Barry Schwartz Quotes
What I look for in any book is an argument, based on evidence, that changes the way I think about something important.
Quotes to Explore
-
The most important fact is that gays have been here since day one. To say otherwise is a gross denial and stupidity. We played an enormous part in the history of America.
-
I think the important thing we have to remember about football in this country is that it is very vibrant, and it's very good to watch, not only in the flesh but also on TV, because our stadiums are full.
-
On the streets, hanging out with the fellows, there are things you learn that no book can teach you.
-
One of the most important things you can do in your life is to learn to pull back the curtain of fear so you can see it for what it really is - the enemy blowing a lot of smoke and pushing your buttons.
-
After 20 years, a million written words, and nine rejected novels, I finally landed a book contract.
-
In the discharge of the duties of this office, there is one rule of action more important than all others. It consists in never doing anything that someone else can do for you.
-
Writing my first book, I think in hindsight I went into it saying, 'It's gonna sell.' I was earning enough to scrape by sometime around a book or two before 'Tell No One.' I moved up from $50,000 to $75,000, then $150,000 for each book. I had never thought I would be doing anything else. I had enough encouragement.
-
During my first round of law school applications, I didn't even apply to Yale, Harvard, or Stanford - the mystical 'top three' schools. I didn't think I had a chance at those places. More important, I didn't think it mattered; all lawyers get good jobs, I assumed.
-
My mountaineering skills are not important to my best photographs, but they do add a component to my work that is definitely a bit different than that of most photographers.
-
We all have big changes in our lives that are more or less a second chance.
-
I don't really know what the Great American Novel is. I like the idea that there could be one now, and I wouldn't object if someone thought it was mine, but I don't claim to have written that - I just wrote my book.
-
My method is, I just sit down and write a book.
-
Butler's novel 'Kindred' may be the book most widely read by readers outside science fiction; it has been assigned as a text in classrooms and has sold steadily since its publication in 1979.
-
In a typical history book, black Americans are mentioned in the context of slavery or civil rights. There's so much more to the story.
-
As far as advice, that will be in my next book, my next collection. I certainly never like to instruct anyone, but just say as I feel. That's the same as advice, isn't it?
-
Writing blurbs for books means you have to read the book, and it cuts into the business of bookselling. So every time I get a blurb from a bookseller, I try to write a thank you note.
-
There is nothing more important in life than love.
-
Poul Anderson's 'The High Crusade' may have had a greater impact on my development as a writer than any other book I ever read.
-
I read books all the time. I'm just half looking for something to do; I mostly just read for pleasure. Occasionally I stumble across something that could be a movie, but I don't put a book down just because I don't see a movie in it, either.
-
Almost every single commercial on television for shampoo, sports shoes, drinks, food, clothes, perfume, cars, etc., is a short fairy tale, for they are given magical qualities.
-
One of my strengths as a writer is that I'm a good problem-solver. I write these unthinking, ungoverned first drafts. The project for me always is to turn that instinctive stuff into pages that work.
-
What I look for in any book is an argument, based on evidence, that changes the way I think about something important.
