Ben Lerner Quotes
...that part of what I loved about poetry was how the distinction between fiction and nonfiction didn't obtain, how the correspondence between text and world was less important than the intensities of the poem itself, what possibilities of feeling were opened up in the present tense of reading.
Quotes to Explore
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You have to make the mistakes and have those failures in order to learn from them and grow and improve... But for me, the best way to combat any of that beating yourself up or overanalysing, the most important part is always to be prepared to the best of your ability.
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I'm not really interested in promoting 'Olive' as a series about depression or mental illness.
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I think the success of democracy is not really police security; it's the presence of a broad middle class. The stronger the middle class of a people is, the less you have to worry about one group coming in and exploiting the democratic process for its own ends.
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We run around so much - with the best intentions: I want to save the rain forest. I've gotta clean up the oceans. I've gotta save the dolphins. All worthy efforts, but if you're not centered and you don't have the serenity in your life you need to accomplish that task, you're not going to do a very good job.
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Understanding where to be in your own zone really takes some time and development to learn.
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Since we travel a lot as a team, I spend a lot of time on a plane where I like to play 'Football Manager.' I have been a soccer fan since I was 5 years old, so to be able to manage soccer teams is a lot of fun.
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The job of mayor and Governor is becoming more and more like the job of university president, which I used to be; it looks like you are in charge, but you are not.
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What is a farm but a mute gospel?
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In my entire life, any time I've ever lost something, I've gotten something even better going around the next corner. It's like one door closes and another door opens. As long as I can walk through the produce section in every grocery store in this country and eat the grapes that they're going to throw away, I know I can be fine.
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From a very early age, I made my decisions based on careers that I admire. The one thing that all the actresses I love have in common is that they have diversity in their careers.
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In fiction, there happens to be a long history of creative engagement with marginality, with the very human components of society that others don't want to think about, from writers such as Dostoyevsky, Baudelaire, and Rimbaud to Genet and Sarrazin and right on up to Norman Mailer.
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The knowledge that makes us cherish innocence makes innocence unattainable.
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The analysis of the thing is not the thing itself.
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It is good to connect to someone who reminds you that you have some real authenticity.
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I think love is the through line and it's universal and it doesn't matter what period of time, time or place, or people, that's something we all connect to. That's the thin thread that I think keeps it altogether.
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If I don't go to the gym for a week, I just get thinner and thinner.
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If someone comes up to me, 90 percent of the time it's about Office Space.
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I would say that I am a poor Christian; I'm not a believer. It was this idea very early in my life that life on Earth, nature or man could not be a creation of a merciful God.
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Films don't decide my whole life. They are just a part of who I am. What I do in my personal life should be of no concern to the filmmakers or the fans.
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As a kid, there was a painting of 'Appeal to the Great Spirit' that I would see when I would get oatmeal bowls out of the cupboard. This painting, it was so real to me that it frightened me.
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As I found again and again as a writer, when you're completely honest about something, people respond to that.
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When a woman falls in love with the magnificent possibilities within herself, the forces that would limit those possibilities hold less and less sway over her.
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...that part of what I loved about poetry was how the distinction between fiction and nonfiction didn't obtain, how the correspondence between text and world was less important than the intensities of the poem itself, what possibilities of feeling were opened up in the present tense of reading.
