Elena Ferrante Quotes

Perhaps Lila was right: my book—even though it was having so much success—really was bad, and this was because it was well organized, because it was written with obsessive care, because I hadn’t been able to imitate the disjointed, unaesthetic, illogical, shapeless banality of things.

Elena Ferrante

• Book
• Success
• Written
• Banality

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Quotes to Explore

• The books that help you most are those which make you think that most. The hardest way of learning is that of easy reading; but a great book that comes from a great thinker is a ship of thought, deep freighted with truth and beauty.

  

  Pablo Neruda
  • Great
  • Book
  • Truth

• I'm a Virgo and I'm more - I don't want to say 'negative' - but I'm the girl who thinks no one's coming to my birthday party, no one's buying my clothes, no one's reading my book, no one's watching my show - that's just how I think.

  

  Rachel Zoe
  • Book
  • Girl
  • Reading

• It takes 20 years to make an overnight success.

  

  Eddie Cantor
  • Success
  • Years
  • Overnight

• I have become infected, now that I see how beautifully a book is coming out of all this.

  

  Carl Sandburg
  • Book
  • See
  • Now

• I don't really know what the Great American Novel is. I like the idea that there could be one now, and I wouldn't object if someone thought it was mine, but I don't claim to have written that - I just wrote my book.

  

  Rachel Kushner
  • Great
  • Book
  • American

• Whenever you have taken up work in hand, you must see it to the finish. That is the ultimate secret of success. Never, never, never give up!

  

  Dada Vaswani
  • Up
  • Work
  • Success

• For me, any book I'm writing is also a chance to get in and research and read and learn things that I maybe only knew a little bit about before.

  

  Tad Williams
  • Book
  • Chance
  • Learn

• I don't want to be involved with an actor because I know how they are. I've had problems in the past being with guys who haven't had any success or haven't made as much money, and it's very uncomfortable.

  

  Kaley Cuoco
  • Money
  • Success
  • Past

• I'm very competitive, and my ego couldn't handle that lack of success.

  

  Gavin DeGraw
  • Success
  • Ego
  • Competitive

• Once I was condemned to three months' absolute silence. As I could not speak, I wrote a book.

  

  Nana Mouskouri
  • Book
  • Silence
  • Speak

• I hate to badmouth any book or writer, because I know how it feels to be on the other end of that.

  

  Karin Slaughter
  • Book
  • Hate
  • End

• It's interesting that the book publishing industry, on the iPad, has much more flexibility than the music industry had.

  

  Edgar Bronfman, Jr.
  • Music
  • Book
  • Interesting

• Success in Iraq will be a major setback for terrorists and a major asset for the security of this region. The struggle for Iraq is the struggle for the future of the world.

  

  Zalmay Khalilzad
  • World
  • Future
  • Success

• If you have no critics you'll likely have no success.

  

  Malcolm X
  • Success
  • You
  • Critics

• Creative risk taking is essential to success in any goal where the stakes are high. Thoughtless risks are destructive, of course, but perhaps even more wasteful is thoughtless caution which prompts inaction and promotes failure to seize opportunity.

  

  Gary Ryan Blair
  • High
  • Success
  • Opportunity

• Breast cancer deaths in America have been declining for more than a decade. Much of that success is due to early detection and better treatments for women. I strongly encourage women to get a mammogram.

  

  Larry Craig
  • Women
  • America
  • Success

• Sometimes I have a melody in my head; sometimes it's just a verse. I read lines from a book or movies that I watch and grab a few quotes and start writing on paper. From there, I record a really rough version and work on the song.

  

  Yuna
  • Work
  • Writing
  • Book

• As a self-published author, you have the choice. Embrace the power to create a book that is truly yours. Don't be a whiner or a copycat.

  

  M. J. Rose
  • Book
  • Power
  • Author

• Everyone wants to be paid well - I know that I certainly do. But there are lots of other satisfactions that we get from our work. To feel needed. To feel accomplishment. To believe that our work matters. Being a lawyer gives you a rare chance to experience that kind of success.

  

  Jeffrey Toobin
  • Work
  • Believe
  • Experience

• Bread of flour is good; but there is bread, sweet as honey, if we would eat it, in a good book.

  

  John Ruskin
  • Good
  • Book
  • Bread

• Anyone can relate to struggle, whether you're European or Asian. Anyone can relate to having to get up and go to work and eat.

  

  Yelawolf
  • Up
  • Work
  • You

• Urban is not actually my world. It was me trying something out, basically. I come from a gospel background.

  

  Labrinth LSD
  • World
  • Trying

• Perhaps Lila was right: my book—even though it was having so much success—really was bad, and this was because it was well organized, because it was written with obsessive care, because I hadn’t been able to imitate the disjointed, unaesthetic, illogical, shapeless banality of things.

  

  Elena Ferrante
  • Book
  • Success
  • Written