Jonathan Franzen Quotes
I think cultures of conformity produce vast quantities of shame, both in people who simply can't conform and people who do conform, but underneath, they're not feeling conformist.
Quotes to Explore
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I let characters be human and flawed and relatable.
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I never smoked. I never drank and I never took drugs. The funny thing is, nothing is more boring, people like this. For me, it's OK. But most of my friends, at least they smoke and drink.
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I did not have a van, or wear Birkenstocks and tie-dyes.
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Leave Jesus on the cross. He's very happy there!
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There is no more respected or influential forum in the field of journalism than the New York Times. I look forward, with great anticipation, to contributing to its op-ed page.
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Age is just a number. If someone can perform at 45, who will stop that fellow from playing top-level cricket?
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I have been afraid of guns, I have sworn I would never use a gun on another person and so did not need one, and I have wanted to deny the existence of evil.
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I think that we, as a civilization, need to sit down and figure out how to solve political problems over a table, not over a battlefield.
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If you want to wear long hair or wear that dress, as long as you're not hurting yourself or anybody else, I say do it. If you want to go out and have a romantic, sexy affair, do it.
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I've got no respect for any young man who won't join the colors.
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The one thing about going from the audience to the stage in just three years is that you know how it feels to be down there.
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I remember, as a kid, I'd follow the rooster and the chickens and watch what type of grass they'd eat. And me and my friends would eat that grass, like that was our lunch.
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The poet speaks to all men of that other life of theirs that they have smothered and forgotten.
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Some of the craziest people I've met, in my life, are some of the most brilliant people I've met.
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No two wars are identical.
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Any psychologist will tell you that healing comes from honest confrontation with our injury or with our past. Whatever that thing is that has hurt us or traumatized us, until we face it head on, we will have issues moving forward in a healthy way.
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One knows less about one's own destiny than about anything else on earth.
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Writing for theatre is certainly different to writing an essay or any other kind of fiction or prose: it's physical. You're also telling a story, but sometimes the story isn't exactly what you intend; maybe you uncover something you had no idea you were going to uncover.
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The American people know something is wrong as far as energy is concerned. They don't think they are being told the truth.
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For some reason, people find me funny. It's quite hard to define why a thought is funny. It's even harder to define why a person would be funny. It's a word that I can't define at all. But whether I know quite what it is or not, I seem to be it.
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When I was a kid, people people would always say, 'Oh you look like Chilli from TLC.' It wasn't until I did 'Akeelah and the Bee' that people started saying I looked like Angela Bassett, but before then it was Chilli.
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I marvel every day at how people can excel - and that’s what really gets me going.
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I think cultures of conformity produce vast quantities of shame, both in people who simply can't conform and people who do conform, but underneath, they're not feeling conformist.
