Elif Batuman Quotes
The first modern novel was already a product, even an expression, of negative criticism: 'Don Quixote' contains a quite explicit critique of the chivalric romance and its insufficiency to account for the way real life feels when you get up in the morning in 17th-century Spain.
Quotes to Explore
-
Music is my way out. I keep things locked up and never say anything. I guess in order to say something to one person, I have to sing it to a couple of thousand. It doesn't make for healthy relationships.
-
The short hair fits my personality more. I think maybe, with long hair, it was a role - I was playing dress-up a bit.
-
That's what all art's about - a sense of moving away from boundaries that you can't in real life. Like a dancer is always trying to fly, really - to do something that's just not possible. But you try to do as much as you can within those physical boundaries.
-
Helping people boost themselves out of poverty is the best way to make a lasting positive difference in a person's life.
-
I take so much pleasure at seeing customers who are happy: happy with what they eat, but happy with their friends and sharing a great moment together, and I think that is more important in life than the endless pursuit of perfection.
-
I have to give importance to my personal life, my family, parents, and sisters. I hope I can strike the right balance.
-
You must go after your wish. As soon as you start to pursue a dream, your life wakes up and everything has meaning.
-
Of all liars the most arrogant are biographers: those who would have us believe, having surveyed a few boxes full of letters, diaries, bank statements and photographs, that they can play at the recording angel and tell the whole truth about another human life.
-
My therapy has come from paying attention to my life.
-
I'll never forget the modelling shoot I did in the Bahamas on a pink sand beach at Harbour Island. It felt like I'd just landed in paradise; it was so beautiful.
-
The biggest things in life are not materials.
-
My father has been the real anchor of the family. He's the one who has always encouraged my mother, my brother and me.
-
I want to do just, like, regular art. Whatever is made today on canvas goes up against all of art history. It's the most radical thing.
-
I really built myself up, darn it, to be very strong.
-
My grandmother, grandfather, my mom - we've always been driven by laughter. It's what held us together. Thanksgivings, any kind of family get-together, we usually end up in tears.
-
I dress up for awards, but only if somebody else is going to pay for the clothes. And shop for them, too!
-
I have a social life. But I don't discuss it.
-
Mangroves, salt marshes and sea grass lock away carbon at up to five times the rate of tropical forests.
-
When you walk up five flights of stairs at four in the morning, there's definitely a hooker involved.
-
When she told people how nervous she was about any kind of public appearance, they said incredibly annoying things like, ‘Don’t forget to breathe.’ Now she knew why.
-
I'm very supportive of women getting to a place in life when it's right for them to start a family. It's important for women to take their time to come into their own. I only want to say we might not have as much time as we think we have.
-
Loss means losing what was we want to change but we don't want to lose. Without time for loss, we don't have time for soul.
-
I've just got to keep a balanced head and stay focused.
-
The first modern novel was already a product, even an expression, of negative criticism: 'Don Quixote' contains a quite explicit critique of the chivalric romance and its insufficiency to account for the way real life feels when you get up in the morning in 17th-century Spain.
