Jonathan Franzen Quotes
Quotes to Explore
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I was always interested in the kind of history they didn't teach you in school.
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The bottom line is, when you're in the Senate, you have more of a voice in the beginning than a new House member.
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The true character of ministry is a servants heart.
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I changed that system in Florida when I was the Speaker of the House - I was the Minority Leader; I saw for 16 years the way a power system works.
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Are you used to entertaining everyone with your tales of drama and conflict? Do you get attention and feel important every time you complain about how awful this man is? Stop settling for attention for the negative stuff in your life.
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Dance has always been my number one. I started when I was seven years old and I've had the opportunity to work with some really amazing artists.
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Let your watchword be order and your beacon beauty.
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To give pain is the tyranny; to make happy, the true empire of beauty.
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Movies have been my way to get out of my backyard. I'm trying to let people know that movies change people's lives.
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To destroy is always the first step in any creation.
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I would love to work with Matt Damon.
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I could have taken the easy life and just done classical, but I felt very strongly about the album, my first pop album, the first time that I'd fused so many influences. I was very proud when it was in the charts in 25 countries at once.
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Part of what's so tricky in a film that's two hours long is how many themes can you effectively explore.
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I have learned that to have a good friend is the purest of all God's gifts, for it is a love that has no exchange of payment.
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I'm not quite as cool as I would like to be, really.
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Growing up, I wasn't the most vocal kid in the world. I feel like I learned through observation, and usually, when you're watching things, you're not speaking. That sort of metastasized in a way that I began to participate less and less in the world.
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We live in an era of globalization and the era of the woman. Never in the history of the world have women been more in control of their destiny.
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Many people still believe that 'green' solutions are too expensive, but they are actually much cheaper when all of the costs to public health, social services, and waste handling are factored into the same equation.
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I avoid writing about sex out of a certainty that no matter how grown up and matter-of-fact I might try to be, there is a snickering yet nun-terrorized 12-year-old-boy inside me who would at some point be certain to grab the reins in his hairy palms.
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[Kurt] Vonnegut was a writer whose great gift was that he always seemed to be talking directly to you. He wasn't writing, he wasn't showing off, he was just telling you, nobody else, what it was like, what it was all about. That intimacy made him beloved. We can admire the art of John Updike or Philip Roth, but we love Vonnegut.
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I had a very big crush on Errol Flynn during 'Captain Blood.' I thought he was absolutely smashing for three solid years, but he never guessed. Then he had one on me but nothing came of it. I'm not going to regret that; it could have ruined my life.
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The idea is that if we can put our own people through something almost as bad as what they might have to go through if they were taken captive, they will inoculate themselves.
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I was never that interested in business, to be honest. I do the minimal amount of business as possible because I'm not actually interested in it as a thing. But some people are interested in it, and there's nothing wrong with that.
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The real pleasure in writing this, for me, was discovering how little you need.
