Alan Lightman Quotes

I have for a long time loved fabulist, imaginative fiction, such as the writing of Italo Calvino, Jose Saramago, Michael Bulgakov, and Salman Rushdie. I also like the magic realist writers, such as Borges and Marquez, and feel that interesting truths can be learned about our world by exploring highly distorted worlds.

Alan Lightman

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Quotes to Explore

• A man who stands for nothing will fall for anything.

  

  Malcolm X
  • Man
  • Stand For
  • Fall For

• For those unfortunate enough to experience it, long-term unemployment - now, as in the 1930s - is a tragedy. And, for society as a whole, there is the danger that the productive capacity of a significant portion of the labour force will be impaired.

  

  Barry Eichengreen
  • Long
  • Experience
  • Society

• I have got prostate cancer, and I have to keep monitoring that. It's no problem, it's under control and I'm very cool about it, but other people are dying from it.

  

  Ian Mckellen
  • People
  • Control
  • Problem

• I have always been delighted at the prospect of a new day, a fresh try, one more start, with perhaps a bit of magic waiting somewhere behind the morning.

  

  J. B. Priestley
  • Day
  • Morning
  • Waiting

• I hear all the time that boys don't like stories about girls. Which never made much sense to me. Wasn't 'Terminator' about a girl? And 'Alien'? Hell, I grew up on 'The Wizard of Oz.' People enjoy stories about anything if they're good stories.

  

  Ted Naifeh
  • People
  • Up
  • Time

• I see many black males grasping for some thread of hope. There are so many destructive practices, glimpses into a psychic abyss. That must be very frightening.

  

  Yusef Komunyakaa
  • Hope
  • Black
  • See

• There are those who believe that the value of a children's book can be measured only in terms of the moral lessons it tries to impose or the perfect role models it offers. Personally, I happen to think that a book is of extraordinary value if it gives the reader nothing more than a smile or two. In fact, I happen to think that's huge.

  

  Barbara Park
  • Believe
  • Children
  • Book

• Better than any argument is to rise at dawn and pick dew-wet red berries in a cup.

  

  Wendell Berry
  • Better
  • Red
  • Argument

• I don't really think about anything too much. I live in the present. I move on. I don't think about what happened yesterday.

  

  Pamela Anderson
  • Live
  • Present
  • Yesterday

• I write novels, mostly historical ones, and I try hard to keep them accurate as to historical facts, milieu and flavor.

  

  Gary Jennings
  • Facts
  • Try
  • Flavor

• Meditation is difficult for many people because their thoughts are always on some distant object or place. One form of meditation is to label the thought as it appears and then choose to let it go.

  

  Wayne Dyer
  • People
  • Thoughts
  • Thought

• For me, acting is a long-term thing. I'm not in a hurry to make it. I have no desire to explode onto the film industry. I still want to be acting when I'm 60.

  

  Gabriella Wilde
  • Long
  • Me
  • Desire

• I kind of always struggled writing in Malay, because Malay is such a beautiful language. And it gets really hard, you know, if you want to make it into a song. You have to make it sound beautiful, use the right words.

  

  Yuna
  • Writing
  • Beautiful
  • Song

• Show respect to all people, but grovel to none.

  

  Tecumseh
  • People
  • Respect
  • Show

• I was frequently told at drama school that I was thinking too much. And I still have to suppress that part of me because it can sometimes be a hindrance.

  

  Natalie Dormer
  • Thinking
  • School
  • Me

• I think that people are most comfortable when they can put you in a box - and that's very easy to do that when someone can put you in more serious roles. I'm not blaming them for that - it's just up to me to show people what I can do.

  

  Laura Benanti
  • People
  • Up
  • Me

• I've found all of my apartments on Craigslist. I've got good Craigslist luck. I just sit on my couch and really focus on it, and I've gotten really lucky that way.

  

  Zoe Kravitz
  • Good
  • Focus
  • Luck

• If you make a mistake, you should enjoy it.

  

  Adam Ant Adam and the Ants
  • You
  • Mistake
  • Enjoy

• When I was a kid, there were these great comic books called 'Tales From The Crypt' and 'The Vault of Horror.' They were gruesome. I discovered them in the barbershop and thought they were fabulous.

  

  R. L. Stine
  • Great
  • Thought
  • Kid

• One of the things I like to do during an 'overhaul' revision is bust out my highlighters and colored pens. Tools like these make me feel like a real writer.

  

  Lisa Graff
  • Real

• Human warmth is perhaps the most lacking in a composer who lives his life in a recording studio.

  

  Fabio Frizzi
  • Life
  • Composer
  • Warmth

• A lot of period pieces we see are adaptations of novels - we always know the story.

  

  Joanne Froggatt
  • Period

• If owning stocks is a long-term project for you, following their changes constantly is a very, very bad idea. It's the worst possible thing you can do, because people are so sensitive to short-term losses. If you count your money every day, you'll be miserable.

  

  Daniel Kahneman
  • People
  • Long
  • Money

• I have for a long time loved fabulist, imaginative fiction, such as the writing of Italo Calvino, Jose Saramago, Michael Bulgakov, and Salman Rushdie. I also like the magic realist writers, such as Borges and Marquez, and feel that interesting truths can be learned about our world by exploring highly distorted worlds.

  

  Alan Lightman
  • Time
  • World
  • Long