Alexander McCall Smith Quotes
But we make such mistakes all the time, all through our lives. Wisdom, I suppose, is seeing this and acting upon it before it is too late. But it is often too late, isn’t it? – and those things that we should have said are unsaid, and remain unsaid for ever.
Quotes to Explore
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I don't think I've ever sent a text to Gordon Brown because I'm confident that he would absolutely have no idea how to receive it. He barely managed to master WordPerfect 4.1.
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When the simple word processors came in, writing became crisper, less dense - just because of the way we could instantly edit on the screen. Now the ability to mash up words and pictures and links and songs and tweets is what matters. I can't imagine what writing will be like in 2154.
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I was very good in math and physics. In the Soviet time, we had a lot of Olympic-style competitions for different disciplines: I was always winning in my region.
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People say, 'You should let your hair out; you shouldn't be oppressed - you're not in Malaysia anymore. You should show your curves and be proud of it.' But I am proud - it's my choice to cover up my body. I'm not oppressed - I'm free.
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Finally, my manager negotiated a deal where I got to produce my own records.
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I don't know how people recognize me.
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A guitar riff played on a piano doesn't come close to the purity of it being played on a guitar but I faked it enough to get by.
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Facetiousness is allowable when it is the most proper instrument of exposing things apparently base and vile to due contempt.
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In politics, strangely enough, the best way to play your cards is to lay them face upwards on the table.
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I say I haven't lost my religion. I've lost my ideology.
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A lot of people like to run in plays because it's a nice, steady job.
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I stand for freedom of expression, doing what you believe in, and going after your dreams.
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I'm trying to write a TV show. Ideally it would be just a reality-TV show, getting the guy who played Eddie Winslow and Kirk Cameron to live in a house. The Jehovah's Witnesses would come to the house a lot or something like that. I kind of like the idea of Scientologists and Mormons and Jehovah's Witnesses trying to convert Kirk Cameron.
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Sarcasm helps me overcome the harshness of the reality we live, eases the pain of scars and makes people smile.
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To play four hands requires two people who have great affinity for each other.
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Hollywood's built on insecurity. People are trying to prove things. And I probably have that. I probably do. Probably guilty of it, in a way.
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I understand that people want to just listen to a track and put it on their iPod, and that's fine, there's nothing wrong with that, but why can't that exist hand in hand with an album? They're such different experiences.
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Music is the social act of communication among people, a gesture of friendship, the strongest there is.
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Prayer is an act of love; words are not needed. Even if sickness distracts from thoughts, all that is needed is the will to love.
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I don't know what will happen to the physical book and what it will mean for authors. I worry whether it will mean people can still make their careers this way. Will whatever comes next allow people to be able to own their ideas and be able to take time to develop them?
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From the age of 14 to about 20, I bombarded record companies and DJs with my demos. I was desperate to get it out there. Most of the time, I got nothing back.
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Speak to any editor and ask them what they turned down, and they'll have long lists of books.
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Oh, give us pleasure in the flowers today; And give us not to think so far away As the uncertain harvest; keep us here All simply in the springing of the year. Oh, give us pleasure in the orchard white, Like nothing else by day, like ghosts by night; And make us happy in the happy bees, The swarm dilating round the perfect trees.
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But we make such mistakes all the time, all through our lives. Wisdom, I suppose, is seeing this and acting upon it before it is too late. But it is often too late, isn’t it? – and those things that we should have said are unsaid, and remain unsaid for ever.
