Virginia Woolf Quotes
My own brain is to me the most unaccountable of machinery - always buzzing, humming, soaring roaring diving, and then buried in mud. And why? What's this passion for?
Quotes to Explore
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I was certainly a better actor after my five years in Hollywood. I had learned to be natural - never to exaggerate. I found I could act on the stage in just the same way as I had acted in a studio: using my ordinary voice, eliminating gestures, keeping everything extremely simple.
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I want to entertain people, but with some substance.
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It was just such a demeaning thing to do, being in silent movies. They'd call you up and tell you, 'Hey, jump off this building!' and they'd give you a hundred bucks, and you'd do it.
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The end of secrecy would be the end of the novel - especially the English novel. The English novel requires social secrecy, personal secrecy.
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A guitar riff played on a piano doesn't come close to the purity of it being played on a guitar but I faked it enough to get by.
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A zeal for the defence of their country led these heroes to the scene of action, though with a few men to attack a powerful army of experienced warriors.
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Only a few good leaders have paused to reflect seriously on being leaders.
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Most people are prisoners, thinking only about the future or living in the past. They are not in the present, and the present is where everything begins.
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Public opinion polls are rather like children in a garden, digging things up all the time to see how they're growing.
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I'm very involved in the writing on every level.
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I flunked my exam for university two times before I was accepted by what was considered my city's worst university, Hangzhou Teachers University. I was studying to be a high school English teacher. In my university, I was elected student chairman and later became chairman of the city's Students Federation.
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We all go to the theater and cinema to be inspired and moved on an emotional level, sometimes to laughter, sometimes to tears. Once I discovered that acting could have such an effect, I was sold. It has been one of the most rewarding discoveries I have ever made.
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When I remember my life in Russia it is in totally dark colours.
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These days we're all hyper-aware of the canonical way in which stories are supposed to play out - people are taught all about three-act scripting and where to put the reversal and all of that - and I think we can do more interesting narratives.
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Pain is never permanent.
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I want people to come away from my book with questions. Questions about virtue and goodness. Not answers.
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Wanted: a man who is larger than his calling, who considers it a low estimate of his occupation to value it merely as a means of getting a living.
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We sat down and read it for the first time and I thanked God under my breath, because they were all so good. And my leading ladies are both exceptional. I mean, everybody in the play. I could just go on all night about them.
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In contemporary art or movies, it makes perfect sense to be focused on the bleeding edge, on the new idea that's never been previously contemplated. But when we're discussing our goals, our passion and the way we interact with the culture, it seems to me that what works is significantly more important than what's new.
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You can't always see both sides of the story. Eventually, you have to pick a side and stick with it. No more equivocating. You have to commit.
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At noon, on the Fourth of July, 1826, while the Liberty Bell was again sounding its old message to the people of Philadelphia, the soul of Thomas Jefferson passed on; and a few hours later John Adams entered into rest, with the name of his old friend upon his lips.
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He's got tons of experience, and he's a very good holder. We felt like it was somebody we need to look at.
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I don't like telling really talented people who are amazing what they should do. I'm just going to let them be. It has to be complete freedom - creativity has to be complete freedom.
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My own brain is to me the most unaccountable of machinery - always buzzing, humming, soaring roaring diving, and then buried in mud. And why? What's this passion for?
