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The hardest thing about being an unpublished writer is that there's always that voice in your head that asks if you're really being a fool.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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My message to kids who bully other kids is: You know it's wrong! What's really going on? Try not to make somebody else's life miserable because you are.
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The art of storytelling is reaching its end because the epic side of truth, wisdom, is dying out.
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I suppose I could have stayed home and baked cookies and had teas, but what I decided to do was to fulfill my profession which I entered before my husband was in public life.
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As a friend once pointed out, the crotchety dowagers do tend to get all the best lines. That may be why I have so many of them in my books.
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The best piece of advice that I remember probably on a daily basis is to accept everything about me that is different. That is what makes me special.
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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.
