Lev Grossman Quotes
I got my first whiff of what big-time adult literature was all about when I was in 8th grade. I got it from Mark Linn-Baker. You know - the guy from 'Perfect Strangers.'
Quotes to Explore
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When I look at the world I'm pessimistic, but when I look at people I am optimistic.
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I live in a 'sky island,' a unique mountain valley environment where half the animal species of North America can be found.
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I have to be on such a strict diet constantly.
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I'm 20 years old, and I still love love. I hope I'm sweet. Just your everyday girl.
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I don't choose to make movies as small as the movies I've made. The combined budget of my two films is far under $5 million, but it's just by necessity that it ends up being that way.
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When my lady and I sit down and watch TV, I find she gets annoyed at characters because they don't do what she would do in the situation. I'm always like, 'Well, she has to do that because that's what the story is.'
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Here's my rule: You always want to pay cash for your own books, because if they look at the name on the credit card and then they look at the name on the book jacket, then there's this look of such profound sympathy for you that you had to resort to this. It really is withering.
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Anyone can go out on stage and start beating people over the head with rubber chickens. That'll get people's attention.
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I believe that stories find writers, writers don't find stories. With the 'Pendragon' series, I actually had multiple story ideas and decided that instead of writing them individually, I would create a character whose journey would thread them all together.
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If I don't write down a thought - or an image or a line of poetry - the instant it comes to mind, it vanishes, which explains why I have pens and notebooks in my pants and coat pockets, the car, the bicycle basket, on one or two desks in every room including bathrooms and the kitchen.
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People expect me to be that guy. But I'm more east London boy than east Baltimore.
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My movies are, more or less, very short. I'm terrified of boring an audience.
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My mind boggles at the amount of violence inflicted upon children in today's society.
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The hardest thing about being an unpublished writer is that there's always that voice in your head that asks if you're really being a fool. You might just really stink and not know it. You have to have a lot of blind faith in the process. You have to like it so much that you're going to do it anyway.
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I think in the end, when you're famous, people like to narrow you down to a few personality traits. I think I've just become this ambitious, say-whatever's-on-her-mind, intimidating person. And that's part of my personality, but it's certainly not anywhere near the whole thing.
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You can't be around Oprah and not have her influence you, and I don't mean that because she's doling out the free advice. I mean it because she is someone that leads with truth and follows her heart. She's a force.
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I acted when I was a real little kid. My mother was an actress in a Miami theater company comprised of actors from Cuba like her and I was the default kid.
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The military is a machine of war. Not a law enforcement agency.
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Academic freedom and free speech mean the right to consider ideas with which you might disagree.
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Being excitable and passionate is what makes you look good because if you're engaged in what's going on, you radiate youth.
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From one till seven, when we moved to England, I spoke only Portuguese. But I can't speak a word of it now.
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The truth of Zen is the truth of life, and life means to live, to move, to act, not merely to reflect.
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We have always focused on degrees only. Now is the time to focus on skill development that will bring employment to our youth. If we have to compete with China then we have to focus on three things-skill, scale and speed. We need better skill, greater scale and faster speed.
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I got my first whiff of what big-time adult literature was all about when I was in 8th grade. I got it from Mark Linn-Baker. You know - the guy from 'Perfect Strangers.'
