Ha Jin Quotes
Without writing, what would I have become? Nothing. In China the individual used to be treated as a screw or a small cog in the revolutionary machine. I wanted to be a human being with a voice.
Quotes to Explore
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This life and this job and this position that I'm put in, it forces you to grow up quick. I definitely got dropped in the deep end.
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When a crime is committed, only the victim and the victim's close circle experience the event as pain, terror, death. To people hearing or reading about it, crime is a metaphor, a symbol of the ancient battles fought every day: evil versus good, chaos versus order.
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I've had the experience of having a book praised but then it doesn't sell. Or not praised but then it sells.
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The scene that has raised the most objections in 'The Interview' is at the very end, when Kim's head dissolves into flames. To me, it feels gratuitous.
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I was obsessed with the idea of going to college. And I took many years off after that, so I sort of missed the weird, crazy transition that was what making movies was in the nineties to what's happening now.
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I don't know what the instinct is, to save every report card, every half-sentence scribbled note, but my mother did it pretty effectively, and I've done it to a fare-thee-well.
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At some point, you're going to have to be willing to take a punch for your team. If your employees or your teammates will see that you're willing to do that, they are more likely to be loyal to you, and your team is more likely to function better.
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Not obsessed with particularly Nike, but sneakers in general. I love them.
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The art world is a very prissy little thing over in the corner, while the major cultural forces are being determined by techno science.
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It's very important not to lose your temper in a courtroom, or in anything else you're doing.
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I don't think Michael had to retire for us to get the spotlight, because when you win, it commands attention.
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My first paying job, when I was 15, I was a day camp counselor.
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Also, I walk and hike in several different nearby parks near our home several early mornings a week.
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A lost but happy dream may shed its light upon our waking hours, and the whole day may be infected with the gloom of a dreary or sorrowful one; yet of neither may we be able to recover a trace.
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I think that casting is probably the most important thing in television production.
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I am an arm hitter. When you snap the bat with your wrists just as you meet the ball, you give the bat tremendous speed for a few inches of its course. The speed with which the bat meets the ball is the thing that counts.
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I see myself as sexy. If you are comfortable with it, it can be very classy and appealing.
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I'm going to always bleed the red, white, and blue. I represented the U.S. in the Olympics; I love my country. But the U.S. fans will love you on Monday; if you lose, they'll hate you on Tuesday. If you win, it will be back to loving you on Wednesday.
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I say things other people wish they could say. I don't pick on people - I empower them.
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Any time you write history, you insert your opinion. You pick and choose what you are going to write about. I feel really happy not inserting myself. I spend too much of my life inserting myself. It's just great to let other people carry the narrative.
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Finally Germany's attack on Russia seemed to confirm that Russia was not shirking and was prepared to carry out a foreign policy with the risk of war with Germany.
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I just wanted to show people - maybe I'm wrong - that I can still really sing. I can sing better than I ever have before. My intonation is way better, my timing, my phrasing - there's a lot more expression; I feel it's a more lived-in, soulful voice.
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To be a writer is to connect and to play and to attempt to see clearly and understand. It astounds me regularly that feeling things deeply and writing them down is basically my job description.
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Without writing, what would I have become? Nothing. In China the individual used to be treated as a screw or a small cog in the revolutionary machine. I wanted to be a human being with a voice.
