Ben Lerner Quotes

Experiments with the "as if" of fiction are often more lively in poetry and criticism and other modes of writing than in weak short stories or novels.

Ben Lerner

• Poetry
• Criticism
• Novels
• Experiments

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Quotes to Explore

• I believe that I'm a hillbilly in my values and in my attitudes, and I don't want to lose that. I think it's possible to maintain a big chunk of that identity so long as you're self-reflective and meaningful about it.

  

  J. D. Vance
  • Believe
  • Long
  • Identity

• If you taste something, you're not at the maximum of your ability. What I think about in competition is temperature and texture. It has nothing to do with taste or emotion.

  

  Takeru Kobayashi
  • Think
  • Competition
  • Taste

• I wasn't interested at all in doing a documentary. I was not a public figure.

  

  Iris Apfel
  • Doing
  • Figure
  • Documentary

• You know, I have the best parents in the world and I got really, really lucky because they think that everything I do is Oscar-worthy.

  

  Kaitlin Olson
  • World
  • Parents
  • Best

• I didn't grow up in a wealthy family at all. Being at home all day and watching movies, that was a luxury.

  

  Fleur East
  • Up
  • Family
  • Home

• The worst mistake a woman can make is to emulate a man.

  

  Natalia Kills
  • Man
  • Woman
  • Mistake

• To communicate the truths of history is an act of hope for the future.

  

  Daisaku Ikeda
  • History
  • Hope
  • Future

• I like that the 'Underworld' series created a whole other world that's totally different yet familiar to our own.

  

  Kat Graham
  • World
  • Different
  • Own

• When I sit down to write, I know everything I need to know... I start writing, and within 30 seconds or 60 seconds, I'm watching a movie. I'm not making this stuff up; the characters are acting it out,and I'm just writing it down.

  

  M. J. Rose
  • Up
  • Writing
  • Movie

• This race is hotter than a Times Square Rolex.

  

  Dan Rather
  • Race
  • Square
  • Times Square

• I'm at peace with my family, my friends, myself and God so there's really nothing else that I worry about.

  

  Lance Bass NSYNC
  • God
  • Family
  • Friends

• I love it when people say things to me in public and want to meet me, because I want to meet them! Early on, my manager told me, 'If you want to sell 500,000 records, then go out there and meet 500,000 people.'

  

  Taylor Swift
  • People
  • Love
  • Want

• One who is too insistent on his own views, finds few to agree with him.

  

  Lao Tzu
  • Him
  • Agree
  • Few

• When I look at a film, I don't think, 'Oh, I wish I had done that' because I haven't done that role, so it doesn't matter.

  

  Madhuri Dixit
  • Done
  • Think
  • Wish

• I'm a huge fan of the Clintons. I love Hillary; I love Bill.

  

  Fat Joe
  • Love
  • I Love
  • Fan

• My first experience on a feature film was with Shane Meadows on 'This Is England.'

  

  Jack O'Connell
  • Experience
  • Film
  • First

• 'Ray Donovan' is very dark and very serious. As actors will tell you, the darker and more serious the material, the more jokes that go around set. It's a counterbalance.

  

  Eddie Marsan
  • You
  • Dark
  • Serious

• I think the virtue I prize above all others is curiosity. If you look really hard at almost anybody, and try to see why they're doing what they're doing, taking a dig at them ceases to be what you want to do even if you hate them.

  

  A. S. Byatt
  • Why
  • Hate
  • Doing

• I'm not really a musician. I'm a performer, and I love rock n' roll. I've embraced rock n' roll because it encompasses all the things I'm interested in: poetry, revolution, sexuality, political activism - all of these things can be found in rock n' roll.

  

  Patti Smith
  • Political
  • Rock
  • Poetry

• I wrote my first two long novels and an anthology of short narratives, when I was a manager of my own jazz bar. There was not enough time to write and I didn't know how to write novels. Therefore, I made written collages of aphorisms and rags.

  

  Haruki Murakami
  • Novels
  • Manager
  • Narratives

• I don't believe that human beings are necessarily monogamous.

  

  K. D. Lang
  • Believe
  • Human
  • Human Beings

• Some people remaster their records six, seven times, remix it three, four times, spend a million hours, then they always go back and hear a demo of it and they'll say, 'Aw that sounds so much better than the final mix.'

  

  Jack White The White Stripes
  • People
  • Always
  • Better

• Experiments with the "as if" of fiction are often more lively in poetry and criticism and other modes of writing than in weak short stories or novels.

  

  Ben Lerner
  • Poetry
  • Criticism
  • Novels