Laila Lalami Quotes
Every book leaves its mark on you. It might leave you hungry for that kind of book or you may be satiated, and you're eager to read something else. It might send you in a completely different direction. I love that about reading.
Quotes to Explore
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I was making comebacks every single year. That makes it difficult mentally. It causes a lot of stress.
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I was raised Catholic in Rockford, Illinois. But I'm not a practicing Catholic anymore. Oh God, no.
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I've really enjoyed starting Quora from the beginning. It's really nice to have a new start to things.
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The other writer who had a very important early influence on me when I was about 17 was C.S. Lewis.
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I have odd thumbs that are extremely flexible. I can bend them quite far down the back side of my hand, basically the opposite side you'd even try to attempt bending your thumb. Because of that, I'm a very good thumb wrestler.
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When we read fiction, we want to get outside of ourselves and are able to see from a perspective we haven't seen through before. That can be very powerful.
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The hardest thing about being an unpublished writer is that there's always that voice in your head that asks if you're really being a fool. You might just really stink and not know it. You have to have a lot of blind faith in the process. You have to like it so much that you're going to do it anyway.
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Politics is a herd mentality. Politicians don't really lead. Politicians reflect what they think is consensus opinion.
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You are about to have your first experience with a Greek lunch. I will kill you if you pretend to like it.
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I refuse to confide and don't like it when people write about art.
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If you live in New York or L.A., and you're liberal, and you're playing to a liberal crowd, it's almost like a rally... it's not edgy.
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The drama and the trauma of the relationship you have when you're 16 can mirror the one you have when you're 26. Life repeats itself.
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I'm always looking to do things that are really different from each other.
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After the Soviet Union collapsed, people thought I wasn't funny anymore.
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I never had little brothers, so I was totally not used to hearing a lot of cussing at a young age! I learned what 'pull my finger' meant the hard way.
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Emotionally, I have no picture-book illustrated with memories of my first five years, but externally, I have impressions that possess a haunting vividness comparable only to the texture of dreams, when dreams are tumultuously alive.
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It's possible to look really cute and still be comfortable. You don't have to kill your feet to have a fashionable look.
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But I have fun with the fright, work with it. You have to - that's your timing, that beat of excitement. And when I go on stage, it's just like taking a step into heaven. Poof, you know? Poof - and there I am.
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Usually, if I hear songs, I record it on a Voice Memo first. I have to perfect it. I'm a big fan of delivery, and I want to make sure you're saying it right. I'm like, 'This has to be perfect when I do this.'
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I'm very careful about saying who would and wouldn't go to heaven. I don't know.
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Karma means that all actions have consequences. Grace means that in a moment of atonement -taking responsibility, making amends, asking for forgiveness - all karma is burned.
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Divorce is so common and accepted in America that beating myself up over it may sound ridiculous. But I was raised to believe that divorce wasn't an option; to me, divorce equaled failure. I wasn't able to change that equation until I found myself in the right relationship.
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Romance is one of the things that most countries share, and I've noticed how different communities have their own ways of singing about love and heartbreak.
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Every book leaves its mark on you. It might leave you hungry for that kind of book or you may be satiated, and you're eager to read something else. It might send you in a completely different direction. I love that about reading.
