Elif Batuman Quotes

'Constructed Worlds' comes from a novel draft that I wrote in my early twenties and reread/revised only in my late thirties.

Elif Batuman

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Quotes to Explore

• I learn something in the interviews from time to time.

  

  Samantha Bee
  • Time
  • Learn
  • Something

• My hair is not really white; it's kind of grayish, and I don't like the color. So I make it totally white with Klorane dry shampoo. That is the best thing to do because my hair is always clean.

  

  Karl Lagerfeld
  • Best
  • Hair
  • Color

• My mother witnessed the martyrdom of her husband, Hajj Malik Shabazz, Malcolm X, on Sunday, February 21, 1965, at the Audubon Ballroom in New York City. My older sisters, Attallah, Qubilah and I were seated with our mother up front and stage right.

  

  Ilyasah Shabazz
  • Up
  • Mother
  • City

• Russia and China, which have embraced autocratic capitalism, have attracted admirers and emulators by the seeming success of their strongman rule.

  

  Pat Buchanan
  • Success
  • Capitalism
  • China

• People do connect me with James Bond simply because I happen to like scrambled eggs and short-sleeved shirts and some of the things that James Bond does, but I certainly haven't got his guts nor his very lively appetites.

  

  Ian Fleming
  • People
  • Certainly
  • Lively

• I got some news for you. One, there is no Jesus. Two, there is no God. Three, mind your own business and everything works out.

  

  Ed Asner
  • God
  • Mind
  • Business

• Math proficiency is the gateway to a number of incredible careers that students may never have considered.

  

  Danica McKellar
  • May
  • Never
  • Students

• I used to get a lot of rubber ducks on my birthdays as presents because, you know, I make rubber ducks. But then I get the ugliest ones with a neck, ugly colors, and devil ears. I don't like those.

  

  Florentijn Hofman
  • Ugly
  • Devil
  • Colors

• I'm a lover of songs.

  

  Vince Clarke Depeche Mode
  • Songs
  • Lover

• Animals in the wild are lean, and I think we should be too.

  

  Eddie Izzard
  • Think
  • Animals
  • WIld

• If you think you don't want to play another psychopath, but the script is amazing, and the director is fantastic, and the story is incredible, then you may end up playing your third psychopath in a row.

  

  Damian Lewis
  • Up
  • May
  • Think

• The Republican Party of Richard Nixon was called to power in 1968 to bring an honorable end to the war in Vietnam and restore law and order to campuses and cities convulsed by crime, riots and racial violence. Nixon appeared to have succeeded and was rewarded with a 49-state landslide.

  

  Pat Buchanan
  • Power
  • War
  • Law

• If my duty does involve heralding His law in every arena, then the Church in America is failing radically today.

  

  Randall Terry
  • America
  • Today
  • Law

• I'd sometimes do 50, 60 takes of song.

  

  Dan Hill
  • Song
  • Sometimes
  • Takes

• I like straightforward names for my characters. When I get too symbolic with names or places, I start feeling like the characters and the story are less read, and I lose interest.

  

  Tayari Jones
  • Feeling
  • Story
  • Start

• It's not a 24-hour news cycle, it's a 60-second news cycle now, it's instantaneous. It has never been easier to get away with telling lies. It has never been easier to get away with the glib one liner.

  

  Malcolm Turnbull
  • Never
  • Lies
  • Now

• Obama often criticizes policies that place the interests of the powerful ahead of the powerless. But through his administration's support of abortion rights, Obama shows his lack of empathy for society's most powerless.

  

  Gary Bauer
  • Society
  • Support
  • Powerful

• We don't need to solve the problem of the rich-poor gap. We need to solve the problem of common prosperity.

  

  Zong Qinghou
  • Problem
  • Need
  • Prosperity

• Even more than this, however, the sick - like lepers - were often reviled because people believed that they had brought their torments upon themselves.

  

  Peter Lewis Allen
  • People
  • Sick

• I was a shy, quiet kid. I was happiest playing by myself with my toys, rather than hanging around people.

  

  Christian Slater
  • People

• Are there really good wars and bad wars? We thought so during World War II, and in retrospect, we were right. But in Vietnam, and Iraq we were wrong.

  

  Madeleine M. Kunin
  • World
  • Good
  • War

• What we do as a society is seek simple answers.

  

  Dean Koontz
  • Society
  • Simple

• We've got thousands of investors counting on us. And we're a team of thousands of employees all counting on each other. That's fun.

  

  Jeff Bezos
  • Investors
  • Employees

• 'Constructed Worlds' comes from a novel draft that I wrote in my early twenties and reread/revised only in my late thirties.

  

  Elif Batuman