Michael Dirda Quotes

[Kurt] Vonnegut was a writer whose great gift was that he always seemed to be talking directly to you. He wasn't writing, he wasn't showing off, he was just telling you, nobody else, what it was like, what it was all about. That intimacy made him beloved. We can admire the art of John Updike or Philip Roth, but we love Vonnegut.

Michael Dirda

• Great
• Writing
• Like
• Intimacy
• Admire
• Telling
• Directly
• Vonnegut
• Philip

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Quotes to Explore

• A right balance between music and lyrics is important. Music complements lyrics.

  

  Kailash Kher
  • Music
  • Important
  • Balance

• I don't want to spoil the magic, but it's a very curious thing that honestly baffles me. It's the nearest we'll ever get to playing God, to suddenly produce these fully formed creatures. It is a bit odd. Other aspects you work out more - you rework sentences, you rework imagery. But not characters.

  

  Kate Atkinson
  • Work
  • God
  • Magic

• I had no interest in sports so I didn't make friends in that traditional way where kids are in public school and they go and they join clubs, and play sports. So I kind of had to find my own way to make friends and get attention and so I just was the class clown.

  

  Zach Braff
  • School
  • Kids
  • Friends

• I am always dabbling in new skin routines, but it's always about moisture.

  

  Paloma Elsesser
  • Skin
  • Routines
  • Moisture

• The Russians are very much more up and down than the French.

  

  Carine Roitfeld
  • Up
  • More
  • Down

• In my early 20s I was so miserable doing construction, I wanted something that paid money. I liked nice stuff. I liked cars and architecture, and things that cost money. I wanted to not swing a hammer, and make money... and not do stuff that was dirty. I attempted to get into comedy. I started to do stand-up, but I wasn't very good at it.

  

  Adam Carolla
  • Up
  • Good
  • Money

• Our music has been an incredible gift to help us make a difference.

  

  Zac Brown Band
  • Music
  • Help
  • Gift

• The Flash could do everything twice as fast. Except you never saw him think twice as fast or speak twice as fast. Could he do math faster than the other superheroes? Could he compute the tip for the bill twice as fast?

  

  Ira Glass
  • Think
  • Speak
  • Math

• At the end of the day, the position is just a position, a title is just a title, and those things come and go. It's really your essence and your values that are important.

  

  Queen Rania of Jordan
  • Important
  • Day
  • End

• I always prefer other people's interpretations over my own, so I'm not very quick to make explicit what exactly a song or record is about.

  

  M. Ward
  • People
  • Song
  • Own

• If I were running against Chuck Schumer. I would take every one of his Sunday press releases - and there are 52 for as many years as he's been there - and I would ask, 'How many of the things he said he was proposing became law?' I doubt many.

  

  Ed Koch
  • Law
  • Running
  • Doubt

• I think most Americans don't really care about politicians bickering in Washington.

  

  Ted Cruz
  • Think
  • Care
  • Washington

• Make your life about you, and once you build up yourself first, then you can focus on boys.

  

  Kat Graham
  • Life
  • Up
  • Focus

• A barrier for me – which has been both a strength and a weakness – has been my taste. The kind of things I'm interested in aren't always mainstream.

  

  Randa Haines
  • Me
  • Strength
  • Interested

• But 'Cuban Linx' was a project that really needed to come, and I really wanted to get it off my chest because I know that the fans were really skeptical about it, like 'is this really gonna be what it's supposed to be?' So once everybody caught it for what it was and everybody was happy, that's mission accomplished for me.

  

  Raekwon
  • Happy
  • Me
  • Fans

• I prayed every night that God would keep my family safe. But as far as religion goes, I feel like everyone should have their own one-on-one with God.

  

  Ja Rule
  • God
  • Family
  • Night

• Directing is the ultimate way to bring together all the art forms I've been involved with over the years.

  

  Xander Berkeley
  • Art
  • Together
  • Years

• I just would like to be challenged. I want to push myself to the limit, and constantly challenge myself and grow as an artist. That's where I want to go. Explore different things, different characters, in film, and just everything!

  

  Imani Hakim
  • Different
  • Myself
  • Challenge

• I was getting a lot of really nasty feedback about my weight during 'Fargo,' which is unfortunate because I am statistically a completely average-size woman.

  

  Allison Tolman
  • Nasty

• It's one of the most liberating things I experience in writing - letting yourself get rid of a gesture or character or plot point that always nagged, even if you couldn't admit to yourself that it did.

  

  Leslie Jamison
  • Writing
  • Character
  • Experience

• I really want a Christmas in New York one year, when it's snowing. Like, it's Christmas morning, and you have a fight with someone, and you run down the street, and it's snowing, and you can't find them.

  

  Courtney Barnett
  • Morning
  • Christmas

• I don't feel overwhelmed with information. I really like it.

  

  Marissa Mayer

• [Kurt] Vonnegut was a writer whose great gift was that he always seemed to be talking directly to you. He wasn't writing, he wasn't showing off, he was just telling you, nobody else, what it was like, what it was all about. That intimacy made him beloved. We can admire the art of John Updike or Philip Roth, but we love Vonnegut.

  

  Michael Dirda
  • Great
  • Writing
  • Like