Erving Goffman Quotes
Our sense of being a person can come from being drawn into a wide social unit; our sense of selfhood can arise through the little ways in which we resist the pull. Our status is backed by the solid buildings of the world, while our sense of personal identity often resides in the cracks
Quotes to Explore
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Hollywood is strange in and of itself. People dress up and pretend to be other people, and you can either make millions of dollars, or no money. It's odd.
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I try and take the commonplace - and some of it is writ large, like death - take the commonplace and make it universally resonant, revelatory, and beautiful at the same time.
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By the time a person has achieved years adequate for choosing a direction, the die is cast and the moment has long since passed which determined the future.
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Many people in this world are still so identified with every thought that arises in their head. There is not the slightest space of awareness there.
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I went to Iraq in 2004 because I believe in doing my duty, not because I agreed with the war.
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I can never believe how much time and energy and money and talent and everything else is being poured into horrible ideas.
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Iris Murdoch did influence my early novels very much, and influence is never entirely good.
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As much as we need to approve the Keystone pipeline, we need to think far broader than that.
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People understand that nuclear weapons cannot be used without indiscriminate effects on civilian populations. Such weapons have no legitimate place in our world. Their elimination is both morally right and a practical necessity in protecting humanity.
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I think I was very lucky to have grown up with an artist's studio in the house. It was a kind of life that was possible. Yeah, it made it kind of harder because the standards were higher, but there was no pressure.
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The distinctive feature of my family was intolerance of sensitivity and emotion - 'Everything's great, it all has to be great all the time and why do you have to spoil it?' Whereas probably the most fundamental and important thing to me has been defending my right to tell the truth about how I feel.
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When things are bad, we take comfort in the thought that they could always get worse. And when they are, we find hope in the thought that things are so bad they have to get better.
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Not truth, but faith, it is that keeps the world alive.
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I am very interested in human-interest stories emerging from modern India. I get my inspiration and daily dose by reading the 'Hindustan Times.'
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Religion is no more the parent of morality than an incubator is the mother of a chicken.
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I have retired, but if there's anything that would kill me it is to wake up in the morning not knowing what to do.
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Voting is the only way to make change in a democracy.
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Scientists say, 'There is no such thing as time; gravity is a dust from another universe, and outside our own universe are many, many universes in all directions.' They speculate that attached to these universes are probably 6,000 planets identical to Earth. So are there things living out there? Animals, people, anything?
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The transformation of the world is brought about by the transformation of oneself.
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Perhaps the greatest utopia would be if we could all realize that no utopia is possible; no place to run, no place to hide, just take care of business here and now.
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It's always disappointing when your work is not received as you hope it would be.
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I think my best work is when I'm kind of in charge.
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One of the strongest characteristics of genius is the power of lighting its own fire.
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Our sense of being a person can come from being drawn into a wide social unit; our sense of selfhood can arise through the little ways in which we resist the pull. Our status is backed by the solid buildings of the world, while our sense of personal identity often resides in the cracks
