Hanif Kureishi Quotes
It seemed to me that the real philosophical breakthroughs of the 20th century were in terms of the understanding of language. What is language? Where does it come from, how does it work, what does it do?
Quotes to Explore
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Whatever work you do, you think are you doing this for the good of the nation? That's the basic training. The other basic training is discipline. Your life should be disciplined. The other thing they say is what work you get, do it well.
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When I was a model, everybody was scrutinising me and I felt I had to go to the gym because my figure had to be fantastic. Now that I'm a singer, I've got a different kind of body – it's more athletic.
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I joined the Actors Studio and began to work with Lee Strasberg, and that changed my work.
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So many Indian novels, quite unfairly, do not get the prominence they should because they have been written in a language other than English.
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So many athletes who have been close to me have been everything to me.
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Let me clarify this very definitely. This is not an authoritarian organization.
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People always come up to me now and say, 'Watchmen' is the best superhero movie ever made.' I'm always saying 'That's super cool. That's nice of you to say.' But it happens now, more and more and more than it did when it first came out.
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I found that I need to work, and I wouldn't have known that if I hadn't taken the time off.
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My dad named me Dakota and my mom came up with my first name Hannah. So it's Hannah Dakota Fanning.
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My grandfather was an autoworker, and I have a weapon he manufactured to protect himself from the company that he would carry to work. It's a big iron pipe with a hunk of lead on the head. I think about how far we've come as companies from those days, where workers had to protect themselves from the company.
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The real problem at the moment is that the banks - because of their existing culture, which is frankly anti-business, obsession with short-term trading profits, not focusing on the long term - are throttling the recovery of British industry.
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I think people look at me and don't expect much. Even though, I expect a whole lot.
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My CIA colleagues were smart, dedicated, funny, and creative. Yes, there was sometimes stifling bureaucracy, boredom, colleagues who never should have been there, and later, deeply disturbing stories of the CIA's involvement in torture. Still, I got to do work I thought was incredibly important and, many times, had fun doing it.
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I think one challenge is that having few women in your work environment makes you feel a little isolated and alone. I'm an extrovert; I like talking to people, and I make friends easily, but if your personality is somewhat different, I think you would struggle to connect with people.
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Playing baseball is fun. If I could play, I'd never retire. But managing is work. It's constant decisions of whose feelings you want to hurt all the time.
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Gospel music always relaxes me and calms my nerves.
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I still get excited by working with big names. You have that initial moment of, 'Oh my goodness, I'm going to work with Tom Cruise!'
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It took me a lot of years on the 'Burnett' show to feel like I had earned the privilege to play in the sandbox with the grown-ups.
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My real musical discovery started when I was 10 with Stevie Wonder and the Jackson 5, and acts that I connected with because they were young when they were doing it, like me. Then I kind of came into my own a couple of years later; I found new artists that shaped my musical landscape. For instance, Kings of Leon played a big part in that.
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Who'd have thought the Frisbee would have caught on?
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I want people to be drawn into the space of the work. And a lot of people are like me in that they have relatively short attention spans. So I shoot for the window of opportunity.
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It's incredible. Twenty-three minutes on the air, and I've got to shoot for twelve, fifteen hours a day. What the hell's that?
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With stand-up you've just got that one chance. Audiences can be quite fickle.
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It seemed to me that the real philosophical breakthroughs of the 20th century were in terms of the understanding of language. What is language? Where does it come from, how does it work, what does it do?
