Whitney Balliett Quotes

A critic is a bundle of biases held loosely together by a sense of taste.

Whitney Balliett

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Quotes to Explore

• There is a humanitarian impulse that one aspires to and there are days when one doesn't do it very well.

  

  Ralph Fiennes
  • Very
  • Days
  • Humanitarian

• I never been a hater of these other cats, who never really had nothing, being successful. That's not my problem.

  

  Raekwon
  • Problem
  • Successful
  • Cats

• Most people who went about saying a ghost had poked them with a brolly would be locked up somewhere.

  

  Pamela Stephenson
  • People
  • Up
  • Saying

• You look at science fiction and look how often it talks about being alien, being alienated about the other. Look at the number of blue people - 'Avatar,' I'm looking at you. And it is now easier to find people of color in science-fiction literature and media, but the issues of representation are still really, really troubling.

  

  Nalo Hopkinson
  • People
  • Science
  • Color

• It's just a theory really, but I have always thought that your physical surroundings can shape your voice and personality.

  

  K. D. Lang
  • Thought
  • Personality
  • Voice

• I remember, around age three, peas growing in the back garden. Pinching them from their pods and popping them in the mouth was my first realisation that food came from somewhere other than a shelf.

  

  Caitlin Moran
  • Remember
  • Age
  • Growing

• In an ideal world, I'd spend every weekend at my home in Zermatt in Switzerland.

  

  Vanessa Mae
  • World
  • Home
  • Weekend

• In Europe and the United States, you've got different systems to select candidates, and no system is perfect.

  

  Karl Rove
  • Different
  • You
  • Perfect

• I always wanted to be an actress. It's been very high up on my list of passions, and I did a couple of short courses, and I've studied at school.

  

  Tahyna Tozzi
  • Up
  • School
  • High

• Right away when I got to college, I realized that being a politician sucks. It's really hard! It wasn't for me. B.J. Novak is convinced that I will run for mayor of Chicago at some point. He begs me to do it. It'd be a tough gig, but I was always very attracted to the idea of helping people and trying to make the city a better place.

  

  Ike Barinholtz
  • People
  • Trying
  • College

• Have you ever walked along a shoreline, only to have your footprints washed away? That's what Alzheimer's is like. The waves erase the marks we leave behind, all the sand castles. Some days are better than others.

  

  Pat Summitt
  • Better
  • Waves
  • Sand

• I like to have sleepovers.

  

  Abigail Breslin
  • Like

• Guys like Spielberg and Zemeckis and really anybody who is a storyteller-filmmaker today has studied Hitchcock and the way he visually tells a story. He was the master of suspense, certainly, but visually you would get a lot of information from what he would do with the camera and what he would allow you to see as the story was unfolding.

  

  Ralph Macchio
  • Today
  • Story
  • Information

• I don't really like talking about my personal life. I like a certain amount of veil.

  

  Garrett Clayton
  • Life
  • Talking
  • Personal

• Like all fads, corporate governance has its zealots

  

  Conrad Black

• I probably took more than anybody could survive. … I was bangin' seven-gram rocks and finishing them because that's how I roll. I have one speed, I have one gear, GO!. … I'm different. I have a different constitution, I have a different brain, I have a different heart. I got tiger blood, man. … Dying's for fools, dying's for amateurs.

  

  Charlie Sheen
  • Different
  • Heart
  • Brain

• Always in my books, I like to throw that rogue element into a stable situation and then see what happens.

  

  Jeanette Winterson

• One argument goes that recessions are good for female artists because when money flies out the window, women are allowed in the house. The other claims that when money ebbs, so do prospects for women.

  

  Jerry Saltz
  • Good
  • Women
  • Money

• It is a very mixed blessing to be brought back from the dead.

  

  Kurt Vonnegut

• One of the most basic and pervasive social processes is the sorting and labeling of things, activities, and people... Sorting and labeling processes involve a trade-off of costs and benefits. In general, the more finely the sorting is done, the greater the benefits - and the costs... Sorting and labeling, whether of people or of things, is a sorting and labeling of probabilities rather than of certainties.

  

  Thomas Sowell
  • Process
  • Social
  • Trade

• I look in your eyes I realize what you've sold meis love in a vacuum. Love in a vacuum.

  

  Aimee Mann
  • Eyes

• "We have the proof that our disagreement with the U.A.R. is more than a simple misunderstanding."

  

  Habib Bourguiba
  • Proof
  • Misunderstanding
  • Disagreement

• I get up, and if I feel out of sorts, I'll do some exercises, I'll feed my cat, then I go get my coffee, take a notebook, and write for a couple of hours.

  

  Patti Smith
  • Up
  • Couple
  • Coffee

• A critic is a bundle of biases held loosely together by a sense of taste.

  

  Whitney Balliett
  • Together
  • Taste
  • Critics