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.
Quotes to Explore
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I think you grow up every year, every day. You learn something new and try to really worry about what's important in life.
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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?'
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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.
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Philip Kitcher thinks that mathematics is surprisingly like empirical science. Few mathematicians would agree; philosophers too, from Socrates on, have held the opposite opinion.
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I hated singing. I wanted to be an actress. But I don't think I'd have made it any other way.
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Two hundred years ago, our precursors in Haiti struck a blow for freedom, which was heard around the world, and across centuries.
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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.
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I remember 'Hannah Montana' came out, and I was so depressed, I started crying because I was like, 'I want to do that.'
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I grew up very self-loathing. I was a phobic. I had anxiety. I had panic attacks.
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I had a very happy childhood, which is unsuitable if you're going to be an Irish writer.
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South Africa is highly politicised; even small issues become politicised, and it becomes quite bitter.
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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.
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He who indulges in falsehood will find the paths of paradise shut to him.
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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.
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I work all day, do research, sketch my ideas, prepare for performances.
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A lot of movies are made to make us dream.
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It's grueling never knowing if the audience is going to think you're funny. It's soul-destroying when they don't laugh.
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I'm like a kid in a sweet shop every day. It's slightly cringey how much fun I have.
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We needed to make a few more plays. I think field position was an issue and not being able to get enough plays when we needed to.
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My work is really a blast. When it stops being a blast, then it ain't no fun no more!
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I don't like how cruel humans can be.
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Positive emotion alienated from the exercise of character leads to emptiness, to inauthenticity, to depression, and, as we age, to the gnawing realization that we are fidgeting until we die.
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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.
