Charles Baxter (Charles Morley Baxter) Quotes
The truth is that I'm never sure how any of my books will be received, and because I can be thin-skinned, I try not to read too many reviews when a book first comes out.
Quotes to Explore
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I've been quite fascinated by the relative insignificance of human existence, the shortness of life. We might as well be a letter in a word in a sentence on a page in a book in a library in a city in one country in this enormous universe! And that kind of fear and insignificance has kept me awake at night.
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Suddenly I was the man who got the part that every actor in the English language was trying to get. I was really scared. I had talked the talk, and now I had to walk the walk. For three days, I couldn't answer the phone.
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I was raised in Harlem. I never found a book that took place in Harlem. I never had a church like mine in a book. I never had people like the people I knew. People who could not find their lives in books and celebrated felt bad about themselves. I needed to write to include the lives of these young people.
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In my downtime, you'll mostly find me curled up with a book. I love reading biographies. My favourites are those of Dalai Lama, Osama Bin Laden, and Einstein.
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Reparations, I believe, are talked about for political reasons, trying to cater for the purpose of getting votes. If Congress was serious about reparations - in '93 and '94 the Democrats controlled the House, the Senate and the White House, and not one single Republican vote was needed for reparations.
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We're not trying to make you less of a man. We just want you to love us as deeply and as wholesomely and as fully as we love you.
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Every day, you get up, and the world is changing; your customers are expecting more from you. Your competitors are putting pressure on you by doing more and trying to beat you here and beat you there.
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I veer away from trying to understand why I act. I just know I need to do it.
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In boxing, there are no bad guys or good guys. Just people trying to make a living and trying to live up to their pride and to try to become someone.
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I don't burn any calories trying to be masculine; I just happen to be from that world.
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No matter how senior you get in an organization, no matter how well you're perceived to be doing, your job is never done. Every day, you get up and the world is changing; your customers are expecting more from you. Your competitors are putting pressure on you by doing more and trying to beat you here and beat you there.
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Many critics, when trying to praise a short-story collection, will say that it has the heft and scope of a good novel. But for me, one of the highest compliments you can pay a novel is to say that it has the rich texture and eloquent detail of a good story collection.
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A subject which at first glance seems quite removed from the undeclared concern of the book can encapsulate that concern.
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Philosophy is written in this grand book, the universe, which stands continually open to our gaze. But the book cannot be understood unless one first learns to comprehend the language and read the letters in which it is composed.
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We have got into Indian railways and are trying to get into the railway locomotive business in Europe and the United States.
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I don't like giving names to generations. It's like trying to read the song title on a record that's spinning.
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The spot paintings and spin paintings were trying to find mechanical ways to make paintings.
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What I'm trying to do, in my own small way, is trying to bring African and Afro-Cuban rhythms into rock.
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There's nothing ever monetarily or fame-seeking or any of the other motivations that sometimes go hand-in-hand with this profession. To me, it's just not like that. I'm on a journey of self-discovery and trying to avoid total existential crisis. That's the kind of operating zone that I'm approaching this business from.
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Ultimately, I know what I'm doing and why I'm doing it. I'm trying to be a construction worker. I'm trying to make things. If people are not interested in that, fine. I just don't give a damn.
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I like to say I believe in ghosts so I don't get haunted by one.
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I think you tell the story that has to be told. You tell the story that's the truth. You tell the story that readers will be interested in and should know about.
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I can't claim my grandfather's work has influenced mine directly, but his life certainly inspired me to follow this path.
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The truth is that I'm never sure how any of my books will be received, and because I can be thin-skinned, I try not to read too many reviews when a book first comes out.
