William T. Vollmann Quotes
I studied Comparative Literature at Cornell. Structuralism was real big then. The idea of reading and writing as being this language game. There's a lot of appeal to that. It's nice to think of it as this playful kind of thing. But I think that another way to look at it is "Look, I just want to be sincere. I want to write something and make you feel something and maybe you will go out and do something." And it seems that the world is in such bad shape now that we don't have time to do nothing but language games. That's how it seems to me.
Quotes to Explore
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I remember when I was growing up. My great wish was to understand who I was and how I fit in the world.
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One can never know enough. The unknown and its call lies even in what we know.
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In many of my plays, there was a kind of autobiographical character in the form of a son or young man.
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Your former Fathers the Spaniards have now no further Authority over you.
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Playing and listening to music gives you a sense of fulfilment because you have to put everything in you at its disposal.
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Well, you know, I - again, even in the context of BP, I wonder about this government's priorities. The federal government's top priority right now should be the cleanup. And BP certainly has done so many things wrong. They need to be held to account.
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I'm not one icon. I'm every icon. I'm an icon that is made out of all the colors on the palette at every time. I have no restrictions. No restrictions.
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Girls shouldn't drink because their bodies are not made for drinking and smoking.
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We play rock & roll, but we swing when we play. We want that ongoing flow, that lightness, that forward rush of jazz.
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The paradox of anti-Semitism is that it is invariably up to the Jews to explain away the charges. The anti-Semite simply has to make them.
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Sometimes his methods are questionable, and even his morals are questionable, but his intention is always to protect Sydney. So in that way I think he's a good parent.
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Owning a variety of asset classes means that some part of your portfolio will be doing well when the cyclical turmoil arises. A broadly diversified portfolio includes large capitalization stocks, small cap, emerging markets, fixed income, real estate and commodities.
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In fact, the best thing we could do on taxes for all Americans is to simplify the individual tax code. This will be a tough job, but members of both parties have expressed an interest in doing this, and I am prepared to join them.
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Youth is really in your attitude, not in what you look like.
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I like to do one thing at a time and do it to the best of my ability.
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When I was young, I despised old people. I was provincial and narrow-minded. It's the reason I stayed stupid so long. If you only get involved with young people you don't learn anything about the world.
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A lot of people think I'm a vegan. I'm not.
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Any glamorous moment you might mistake me for having is always pretend.
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I'm not interested in seeing a film just made by a woman - not unless she is looking for new images.
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I think my dad did legal work for someone who had a Packard Bell 8088, and they couldn't pay him, so they gave him a computer. I was initially not allowed to touch it, but that didn't last long. I started tinkering with it, and there were many times I screwed up the computer.
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It is amazing that the wisdom of the chattering class to the Republicans is always, always, always 'Surrender your principles and agree with the Democrats.' That's been true for my entire lifetime.
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I never was in the Nation of Islam... I mean, what I call myself is a natural Muslim, 'cause it's just me and God. You know, going to the mosque, the ritual and the tradition, it's just not in me to do. So I don't do it.
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You have certain writing tools but generally creating something from nothing makes one quite mad and Cynthia and I are quite mad you know.
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I studied Comparative Literature at Cornell. Structuralism was real big then. The idea of reading and writing as being this language game. There's a lot of appeal to that. It's nice to think of it as this playful kind of thing. But I think that another way to look at it is "Look, I just want to be sincere. I want to write something and make you feel something and maybe you will go out and do something." And it seems that the world is in such bad shape now that we don't have time to do nothing but language games. That's how it seems to me.
