Karen Russell Quotes

Whenever someone asks me about fantasy versus realism, I'm like, "I don't know, guys. Did we not all just descend into some underworld, watch strangers from our past kaleidoscope through us according to some pattern that is both illogical and has its own strange melting truth, and then wake up and have a Pop-Tart?" Why are we talking about fantasy and reality like they're opposed?

Karen Russell

• Reality
• Fantasy
• Stranger
• Patterns
• Illogical

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Quotes to Explore

• I struggle if I have chaos around me, but at the same time, if I don't have it, I'm uncomfortable. It's a strange thing: If I don't have chaos, I create it.

  

  Sam Taylor-Wood
  • Time
  • Struggle
  • Chaos

• I thought of the soul as resembling a castle, formed of a single diamond or a very transparent crystal, and containing many rooms, just as in Heaven there are many mansions.

  

  Saint Teresa of Avila
  • Soul
  • Single
  • Heaven

• I said yes, which turned out to be the right answer.

  

  Pat Sajak
  • Right
  • Said
  • Yes

• Fear is... a kind of unintentional storytelling that we are all born knowing how to do.

  

  Karen Thompson Walker
  • Fear
  • Kind
  • Born

• The very phrase 'Make America great again' implies some kind of reset to a time long since passed. A mission to restore America to a previous default setting where American economic superiority was without peer, factories and manufacturing plants were humming, and jobs were plentiful for anyone who wanted one.

  

  Fabrizio Moreira
  • Time
  • Great
  • Long

• I could have ended the war in a month. I could have made North Vietnam look like a mud puddle.

  

  Barry Goldwater
  • War
  • Look
  • Month

• You fall out of your mother's womb, you crawl across open country under fire, and drop into your grave.

  

  Quentin Crisp
  • Country
  • Mother
  • Fall

• I have a mantra in my head that there will always be another meal. I can put my fork down, knowing there will be good things in my future!

  

  Gail Simmons
  • Good
  • Future
  • Good Things

• I'm not really a food connoisseur.

  

  Aasif Mandvi
  • Food
  • Really
  • Connoisseur

• What 'Shaun of the Dead' and 'Hot Fuzz' and 'World's End' do is smuggle a different movie under the guise of a zombie movie or a cop or alien invasion movie. Even though they all have action and carnage, they are really films about growing up and taking responsibility.

  

  Edgar Wright
  • Up
  • World
  • Different

• A family has its own rituals and its own superstitions.

  

  Tea Obreht
  • Family
  • Own
  • Superstitions

• So many venues are owned by these various different ticketing and promoting people, and they're all in bed with one another. It's no secret over here.

  

  Imogen Heap
  • People
  • Different
  • Bed

• When moms stayed home, it was easier just to let the kids play around the house. But as women entered the workplace and the extended family dissolved, someone else had to pick up the slack on the child-care front. Extracurricular activities fit the bill perfectly, promising not only supervision but also enrichment.

  

  Carl Honore
  • Up
  • Women
  • Family

• A lot of times you come against actors who come from a different direction, and you tend to meet in the middle.

  

  Laila Robins
  • Different
  • You
  • Direction

• Slow down, everyone. You're moving too fast.

  

  Galveston Giant
  • Moving
  • Down
  • Slow

• People forget that writers start off being readers. We all love it when we find a terrific read, and we want to let people know about it.

  

  Karin Slaughter
  • People
  • Know
  • Read

• At exactly which point do you start to realize, that life without knowledge is death in disguise?

  

  Talib Kweli Black Star
  • Life
  • Death
  • Knowledge

• Notice that much of what men do is also done by single mothers so appreciating what men do also helps us appreciate what single moms do.

  

  Warren Farrell
  • Men
  • Done
  • Single

• But there is a discomfort that surrounds grief. It makes even the most well-intentioned people unsure of what to say. And so many of the freshly bereaved end up feeling even more alone.

  

  Meghan O'Rourke
  • People
  • Up
  • Feeling

• America's not just [about] looking out for yourself, it's not just about greed, it's not just about trying to climb to the very top and keep everybody else down. ... Hard work, that's a value. Looking out for one another, that's a value. The idea that we're all in it together and [that] I'm my brother's keeper and [my] sister's keeper, that's a value.

  

  Barack Obama
  • Work
  • Trying
  • America

• Most people's journeys haven't been as disjointed as mine.

  

  Delta Goodrem
  • People

• When you watch these reality shows, the person that is hated on the most is usually the one that gets the most shine.

  

  NeNe Leakes
  • Reality
  • Shine

• The first key to greatness is to be in reality what we appear to be.

  

  Socrates
  • Reality
  • Greatness
  • Key

• Whenever someone asks me about fantasy versus realism, I'm like, "I don't know, guys. Did we not all just descend into some underworld, watch strangers from our past kaleidoscope through us according to some pattern that is both illogical and has its own strange melting truth, and then wake up and have a Pop-Tart?" Why are we talking about fantasy and reality like they're opposed?

  

  Karen Russell
  • Reality
  • Fantasy
  • Stranger