

  Umberto Eco
  • Book
  • You
  • Better