Alice McDermott Quotes

At the beginning of every semester, I ask my graduate students whether there is something I should read that will help me understand their work.

Alice McDermott

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Quotes to Explore

• I think you grow up every year, every day. You learn something new and try to really worry about what's important in life.

  

  Patrick Kane
  • Life
  • Up
  • Important

• It's great when a director like Cameron Crowe can take what you do and fit it into what he's doing. If someone's a fan of you already, they can take what you do and make it work for what they're doing. You don't know their vision, and you're thinking, 'How is this guy going to take what I do and make it work in this movie?'

  

  J. B. Smoove
  • Work
  • Great
  • Thinking

• I am a passionate civil libertarian.

  

  Ted Cruz
  • Passionate
  • Libertarian
  • Civil

• I'm not shy about trying to find what truth there is in any genre, whether that be an action piece, a sci-fi piece, a small indie film, or a play. I'm open to it all.

  

  Mahershala Ali
  • Trying
  • Truth
  • Small

• Philip Kitcher thinks that mathematics is surprisingly like empirical science. Few mathematicians would agree; philosophers too, from Socrates on, have held the opposite opinion.

  

  Ian Hacking
  • Science
  • Opinion
  • Mathematics

• I hated singing. I wanted to be an actress. But I don't think I'd have made it any other way.

  

  Barbra Streisand
  • Think
  • Way
  • Singing

• Two hundred years ago, our precursors in Haiti struck a blow for freedom, which was heard around the world, and across centuries.

  

  Baldwin Spencer
  • World
  • Freedom
  • Years

• I'm kind of lax about hair in general. I stopped shaving my armpits in part to experiment with pheromones, but also because I just didn't feel like shaving them anymore.

  

  Callie Hernandez
  • Kind
  • Hair
  • Feel

• I remember 'Hannah Montana' came out, and I was so depressed, I started crying because I was like, 'I want to do that.'

  

  Zendaya
  • Remember
  • Want
  • Like

• I grew up very self-loathing. I was a phobic. I had anxiety. I had panic attacks.

  

  Dane Cook
  • Up
  • Anxiety
  • Very

• I had a very happy childhood, which is unsuitable if you're going to be an Irish writer.

  

  Maeve Binchy
  • Happy
  • You
  • Childhood

• South Africa is highly politicised; even small issues become politicised, and it becomes quite bitter.

  

  Damon Galgut
  • Small
  • Bitter
  • Africa

• Books have always helped me make sense of things. With any life experience, you can find someone who has documented it in a poetic way.

  

  Kate Beckinsale
  • Life
  • Experience
  • Way

• He who indulges in falsehood will find the paths of paradise shut to him.

  

  Abu Bakr
  • Find
  • Paradise
  • Paths

• We did a lot of those road trips, all the mandatory stuff that you should when you're a kid, like Mount Rushmore and the Grand Canyon and the Sequoias and the western coast.

  

  Vicki Lawrence
  • You
  • Road
  • Grand Canyon

• I work all day, do research, sketch my ideas, prepare for performances.

  

  Lady Gaga
  • Work
  • Day
  • Research

• A lot of movies are made to make us dream.

  

  Olga Kurylenko
  • Dream
  • Movies
  • Made

• It's grueling never knowing if the audience is going to think you're funny. It's soul-destroying when they don't laugh.

  

  Vince Vaughn
  • Think
  • Soul
  • Funny

• You do your work as fully as you can, and the ones who hear the sound join in.

  

  Lance Henriksen
  • Work
  • You
  • Sound

• Nothing - and, I repeat, nothing - can affect what you build with sheer hard work. You either wait for people to define your worth or you define it with your own actions. I believe in the latter.

  

  Mawra Hocane
  • People
  • Work
  • Believe

• I didn't really have a mentor, but I have always definitely been inspired by the '70s - the Stones, Patti Smith, Anita Pallenberg.

  

  Kate Moss
  • Always
  • Inspired
  • Mentor

• Brooklyn was a dream. All the things that happened there just couldn't happen. It was all dream stuff. Or was it all real and true and was it that she, Francie, was the dreamer?

  

  Betty Smith
  • Real
  • She
  • True

• We all know that there are different scripted programs out there, and we're all facing the same challenges in terms of ratings and everything else, but I think that there is a lot of opportunity to be had as well, and what I'm excited to do is to get to explore that.

  

  Channing Dungey
  • Different
  • Opportunity
  • Explore

• At the beginning of every semester, I ask my graduate students whether there is something I should read that will help me understand their work.

  

  Alice McDermott
  • Work
  • Help
  • Beginning