Ilan Stavans Quotes
The mandate we have as Jews is for the story of the Exodus from Egypt to be retold every generation.
Quotes to Explore
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I see no reason to hide who I am or what I look like.
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Providence was well aware what lay ahead for me, and my Capuchin training was to prepare me for it.
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There's a critic that I love, Manohla Dargis of the 'L.A. Weekly.' I like the underground point of view; it's my old radical sympathies. Maybe I like her because she likes my movies.
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A free and truly independent press - fiercely independent when necessary - is the red beating heart of freedom and democracy.
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I do all of my good thinking at over 65 miles per hour. The speed limit is, luckily, the same speed as my brainstorming speed.
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Anytime you interfere with a natural process, you're playing God. God determines what happens naturally. That means when a person's ill, he shouldn't go to a doctor because he's asking for interference with God's will. But of course, patients can't think that way.
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True penitence condemns to silence. What a man is ready to recall he would be willing to repeat.
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People are struggling. They're trying to make ends meet, and they're looking for Washington to deliver for them. And they don't feel that that's been happening as quickly as it should. We share that frustration. There's no one more frustrated than President Obama.
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I was always under the impression that acting is an innate gift. One of the first things I heard them say at Koothu-P-Pattarai was that actors should realise the art of acting through their training.
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You're creating new things in movies and people are going to steal them.
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Music isn't like news, where it's what happened five minutes ago or even 10 seconds ago that matters. With music, a song from the 1960s could be as relevant to someone today as the latest Ke$ha song.
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There's no first impressions anymore. You go to a job interview, and they'll probably Google you. It's a shame - people should play it a little closer to the chest as far as what information they release to the world. If I'm angry about something, I'm not going to take to my Twitter.
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Whatever people thought the first time they held a portable phone the size of a shoe in their hands, it was nothing like where we are now, accustomed to having all knowledge at our fingertips.
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Everyone freaks out because my character is the only one who has shorts on the Galactica. Well, that is because I went and grabbed a pair of pants and scissors and cut them off and gave her shorts.
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But at the beginning it was clear to me that concrete poetry was peculiarly suited for using in public settings. This was my idea, but of course I never really much got the chance to do it.
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Humor can be an incredible, lacerating and effective weapon.
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I think initially, the record industry struggled a lot with digital media because there are a lot of aspects to it that can potentially destroy our industry.
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According to the perverse aesthetics of artistic guilty pleasure, certain books and movies are so bad - so crudely conceived, despicably motivated and atrociously executed - that they're actually rather good.
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The sanctions have nothing to do with our relations with China, because our relations with the People's Republic of China are at an unprecedented high both in terms of their level and substance. They are what we call "a comprehensive partnership and strategic cooperation".
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In my particular case foreign policy happens to be my hobby, my consuming interest. I had spent decades studying it.
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In documentary films, you're a storyteller using found objects. You still have to have a story arc and all the elements that make a good story. It really helped me mature as a storyteller.
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Also, getting the chance to play a supporting part meant that I didn't have to do as much as the protagonist, such as running around telling the story. [As the protagonist] you push the story whereas, paradoxically, as a character part, you have a chance to explore some of the nuance and some of the more complicated aspects of a character.
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My progressive ideals are screaming in Straight to the Heart: Political Cantos book; what I believe. There is no muddying-up because of debate. You know exactly where I stand, because I put it down in the written word.
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The mandate we have as Jews is for the story of the Exodus from Egypt to be retold every generation.
