Terrence McNally Quotes
Whenever you think you're writing what other people want to hear from you, and that it'll be commercial, you're doomed to disaster. Writing has to be as truthful and specific as we can make it. The minute we think that we're reaching more people and pleasing them, we get general. And audiences sense that and turn away, shun us.
Quotes to Explore
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I firmly believe that one of the best kept secrets to soft and glowing skin is moisturisation.
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I learned so much in Zimbabwe, in particular about the need for humility in our ambition to extend mental health care in countries where there were very few psychiatrists and where the local culture harboured very different views about mental illness and healing. These experiences have profoundly influenced my thinking.
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There are no opportune times for a penalty, and this is not one of those times.
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There's no smarter politician out there than Bill Clinton.
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There is no peace because the making of peace is at least as costly as the making of war - at least as exigent, at least as disruptive, at least as liable to bring disgrace and prison and death in its wake.
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I'm not a walking extra in a Chekhov play; I'm no Slavic gloom or Irish gloom.
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I've definitely become smuttier. When I first started out, I had these aspirations: 'I'm not going to do jokes about anything crude because I'm bigger and better than that.' But then, I don't know... It makes me laugh, so I started doing it.
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The ideas and practices of Franz Anton Mesmer, an 18th-century Australian healer, had spread to the United States and, by the 1840s, held the country in thrall. Mesmer proposed that everything in the universe, including the human body, was governed by a 'magnetic fluid' that could become imbalanced, causing illness.
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One must learn to love, and go through a good deal of suffering to get to it... and the journey is always towards the other soul.
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You know, my mum's always encouraged me and never made my gender an issue, I guess. She brought me up to believe in equality, as opposed to feminism or sexism – so it just meant that my gender was not relevant to what I was capable of achieving.
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We live in a democracy, and people are free to sometimes choose the wrong leader.
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I have never believed that the critic is the rival of the poet, but I do believe that criticism is a genre of literature or it does not exist.
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If I write the song, I get to name it.
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Because of this, originality consists in returning to the origin.
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I can believe in myself, and I feel like I'm such a strong and talented designer.
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Part of the reason that I left the Pumpkins is because it was becoming all-consuming. Being the only member of that band who had two kids and a wife, it was a hard decision, but ultimately it was a decision I'm comfortable with.
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It is right to endure with resignation what the gods send, and to face one's enemies with courage.
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If Christianity is not scientific, and Science is not of God, then there is no invariable law, and truth becomes an accident.
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It's fun, but the fun is where it always was. I mean, it's still fun to strap on my Les Paul in the basement and turn up the Marshall amp. I'm still 15. I still enjoy that as much as I ever did.
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Writing for myself and writing for another artist are two very different experiences. When I handle both the story and the art, I have full control. I can endlessly tweak every word and every line.
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If you are a married man resident in Cuba, you cannot get a passport to go to the next town without your wife's permission in writing.
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I used to teach dance lessons.
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A picture can hide as much as it reveals.
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Whenever you think you're writing what other people want to hear from you, and that it'll be commercial, you're doomed to disaster. Writing has to be as truthful and specific as we can make it. The minute we think that we're reaching more people and pleasing them, we get general. And audiences sense that and turn away, shun us.
