Laila Lalami Quotes
There are writers I return to no matter what I'm working on, writers like the South African J.M. Coetzee. He has an ability to make you feel that he is writing for you alone.

Quotes to Explore
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A healthy economics has got to have both conceptual, theoretical research and applied, empirical research.
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Magneto wants to cope with the difficulties thrust upon him by society and by his own nature.
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The fact that we live in a world where black people have to strategize so they're not brutalized by police is insane.
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I just like to stay a little quiet and just do my own thing. If I win a little more, I think I'll get a little bit more attention.
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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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There were a lot of times people would do my makeup, and it would be awful, and I would be orange. Nothing matched. So then you learn how to do your own makeup. I watched a lot of YouTube videos when I was little and taught myself.
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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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In the Seventies, a lot of executions via electric chair failed because of technical problems. Seed tells the true story of someone who survived and sought revenge. They buried him alive to make it seem he was dead.
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Life isn't about quantity, it's about quality.
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I got into politics because businessmen should be spending your money.
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It gets pretty boring when all you are is the support system for a male character.
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Not obsessed with particularly Nike, but sneakers in general. I love them.
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Many people think fairy tales and retellings of fairy tales are only for children, but I'm not the only writer to take an old tale and retell it for a sophisticated adult audience.
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A new reader shouldn't be able to find you in your work, though someone who's read more may begin to.
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I've used a cellphone exactly twice. Things move on. The world changes. And I don't know it.
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For a writer, they say write what you know. As a performer, you find it in yourself, in your heart. You relate to the character. You try to live it, try to have it be real for you.
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I think, especially in pop culture, we're brought up to think that a normal pop star is this pretty, well-kept-together girl.
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Conflict is very much a state of mind. If you're not in that state of mind, it doesn't bother you.
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I came along with that crowd of singer-songwriters who were able to make their own statements in such a personal way that it changed the industry: Laura Nyro, Joni Mitchell, Bob Dylan, Sly and the Family Stone.
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In terms of people that I know, my grandmother and my mother are huge influences on my writing life because they are both massively supportive and always have been of my career.
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It's very easy to approach a character like that - a so-called strong woman who overcomes the odds - and give a one-note performance, playing that strength alone. Strength is only one thing a person has.
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If I'm not writing songs about things I've actually been through, it ruins the idea of making music to me.
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Easy reading requires hard writing.
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There are writers I return to no matter what I'm working on, writers like the South African J.M. Coetzee. He has an ability to make you feel that he is writing for you alone.