William T. Vollmann Quotes
Quotes to Explore
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I'm not even sure I have a style! All I know for sure is I don't want to look like everyone else.
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The entertainment industry isn't a line of work encouraged in the Persian culture. When I called my dad to say I wanted to quit medicine, there was about three minutes of silence. I'm not sure he knew what to do with himself!
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We do believe that freedom, the right to choose, the right to vote, respect and justice is the fundamental right of all people. All people must obtain these rights.
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We all go to the theater and cinema to be inspired and moved on an emotional level, sometimes to laughter, sometimes to tears. Once I discovered that acting could have such an effect, I was sold. It has been one of the most rewarding discoveries I have ever made.
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I'm originally from San Francisco. I might move there some day. But, I like L.A., I have fun in L.A. It's a fun town if you've got money in your pocket. It's a good town.
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The white man, in his press, is going to identify me with 'hate.'
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People don't know what to do when writing a story with teens that takes place now - they think you have to make a bunch of references to Facebook.
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I'm doing what I want to do.
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When you develop a reputation for being responsive and generous, an ever-expanding mountain of requests will come your way.
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Steve McQueen is my style hero. He's just cool, isn't he?
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I am angry when I hear things like Cheney whispering into Bush's ear on the way to Obama's inauguration to ask him to pardon 'Scooter' Libby and not to 'leave a soldier on the battlefield'. What kind of metaphor is that for his petty partisan views, when you have men and women giving the ultimate sacrifice? I have nothing but contempt.
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Really, each era has its own false nostalgia. We all put a picket fence up around something. For my generation it was the '50s, and for other generations it will be something else. Change is scary for everyone, as is complexity, contradiction, and an uncertain future.
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I work very fast, keeping the ideas flowing but making sure they come out the way I intended.
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He looked me right in the face and said, 'You fucking bulldyke!' And I thought to myself, 'Oooh, what a smart man! Why, I'll bet he took one look at me and knew I was white, too!'
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My body and my will are one.
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Can you design a Rorschach test that's going to make everyone feel something every time - and that looks like a Rorschach test? It's easy to show a picture of a kitten or a car accident. The question is, how abstract can you get and still get the audience to feel something when they don't know what's happening to them?
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Working together during the past three years, we have confounded the skeptics and the cynics. We've shown that here in Virginia, Democrats and Republicans can come together, put politics aside, and make tough decisions when times demand it.
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I never set out to beat the world. I just set out to do my absolute best.
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I stand to learn more working as an actor with really talented people than I do by directing a feature.
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The whole Obama phenomenon brings up memories from my distant past: the good-looking guy who talks real good, whose line you don't buy immediately but whose charm is so dazzling that he gradually convinces you that this time it will be different.
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People leave strange little memories of themselves behind when they die.
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When we grew up, we wanted to do two things: to own a sports team and a casino.
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A filmmaker doesn't have to suffer to show suffering. You just have to understand it. You don't have to die to shoot a death scene.
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Maybe life is a process of trading hopes for memories.
