Ta-Nehisi Coates Quotes
What it is is that Barack Obama was raised by a white mother and two white grandparents who, A, told him he was black and that there was nothing wrong with being black.
Quotes to Explore
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Imagination will often carry us to worlds that never were. But without it we go nowhere.
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Like many writers, I started by writing short stories. I needed to learn how to write and stories are the most practical way to do this, and less soul-destroying than working your way through a lengthy novel and then discovering it's rubbish.
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I have a rebellious teenage thing. If my mom says I can't do it, I'm gonna do it. But I'm pretty good. That's why it was fun to play Sam in 'The Bling Ring.' I got to be someone crazy and wild to the extreme, then go home and relax and get rid of the burden.
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I know there is something out there, and like most people, I tend to believe in it more when things go bad. But I'm not like Shirley MacLaine, who probably believes we were past lovers in another life.
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Self esteem is the reputation we acquire with ourselves.
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Now, I am completely independent - I earn my living by speaking and writing.
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It was a small provincial place with great people and I had a happy childhood growing up in Queens.
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The test is to recognize the mistake, admit it and correct it. To have tried to do something and failed is vastly better than to have tried to do nothing and succeeded.
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I have a fascination with Flight 93. My emotions are mixed: awe, gratitude, fear, heartache, pride - even, in some ways, guilt.
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Corporations cannot commit treason, or be outlawed or excommunicated, for they have no souls.
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Sometimes I see through things when people are talking. I'm really sensitive to other people, so I can tell if somebody's putting on a front.
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Sometimes, poor people don't smell too good, so love can have no nose.
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When you sample something, you're using the crutch of borrowing chords and melodies from a song that's already great, that's already stood the test of time, that's already special. When you're trying to do it all from scratch, you're writing something brand new that has to stand on its own.
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Flattery corrupts both the receiver and the giver.
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I'm really just a normal person.
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I always wake up 10 minutes before I have to be anywhere.
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Before this distinguished assembly and the world, the bells today proclaim the joyous tidings of the completion of this quietly soaring tower.
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Real people - the interesting ones, anyway - don't remain static, and neither do the ones I write about. Changes take place, and they react to them.
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The question isn’t whether or not you should wait to be picked, the question is whether you care enough to pick yourself.
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Sometimes I get to see a movie that's adapted from a book that I haven't heard about or that I love the movie so much that I will, of course, read the book.
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Before Congress cuts funding for Head Start, Social Security, and financial aid for college, we have got to make sure that large, profitable corporations are paying their fair share of taxes.
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I majored in theater, so I'd love to get back on a stage.
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What it is is that Barack Obama was raised by a white mother and two white grandparents who, A, told him he was black and that there was nothing wrong with being black.
