Ishmael Reed Quotes
Quotes to Explore
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Imagination has brought mankind through the dark ages to its present state of civilization. Imagination led Columbus to discover America. Imagination led Franklin to discover electricity.
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The correctness and quality of what you write do not matter; the act of writing does.
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They who dream by day are cognizant of many things which escape those who dream only by night.
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I am a great procrastinator. When the writing is going really well, the laundry piles up.
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Many attempts have been made by writers on art and poetry to define beauty in the abstract, to express it in the most general terms, to find some universal formula for it.
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Arendt did have a certain snobbishness, though in some of her writing she expressed more democratic attitudes.
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Originality is not seen in single words or even in sentences. Originality is the sum total of a man's thinking or his writing.
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Tell your idea to whomever will listen, and you'll get valuable market feedback before writing a single line of code.
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When I began writing science fiction in the middle '60s, it seemed very easy to find ideas that took decades to percolate into the cultural consciousness; now the lead time seems more like eighteen months.
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Music has always been a huge passion in my life. I've just had such success with my acting that it's really been right alongside of it, and I've always been writing and playing and singing.
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I am writing something which I find satisfying and which I am prepared to put my name to as a composer.
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Do activities you're passionate about - which make your heart and soul feel perky - including things like working out, cooking, painting, writing, yoga, hiking, walking, swimming, being in nature, being around art, or reading inspiring books.
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Maybe I spent more time dwelling on emotions than some people, and maybe that's why I ended up writing.
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Imagination is an infinite resource that cannot be diminished by overuse or underuse.
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I must write it all out, at any cost. Writing is thinking. It is more than living, for it is being conscious of living.
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I started writing my own things when I was about 8.
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I am perfectly capable of writing things about myself that one doesn't discuss in polite company, but I was raised by people who said you don't discuss politics, you don't discuss religion, and you certainly don't discuss people's sex lives.
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I used to be opposed to collaboration, and that's probably why the music in the past wasn't as good. Writing with other people, especially the great writers that I've had the privilege to write with, it activates something in your mind that you wouldn't use alone.
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I made the mistake of writing something very, very short about Obama for this website that I write fiction for, and my father told me never do that again. And he was right. I have nothing to add to a political conversation because it's not my area.
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This is not a family of privilege by any stretch of the imagination. Our family is very low key.
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I hope my music sets up the platform for me to be able to do lots of things - to have a cowboy-boot line, maybe, or do a perfume or makeup deal.
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Letter to the committee in charge of the celebration of the centennial of the American Constitution. I have always regarded that Constitution as the most remarkable work known to me in modern times to have been produced by the human intellect, at a single stroke (so to speak), in its application to political affairs.
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Writing poetry is the hard manual labor of the imagination.
