Michael Cunningham Quotes
I suspect any serious reader has a first great book, just the way anybody has a first kiss.

Quotes to Explore
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The poem 'What Teachers Make' is not without its detractors. This one person wrote to me and said: 'Gee, Mr. Mali. You don't possibly have a teacher – God complex, do you?' And that was the first time I'd ever heard of that expression. So, yeah, I'm sure I have a teacher – God complex.
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I never was for telephones. Just don't like them, that's all. Anybody wants to talk to you, they can come to see you.
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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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Through the years of experience I have found that air offers less resistance than dirt.
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I'm to a point now where you want to play for your fans and all that, but I'm playing for the guys in that huddle. I'm playing for the guys in that locker room.
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I'm not the girl next door.
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On the summit of Everest, I had a feeling of great satisfaction to be first there.
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I'll work out with my trainer twice a week, and I'll do some Power Pilates and might throw in some yoga. I love to row also. The main thing for me is just to move every single day for 30 minutes to an hour.
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English is necessary as at present original works of science are in English. I believe that in two decades times original works of science will start coming out in our languages. Then we can move over like the Japanese.
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The mystery at the center of 'Burial Rites' is not who killed whom on the night of March 13, 1828. It is the mystery each of us encounters: Can we every truly know another? Can we ever truly know ourselves?
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Oh, yes; you Virginians shed barrels of perspiration while standing off at a distance and superintending the work your slaves do for you. It is different with us. Here it is every fellow for himself, or he doesn't get there.
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There is the love and marriage and family kind of happiness, which is exceedingly boring to describe but nonetheless is important to have and dreadful not to have.
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Remember this son, if you forget everything else. A poet is a musician who can’t sing. Words have to find a man’s mind before they can touch his heart. And, some men’s minds are woeful small targets. Music touches their hearts directly, no matter how small or stubborn the mind of the man who listens.
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This first stage of the life of the whole race is savagery, raw nature:… a condition in which man enjoys the most exquisite goods, equality and freedom, in full abundance, and would also enjoy them forever, if he would follow the hint of nature and understand the art of not abusing his powers and preventing the outbreak of his excessive passions.
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When sparrows build and the leaves break forth, My old sorrow wakes and cries.
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I'm actually introverted and shy.
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I love discussing the ins and outs of the collaborative nature of writing.
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I do actually believe in love. I can't say that I'm 100 percent successful in that department, but I think it's one of the few worthwhile human experiences. It's cooler than anything I can think of right now.
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I've lost bags all over the world and had cases end up in London, Frankfurt, Los Angeles and Miami.
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Once you accept that we're all imperfect, it's the most liberating thing in the world. Then you can go around making mistakes and saying the wrong thing and tripping over on the street and all that and not feel worried.
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Eternity: a moment standing still for ever.
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I think I wrote 'The Trysting Place' in about three weeks. But it was inexperience that made me have to do that. I didn't feel good about the book all the time I was writing it. It felt a bit like wading through molasses.
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It is essential that anyone reading this book know at the outset that the author is apolitical. I was convinced in 1927 that humanity's most fundamental survival problems could never be solved by politics.
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I suspect any serious reader has a first great book, just the way anybody has a first kiss.