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

• With the price of life these days, you've got to get everything for free you can.

  

  Carl Rogers
  • Life
  • Free
  • You

• 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

• Honestly, production when you first start can be difficult to wrap your head around.

  

  Flume
  • You
  • Difficult
  • Start

• Don't worry so much. Most of the things you worry about never end up happening.

  

  Dick Van Dyke
  • Up
  • Worry

• These are strong numbers, but they are not conclusive numbers.

  

  Elaine Chao
  • Strong
  • Numbers
  • Conclusive

• America is neither free nor brave, but a land of tight, iron-clanking little wills, everybody trying to put it over everybody else, and a land of men absolutely devoid of the real courage of trust, trust in life's sacred spontaneity. They can't trust life until they can control it.

  

  D. H. Lawrence
  • Life
  • Men
  • Real

• 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