Harry Mathews Quotes
Well, I had this little notion - I started writing when I was eleven, writing poetry. I was passionately addicted to it; it was my great refuge through adolescence.
Quotes to Explore
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It is my own firm belief that the strength of the soul grows in proportion as you subdue the flesh.
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Love is only a dirty trick played on us to achieve continuation of the species.
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When I dealt with set theory, I could never make it be the music that I wanted.
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Master of the universe is every man's potential insight, cosmic potential.
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When I write, I write for myself, and I have high expectations... so I'm just trying to meet those. I'm not going to distract myself with other people's expectations.
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Vikings were pretty brutal, but also very educated people. They were salesmen, businessmen who started raiding when business wasn't good. That's why they had such great boats.
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The people have nothing to fear of me; people have never feared me.
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Nothing is so boring as having to keep up a deception.
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My mother always told me not to handle a buffalo by its tail, but always catch it by its horns. And I have used that lesson in everything in my life, including the Railways.
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I don't have bad taste; I have no taste. I wear a lot of the things I wore in high school, but not the cowl-neck sweaters. I was never tall, and I am the same size, so I still wear a lot of those clothes.
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We shared our father with the world.
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I just don't think I've ever been comfortable at public functions and selling myself as an entity.
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You have to love your children unselfishly. That's hard. But it's the only way.
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It's not refreshing where there is confusion or any kind of discomfort in a group that has to work that closely together.
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L.A. is my office. I come here for work and work only.
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In the 1920s, big names in the Arab world spoke of Scheherazade as an example for intellectuals fighting for their rights. She was a fighter for the right of free expression.
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Better were it to be unborn than ill-bred.
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To be of no church is dangerous. Religion, of which the rewards are distant, and which is animated only by faith and hope, will glide by degrees out of the mind unless it be invigorated and reimpressed by external ordinances, by stated calls to worship, and the salutary influence of example.
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I just like a good story. I want the story to be good, and I want the character to be different than the last one I played. That's not always possible, but that's what I want.
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The beauty of a finely worked object points to the beauty of the craftsmanship. The beauty of the craftsmanship points to the beauty of the name which was the source of the craftsmanship. The beauty of the name of the craftsman's art points to the beauty of the craftsman's attributes manifested in that art.
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If you've been on top of the food chain in the Armed Forces, that's who you are. You're used to dealing with your life in a particular way.
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The anorexic body is held in the grip of will alone; its meaning is far from stable. What it says - 'Notice me, feed me, mother me' - is not what it means, for such attentions constitute an agonising test of that will, and also threaten to return the body to the dreaded 'normality' it has been such ecstasy to escape.
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Collect impressions. Don’t be in a hurry to write them down. Because that’s something music can do better than painting: it can centralise variations of colour and light within a single picture - a truth generally ignored, obvious as it is.
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Well, I had this little notion - I started writing when I was eleven, writing poetry. I was passionately addicted to it; it was my great refuge through adolescence.
