Catherynne M. Valente Quotes

But if you must be clever, then be clever. Be brave. Sleep with fists closed and shoot straight.

Catherynne M. Valente

• Brave
• Clever
• To Be
• Shoot
• Fists

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Quotes to Explore

• I stayed in the astronaut program until 1993. People ask me why I left. I thought I had a lot of things to contribute that would be difficult to do if I stayed. I thought I could have a stronger voice as an advocate for space exploration. So I ended up starting my own technology consulting company.

  

  Mae Jemison
  • People
  • Up
  • Why

• If you're a psychologist, you can instrumentally change peoples lives for the better. But you can only do that for about 300 people to maybe a thousand people - if you're really prolific and you're working really hard.

  

  T. J. Miller
  • People
  • Change
  • Better

• I feel like I was born to do this... I started working professionally as soon as I could, doing weddings and things like that in high school, while everyone else was having keg parties. I just felt destined to do it and really committed and driven; it was something that just felt right all my life.

  

  Idina Menzel
  • Life
  • School
  • High

• I continually acted up to get attention. My father gave me that, and once he left, I felt that I didn't have any.

  

  Natalie Cole
  • Up
  • Father
  • Me

• My parents are both teachers, so we had the summers off.

  

  Vanessa Williams
  • Parents
  • Teachers
  • Both

• I like fighters who come to fight.

  

  Floyd Mayweather, Jr.
  • Like
  • Fight
  • Come

• Working with Chiranjeevi sir, I realized the professionalism and attitude they used work with. It's just so contagious. When such a personality is doing that, everyone around, too, would do that out of respect. Work was far more efficient, smoother.

  

  Kajal Aggarwal
  • Work
  • Respect
  • Attitude

• Records were replaced by CDs, and lead type died in favor of computerized fonts. However, each had a 100-year ride of popularity, so you can't feel too bad for them.

  

  Nathan Myhrvold
  • Bad
  • You
  • Ride

• Shakespeare is universal.

  

  Harold Bloom
  • Universal
  • Shakespeare

• Privilege tends to soften the brain, or so I’ve observed.

  

  Kage Baker
  • Brain

• suggest that we think of theories as spotlight. this imagery is useful. a spotlight will only illuminate so much. wiht any theory there will always be the things that are left in darkness, still unexamined and unexplained. parsons referred to these as'residual categories'.

  

  Talcott Parsons

• The roots below the earth claim no rewards for making the branches fruitful.

  

  Rabindranath Tagore
  • Earth

• So Rita and I decided that the most subversive, revolutionary thing I could do was to show up for my life and not be ashamed.

  

  Anne Lamott
  • Life
  • Up

• 20 years on I'm not that interested in charity. I'm interested in justice. There's a difference. Africa needs justice as much as it needs charity. Equality for Africa is a big idea. It's a big expensive idea.

  

  Bono U2
  • Justice
  • Equality
  • Charity

• These properties that get made into movies, some are easier than others. When they first said, 'Yeah, they're making a movie out of Lego,' I said, 'Lego what? What does that even mean?' And it's such a good concept.

  

  Elizabeth Banks
  • Good
  • Movie

• Normal people, who can be good people but do bad things, are very interesting to me, and people that never get a parking ticket or never do a bad thing in their lives can be really dangerous.

  

  Emily Mortimer
  • People
  • Good
  • Bad

• Iraq is not occupied, but there are foreign forces on its soil, which is different.

  

  Jalal Talabani
  • Different

• My little sister, who is four, can work my mom's iPhone better than she can.

  

  Asa Butterfield
  • Work
  • She
  • Mom

• You win by working hard, making tough decisions and building coalitions.

  

  John Engler

• The best way to learn Japanese is to be born as a Japanese baby, in Japan, raised by a Japanese family.

  

  Dave Barry
  • Family
  • Baby
  • Japanese

• People should be travelling to Mars and doing it in our lifetime.

  

  Elon Musk
  • People

• But if you must be clever, then be clever. Be brave. Sleep with fists closed and shoot straight.

  

  Catherynne M. Valente
  • Brave
  • Clever
  • To Be