Nathaniel Parker Willis Quotes
The Italians say that a beautiful woman by her smiles draws tears from our purse.
Quotes to Explore
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Conformity is dangerous.
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The only way to learn a language properly, in fact, is to marry a man of that nationality. You get what they call in Europe a 'sleeping dictionary.' Of course, I have only been married five times, and I speak seven languages. I'm still trying to remember where I picked up the other two.
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History is the present. That's why every generation writes it anew. But what most people think of as history is its end product, myth.
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The clever cat eats cheese and breathes down rat holes with baited breath.
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The thing is, it's not good anyway for eight-year-olds to be out there playing tennis tournaments so soon in their lives. But when I did get to play in a tournament, when I was nine, I was overjoyed.
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He is very upbeat but we hear that all the time from just about any athlete.
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I have learned to take the part of me that is very fearful and work on that. There is space for that in my life. I have learned to give myself a bit more freedom between 'action' and 'cut.' I come by all that fear honestly, like most humans have. I can't bring it with me to work, so in that way, the work feels quite liberating.
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And in fact I don't believe there is such a thing as a definitive picture of something. The land is a living, breathing thing and light changes its character every second of every day. That's why I love it so much.
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There's the part of my life that the public and I share together. And there's the part that's mine to keep for myself. And that's mine. For me.
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I love New York. I'm working on Broadway, and it's a great way for me to get my feet wet in acting and a great way to season yourself as a performer.
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People win Oscars, and then it seems like they fall off the planet. And that's partly because a huge expectation walks in the room and sits right down on top of your head. The moment I won the Oscar, I felt the teardown the very next day.
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Summer boarders often left clothes behind, and of what use were they to the landladies, for no rag-and-bone man ever called at their houses. The truth of the matter was that in less than a week I was well dressed from head to foot, all of these things being voluntary offerings, when in quest of eatables.
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I think the play actually became bigger than me. No pun intended.
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If Christianity is a mere invention of man, and the Bible is of no more authority than any other uninspired volume, how is it that the book is what it is?
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I was the first person in the world to audition for 'The Hobbit'. The casting director told me that when I went in. That's a lot of pressure, isn't it? The first person in the world.
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The best times I had on film sets were the times the director let me express myself, but those were rare.
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If I'm going to be a jazz player, I need to understand Miles Davis.
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Everyone puts all of the advances that we've made on Dr. King, but there's a lot of people who were part of the civil rights movement.
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I shot a movie with Nicole Kidman that I got cut out of - it was crap anyways.
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I want to headline Bonnaroo. I just want to do it more than anything in the world.
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Women played no part in Athenian high culture. They could not vote, attend the theatre, or walk in the stoa talking philosophy. But the male orientation of Greek culture was inseparable of its genius. Athens became great not despite but because of its misogyny.
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You know you have that zealousness of the young person that feels like you can go out and do it all. You know you save the world, save your gente, save women and before you know it if you try to do that you will burn out very quickly. My feeling is that I always think that and my advice to young people regardless of what times in these decades we've been living in there's always work to be done. The point is what can you do personally that you can live with so that you can get up the next morning and have the strength to start it all over again.
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I like to keep a bottle of stimulant handy in case I see a snake, which I also keep handy.
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The Italians say that a beautiful woman by her smiles draws tears from our purse.
