Daniel Mendelsohn Quotes
I have nothing but great respect for great scholars. But I was in grad school in the '80s and '90s, at the height of the theory craziness. It had a big part in why I ended up becoming a writer rather than a scholar, because I thought, "I just can't play these games." I was interested in literature because I loved literature, and so much of the theoretical positioning, at that moment 25 years ago, was antagonistic to literature. You know, trying to show that Jane Austen is a terrible person because she wasn't thinking about colonialism.
Quotes to Explore
-
Whatever you got you have to accentuate. I ran my female card up and down the ladder my whole career, because I was in a man's world. It was worked by women but owned by men. I was the only female owner in my field at that time.
-
I have a blog in Chinese, which you can follow, Chinese signs. But I don't even update at all, often I don't.
-
I love things that people hate. I hate middle-of-the-road stuff. It never really interests me.
-
Once every five hundred years or so, a summary statement about poetry comes along that we can't imagine ourselves living without.
-
I gave up years ago on the concept that you could actually have balance in your life, I think it's a phantom chase.
-
From each according to his abilities, to each according to his needs.
-
True Yankees fans know an up-and-coming player when they see one.
-
The bad boy: always more fun.
-
Religions work for their own aggrandizement - strengthen the church and so on - and they use reinforcers of one kind or another to get obedience and so on from their communicants.
-
I am devoted to my husband and son. I am devoted to the practices and rituals that imbue our lives with a sense of meaning and purpose, that help me to live my days in the most emotionally and intellectually productive manner. I am devoted to the idea of devotion itself.
-
'Damages' was cool. It brought me back to New York for a little while, so that was a lot of fun, and I was obviously very excited about the opportunity to work with Rose Byrne and Glenn Close. I'd been a fan of that show before I started working on it.
-
I still feel I need to do things 10 times better than other players. Just to be accepted and to improve myself.
-
Well I think that, if you want to look at polarizing people right now, I wouldn't look at Palin, I'd look at Barack Obama.
-
I don't even like to go out onto the streets sometimes because I can't get anything done. People want pictures and autographs all the time.
-
Academic and aristocratic people live in such an uncommon atmosphere that common sense can rarely reach them.
-
If you aren't good at loving yourself, you will have a difficult time loving anyone, since you'll resent the time and energy you give another person that you aren't even giving to yourself.
-
I have a tight family group that's really important to me. I don't want to work all the time.
-
All these songs honestly explore the ups and downs of my reality.
-
I grew up singing Mexican music, and that's based on indigenous Mexican rhythms. Mexican music also has an overlay of West African music, based on huapango drums, and it's kind of like a 6/8 time signature, but it really is a very syncopated 6/8. And that's how I attack vocals.
-
My parents had normal jobs, and I didn't just want to work all day, and so I thought if I could break into music I wouldn't have to work all day. And I had an uncle who was on Broadway, so I was like, 'I have to be able to sing.'
-
Give yourself something to work toward - constantly.
-
I have nothing but great respect for great scholars. But I was in grad school in the '80s and '90s, at the height of the theory craziness. It had a big part in why I ended up becoming a writer rather than a scholar, because I thought, "I just can't play these games." I was interested in literature because I loved literature, and so much of the theoretical positioning, at that moment 25 years ago, was antagonistic to literature. You know, trying to show that Jane Austen is a terrible person because she wasn't thinking about colonialism.
