Ta-Nehisi Coates Quotes
If I have to jump six feet to get the same thing that you have to jump two feet for - that's how racism works.
Quotes to Explore
-
What the Beatles did was something incredible, it was more than what a band could do. We have to give them respect.
-
Amazon is holding its own because the service it provides - offering millions of books and other items quickly and easily from home at any hour of the day or night - is a real one, and one that was impossible before there was an Internet.
-
Those who incline to very strictly utilitarian views may perhaps feel that the peculiar powers of the Analytical Engine bear upon questions of abstract and speculative science rather than upon those involving everyday and ordinary human interests.
-
The most important thing to me with any politician is that they don't start wars, but education is a big part of that, too, because educated people are less likely to do stupid, violent things.
-
And, sure, if you have a political point of view, you have every right to share it. But you have to be careful not to get too self-important. You have to find the balance between being entertaining and being preachy.
-
In a real sense, people who have read good literature have lived more than people who cannot or will not read. It is not true that we have only one life to live; if we can read, we can live as many more lives and as many kinds of lives as we wish.
-
I am very emotional. It took me many years to recover from the death of my father. Even when I was playing cricket, I wasn't happy. I would just sit and cry. I was very young. He was too young; he shouldn't have gone. Cricket is all right. We all play sport. Good and bad days come.
-
When I was small, I was the same as everyone else. I used to play in a small council estate nearby. But it's really my family who taught me. I started watching my dad play from the age of two. I wanted to be like him.
-
Passive fatalism can never be the role of a revolutionary party, like the Social Democracy.
-
Anyone who's got a guitar, you like to pick it up. I can play a couple of songs, some '50s rock and roll, a bit of Elvis. That's it, really - I'm not a musician, I'm not a singer.
-
The thing about the Nobel ceremony is that for a whole week, you get treated like a superstar. You get driven everywhere. You have minders who always make sure you get where you're going. And you always get into the back seat of the limo.
-
My reasons for declaring a sexual preference had to do less with the pursuit of personal freedom than with the lust for pure shock value.
-
I got done writing Ports of Call and suddenly realized I have far too much material for the book.
-
I still have an old painting the Colonel gave me. It was the first time the Colonel had been back to the Hilton since Elvis had passed away.
-
Without understanding yourself, what is the use of trying to understand the world?
-
The desire for self-expression afflicts people when they feel there is something of themselves which is not getting through to the outside world.
-
I don't want to live in a nanny state where people are telling me where I can go and what I can do.
-
Democracy requires common ground on which all can stand, but that ground is sinking beneath our feet, and democracy may be going down the sinkhole with it.
-
A lot of people meet me and they're like, 'Why aren't you crazy?'
-
Getting your foot in the door with some publishing people can be important when you're starting out as a writer, but it's also not enough to get you where you need to be.
-
Visualization - it's been huge for me. Your mind doesn't know the difference between imagination and reality. You can't always practice perfectly - my fingers will play a little bit out of tune, or my dance moves might not be as sharp - but in my mind, I can practice perfectly.
-
I'm not sure if it's good to have freedom or not. I'm really confused now.
-
If I have to jump six feet to get the same thing that you have to jump two feet for - that's how racism works.
