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 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.
-
True Yankees fans know an up-and-coming player when they see one.
-
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.
-
'She said that she would dance with me if I brought her red roses,' cried the young Student; 'but in all my garden there is no red rose.'
-
I developed 'Power: From the Mouths of the Occupied' while I was an Artist in Residence at Kalamazoo College.
-
What happens to George Clooney and Bruce Willis is great, but I can't gauge my career by anyone else's.
-
I just really work hard on myself every day.
-
I never had a long-term plan.
-
You get tangled up in your own ego of how you're perceived. You can lose your way.
-
If I knew that today would be the last time I’d see you, I would hug you tight and pray the Lord be the keeper of your soul. If I knew that this would be the last time you pass through this door, I’d embrace you, kiss you, and call you back for one more. If I knew that this would be the last time I would hear your voice, I’d take hold of each word to be able to hear it over and over again. If I knew this is the last time I see you, I’d tell you I love you, and would not just assume foolishly you know it already.
-
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.
