Walter Becker Quotes

Cynicism, I contend, is the wailing of someone who believes that things are, or should be, or could be, much, much better than they are.

Walter Becker Steely Dan

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Quotes to Explore

• I've never been conscious of having any real career plan, and I do not have a wish-list of actors, directors, screenwriters, or cameramen I'm hoping to work with. Life, I feel, has a way of leading us to the right situations and people, or at least to interesting ones.

  

  Viggo Mortensen
  • People
  • Life
  • Work

• All works of art are commissioned in the sense that no artist can create one by a simple act of will but must wait until what he believes to be a good idea for a work comes to him.

  

  W. H. Auden
  • Good
  • Work
  • Art

• Younger hackers are hard to classify. They're probably just as diverse as the old hackers are. We're all over the map.

  

  Larry Wall
  • Hard
  • Old
  • Map

• The high-grossing films are not all that interesting to me, I have to say. It's not stuff I would want to be in. Yes, you would want the big paycheck, but that's never really been my concern.

  

  Edie Falco
  • High
  • Want
  • Interesting

• Those who survived the San Francisco earthquake said, 'Thank God, I'm still alive.' But, of course, those who died, their lives will never be the same again.

  

  Barbara Boxer
  • God
  • Said
  • Thank God

• I am often in contact with the hareidi public and politicians.

  

  Naftali Bennett
  • Public
  • Politicians

• I don't play an instrument - I just write in my head, and I usually hear fully formed songs. 'We Are Young' turned out so much like it was in my head. But it also exceeded all my expectations.

  

  Nate Ruess Fun.
  • Play
  • Young
  • Expectations

• People have an idea that one is in control of a career, a lot more than you really are. You can engineer things to an extent. But you are at the mercy of what comes in across the desk.

  

  Gary Oldman
  • People
  • Career
  • Control

• Tradition does not mean that the living are dead, it means that the dead are living.

  

  Harold MacMillan
  • Mean
  • Living
  • Tradition

• Obstacles are things a person sees when he takes his eyes off his goal.

  

  E. Joseph Cossman
  • Eyes
  • Leadership
  • Obstacles

• Mr. Obama has an ingenious approach to job losses: He describes them as job gains.

  

  Karl Rove
  • Job
  • Approach
  • Losses

• The thing that has always struck me is that there has always been a bit of a hole at YouTube when it comes to authenticity, human emotion, fun and play.

  

  Ze Frank
  • Fun
  • Human
  • Emotion

• I go to the gym in the morning to warm up, and then I go to the mountain and train. Then I come home and go to the gym again to recover. But on travel days, you get pretty much no physical exertion.

  

  Hannah Kearney
  • Up
  • Home
  • Pretty

• My uncles and other relatives are against encouraging girls in every aspect, and that includes sports. I hardly interact with them. My parents are more open. They back me all the way.

  

  Saina Nehwal
  • Parents
  • Me
  • Sports

• When you're 14, anything with a sword and a dragon is pretty cool. But when you're 21 and you've read 2,000 fantasy novels, you start to realize that some of those books, well, they weren't really good. OK, let's be honest. A lot of them were crap.

  

  Patrick Rothfuss
  • Good
  • Pretty
  • Cool

• I'm very aware that after you've played Cleopatra, there's not a lot that can top that in this sphere, so it means that I want to almost change the sphere I work in rather completely because I will always be comparing it to Cleopatra.

  

  Harriet Walter
  • Work
  • Want
  • Change

• Being a director is almost like being another sort of character, but you're out of view.

  

  Paddy Considine
  • Character
  • You
  • View

• I was leftwing, I am leftwing, and I will die leftwing.

  

  Zygmunt Bauman
  • Leftwing

• Forecasting is simply not a strength of the species; we are much better with tools and narrative storytelling.

  

  Barry Ritholtz
  • Better
  • Strength
  • Tools

• I think poetry is a fabulous medium to encapsulate thoughts far more precisely than prose.

  

  Kapil Sibal
  • Think
  • Poetry
  • Thoughts

• People will put restrictions on your ability, on your aptitude, on your talent, on your character, and to be honest, it's just opinion. Don't let anyone put you in a box or draw your path for you.

  

  Victoria Pendleton
  • People
  • Character
  • Opinion

• Cynicism, I contend, is the wailing of someone who believes that things are, or should be, or could be, much, much better than they are.

  

  Walter Becker Steely Dan
  • Better
  • Someone
  • Cynicism