Jonathan Franzen Quotes
I am not somebody who goes around saying men are superior or that male writers are superior. In fact, I really go out of my way to champion women's work that I think is not getting enough attention. None of that is ever enough. Because a villain is needed. It's like there's no way to make myself not male.
Quotes to Explore
-
Incendiary capitalism is carrying its out evil works more dangerously than ever, and is doing so in the increasingly dangerous neighborhood of the powder kegs that are the great European military powers.
-
Let a hundred flowers bloom.
-
To most boys with growing limbs and swelling sinews, physical activity is a natural instinct, and there is no need to drive them into the football field or the fives court: they go there because they like it, and there is no need to make games compulsory for them.
-
I believe that of all the things I have done, exciting though many of them have been, there's no doubt in my mind that the most worthwhile have been the establishing of schools and hospitals, and the rebuilding of monasteries in the mountains.
-
All the things that happen to people in the industry today, the actors, what they have to put up with, all the people wanting to know every single moment of their lives - I think it's really sad.
-
If England became a world power, it was because of the industrial revolution.
-
Do we really want to continue to push out the envelope of survival only to see other things crop up that we may not like?
-
I was in high school. A couple of my friends and I decided we had to be in a class together where we could fool around, and drama was it because we'd do improvs, beating each other up. They left a year later, and I stayed in and got a knack for it, and enjoyed the whole process.
-
I hate bell peppers, which is annoying because they technically have my name all over them.
-
As I matriculate my way down the field of life, I will never forget this moment and you wonderful people who helped make this day possible.
-
I almost laughed about the Machiavellian plans of the presidents of the United States.
-
Save for minor ailments and accident, my battalion is practically immune from sickness; colds come and go as a matter of course, sprains and cuts claim momentary attention, but otherwise the health of the battalion is perfect.
-
I'm not on Twitter, and I don't read the papers day to day, so I am somewhat protected. There's this weird separation between your private and public persona.
-
Things that came before, people and things and experiences – that does mean something to me. It doesn't mean I don't embrace the new, but I don't forget the past, either.
-
I've lived my life the way I wanted to, whether scaling the mountains, partying long into the night or having fun playing soccer.
-
I still owe a duty of loyalty to my clients and former clients, so I cannot specify which clients I did not especially find congenial, but the cause was the same.
-
Science is about unravelling nature.
-
Exposing your ignorance is how you get somebody to embrace you.
-
Ice-skating is a dangerous proposition and tennis is going to be something I'm probably not very good at.
-
When you're imagining peace, you can't kill anyone. That's good isn't it?
-
I'm used to doing independent film where the style is a lot more casual. With improvising, you obviously find so much out on the day - and in a way, I feel more comfortable doing that.
-
Power must be used, but it must be tempered by soul-searching and the recognition of our human capacity for error. That is the maxim that should inform our approach to every challenge, from reforming state government to engaging in foreign affairs.
-
In Hollywood you can't even smoke in a bar anymore and yet in the movies they're always showing people smoking. I don't get it.
-
I am not somebody who goes around saying men are superior or that male writers are superior. In fact, I really go out of my way to champion women's work that I think is not getting enough attention. None of that is ever enough. Because a villain is needed. It's like there's no way to make myself not male.
