Jonathan Franzen Quotes

I was unwise enough to actually mention this in public a few times, and in fact to point out that there were two versions of the book now. One of them had somebody else's name on the cover, one had my name on the cover.

Jonathan Franzen

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Quotes to Explore

• I don't think I'm as educated as Whoopi, so I'm lifting myself to her level. But you know, our view of the world, our view of what we can do, our sense of what it means to be here, are similar.

  

  Ted Danson
  • World
  • Myself
  • View

• We're dealing with sophisticated customers. What's most important to these women is individuality. I have to create things she'll want to wear, no matter who she is.

  

  Oscar de la Renta
  • Important
  • Women
  • She

• One of the things I wonder is whether it's good that the whole free model makes a lot of people listen to more of your music. I'm wondering if it devalues it, it becomes disposable, because you can get it so easily.

  

  Tablo
  • People
  • Good
  • Music

• The civil rights fight was a very important fight.

  

  Walter Cronkite
  • Important
  • Fight
  • Rights

• A stronger yuan could lead to greater Chinese asset accumulation in the U.S. and elsewhere.

  

  Gary Becker
  • Chinese
  • Stronger
  • Lead

• The gravest risks from al Qaeda combine its affinity for big targets and its announced desire for weapons of mass destruction.

  

  Barton Gellman
  • Desire
  • Destruction
  • Risks

• The most divisive issue facing New Yorkers in 2013 is stop and frisk, a tactic used by law enforcement to stop, question, and frisk people suspected of a crime.

  

  Sal Albanese
  • People
  • Law
  • Stop

• I was Irish; I was a woman. Yet night after night, bent over the table, I wrote in forms explored and sealed by English men hundreds of years before. I saw no contradiction.

  

  Eavan Boland
  • Men
  • Night
  • Woman

• I hold this to be the highest task for a bond between two people: that each protects the solitude of the other.

  

  Rainer Maria Rilke
  • People
  • Solitude
  • Bond

• An awful lot of Republicans, both in Washington and outside Washington, are resigned to leaving Obamacare in effect.

  

  Ted Cruz
  • Leaving
  • Washington
  • Outside

• Music changes so fast, and we're in a singles market.

  

  Bebe Rexha
  • Music
  • Changes
  • Fast

• I like heels and make-up.

  

  Victoria Pendleton
  • Up
  • Like
  • Makeup

• I mentioned the non-competitive spirit explicitly, because these days, excellence is a fashionable concept. But excellence is a competitive notion, and that is not what we are heading for: we are heading for perfection.

  

  Edsger Dijkstra
  • Excellence
  • Perfection
  • Days

• Education is all a matter of building bridges.

  

  Ralph Ellison
  • Education
  • Building
  • Bridges

• It seems that in the rush to be the first one to the story, the media overstates things. Not maliciously; I don't think they're intentionally misleading. But the credibility gap is already there, and in this rush to get to the story first, a lot of mainstream outlets just erode their credibility further.

  

  J. D. Vance
  • Think
  • Story
  • Media

• It's getting worse under Prime Minister Modi. The economic miracle has failed, to a degree, and people are reaching back to a kind of imagined Hindu past for a feeling of pride. And that feeling of pride necessarily comes from denying any kind of Muslim heritage. People my age seem to be becoming illiberal in a way that I'm surprised by.

  

  Karan Mahajan
  • People
  • Age
  • Past

• I think plays have nothing to do with one's own personal life. Not in my experience, anyway. The stuff of drama has to do, not with your subject matter, anyway, but with how you treat it. Drama includes pain, loss, regret - that's what drama is about!

  

  Harold Pinter
  • Life
  • Experience
  • Pain

• What I'm interested in is human beings alone.

  

  Paolo Sorrentino
  • Alone
  • Human
  • Human Beings

• One can not reflect in streaming water. Only those who know internal peace can give it to others.

  

  Lao Tzu
  • Peace
  • Water
  • Reflect

• When I start a book, I write a minimum of five pages every day, except weekends. If I'm going on a ski trip, I take my computer with me, get up at six, do my five pages, and then go skiing.

  

  Elizabeth George
  • Up
  • Book
  • Skiing

• I have a confession to make. For years, I earned a living - or a sort of living - writing negative book reviews.

  

  Lee Siegel
  • Writing
  • Book

• Every single day, I get up and I say, 'I am going to live and not die.'

  

  Tammy Faye Bakker
  • Live
  • Die
  • Day

• I've been 5-6 since I've been at least 17 or 18. I think somebody made a mistake on the measurements.

  

  Jose Altuve
  • Mistake

• I was unwise enough to actually mention this in public a few times, and in fact to point out that there were two versions of the book now. One of them had somebody else's name on the cover, one had my name on the cover.

  

  Jonathan Franzen
  • Book