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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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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It will not bother me in the hour of death to reflect that I have been "had for a sucker" by any number of imposters but it would be a torment to know that one had refused even one person in need.
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In Hollywood, there is one dominant voice. It is a white, male, straight gaze. When I talk about positive portrayals of black people and women, I'm saying complexity. I'm not saying goody-two-shoes, everything's okay. No. The positive view of me is to see me as I am: the 'good,' the 'bad,' the gray. That is a positive portrayal.
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When you don't cover up the world with words and labels, a sense of the miraculous returns to your life.
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People do write books.
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The Italians say that a beautiful woman by her smiles draws tears from our purse.
