Teju Cole Quotes

Joyce's writing in Dubliners contains some of the most unshowily beautiful sentences in the English language. I learned from him that if you write a good, clean line of English, you can get under a reader's skin. The reader won't even know why, but there you are. Didion, Berger, the many others I mentioned above, and many, many poets I haven't mentioned. Writers of this calibre are the moving targets the rest of us are always chasing.

Teju Cole

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Quotes to Explore

• You take the best of our tradition as a start, and I'll take the best of Christianity ... From there we can build.

  

  Feisal Abdul Rauf
  • Best
  • Start
  • Tradition

• In India, it is difficult for a cricketer to show that he is under some kind of stress. Here, you can only retire when you don't want to play anymore, or the motivation is lacking.

  

  Harbhajan Singh
  • Want
  • Stress
  • motivation

• One can never know enough. The unknown and its call lies even in what we know.

  

  Eduardo Chillida
  • Know
  • Never
  • Lies

• I've always made sequels, even when I was making Super 8 movies if the audience liked it.

  

  Sam Raimi
  • Always
  • Audience
  • Movies

• People just decided I was an R&B artist because I'm black.

  

  Gallant
  • People
  • Black
  • Artist

• I have worked hard and learnt that I have to make a decision - whether I am going to conform and protect myself or not. I chose not to.

  

  M. Night Shyamalan
  • Work
  • Decision
  • Protect

• If I'm offered a good case in Florida or a good case somewhere else, South Florida will win every time.

  

  F. Lee Bailey
  • Time
  • Good
  • Win

• The antagonism between the poet and the politician has generally been evident in all cultures.

  

  Salvatore Quasimodo
  • Poet
  • Politician
  • Cultures

• I'm originally from southern California, so I, like, say 'like', like, a lot. I've been trying to scrub any traces of Valley Girl from my speech since I moved to New York, but it's, like, totally way harder than anyone thinks, you know?

  

  Mara Wilson
  • Trying
  • Girl
  • California

• I think my novel, 'Walden Two,' has made people stop and look at the culture they have inherited and wonder if it is the last word or whether it can be changed.

  

  B. F. Skinner
  • People
  • Culture
  • Stop

• I always wake up 10 minutes before I have to be anywhere.

  

  Cara Delevingne
  • Up
  • Always
  • Minutes

• I think that being Jewish is in some ways unique because there's this conflation of race, culture and religion.

  

  Adam Mansbach
  • Culture
  • Religion
  • Unique

• It's better to make fun of yourself because you've always got someone around to make fun of, and they can't sue you.

  

  P. J. O'Rourke
  • Fun
  • Better
  • Yourself

• Life is a series of steps. Things are done gradually. Once in a while there is a giant step, but most of the time we are taking small, seemingly insignificant steps on the stairway of life.

  

  Ralph Ransom
  • Life
  • Time
  • Done

• I had seen images of Crystal Renn and Sophie Dahl growing up, but I didn't really know about the plus-size fashion industry or how lucrative it was or, like, that it was changing or that I was even invited.

  

  Paloma Elsesser
  • Up
  • Growing
  • Know

• I've found that people get particularly frustrated and shut down when women in fiction are disgusting or disordered.

  

  Ottessa Moshfegh
  • People
  • Women
  • Down

• I'm trying to have some longevity in this business. If that means not working for a while and just picking the right job, so be it.

  

  Aaron Paul
  • Trying
  • Business
  • Job

• I always have one foot in the street, so I know not everyone wants to dress like the women they see in music videos.

  

  Rachel Roy
  • Music
  • Women
  • Dress

• Child of God, if you would have your thought of God something beyond a cold feeling of His presence, let faith appropriate Christ.

  

  Frederick William Robertson
  • God
  • Feeling
  • Faith

• What feeling feels like over time. An attempt to screw up what feeling feels like over time. Heartbreak and a high C.... The often welcome melodic lie.... The soul's undersong. The orchestration of randomness, a flirtation with the boundaries of silence and space.... a reminder that the self wants to disappear, be taken away from itself and returned.

  

  Stephen Dunn
  • Music
  • Taken
  • Feelings

• I had a high school English teacher who made me really work at writing. And once, when I got an assignment back, she'd written: 'This is so good, Andrew. This should be published!' That made a big impression on me.

  

  Andrew Clements
  • Good
  • Work
  • Writing

• Some directors cast you because they trust you to do the performance - but then they forget to direct you.

  

  Samantha Morton
  • Trust
  • Forget
  • Performance

• I don't have a normal job, so I really appreciate having friends who are writers and artists. It's fun to have a group of people you can call in the middle of the day to go for a hike.

  

  Natalie Portman
  • People
  • Job
  • Friends

• Joyce's writing in Dubliners contains some of the most unshowily beautiful sentences in the English language. I learned from him that if you write a good, clean line of English, you can get under a reader's skin. The reader won't even know why, but there you are. Didion, Berger, the many others I mentioned above, and many, many poets I haven't mentioned. Writers of this calibre are the moving targets the rest of us are always chasing.

  

  Teju Cole
  • Writing
  • Beautiful
  • Moving