Elif Batuman Quotes
The novel is like a melancholy form. It's about some kind of disillusionment with the way things are versus the idea of how they could be or how they used to be.

Quotes to Explore
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I will go so far as to say probably smoking had something to do with my pancreatic cancer.
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Education is a way of empowering people; it opens up so many doors and is fundamental to everybody. And teachers are not often appreciated in the way that they should be.
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Sometimes, in order to follow our moral compass and/or our hearts, we have to make unpopular decisions or stand up for what we believe in.
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Owing to the difficulty of dealing with substances of high molecular weight we are still a long way from having determined the chemical characteristics and the constitution of proteins, which are regarded as the principal con-stituents of living organisms.
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We are like the mechanism of a watch: each part is essential.
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I like PETA as a group for many reasons, but one of the reasons that I admire them is that they say and do the things that other groups won't do.
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I've always considered music stores to be the graveyards of musicians.
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If we'd had another carefree 70's, I'd have been dead. It was a little too carefree, you know? I don't know how carefree they were for me, I think I was worried then, I can't remember what about.
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May the perfect grace and eternal love of Christ our Lord be our never-failing protection and help.
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I cannot outline. I do not know what the next thing is going to happen in the book until it comes out of my fingers.
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I know I got angels watchin me from the other side.
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He who is cruel to animals becomes hard also in his dealings with men. We can judge the heart of a man by his treatment of animals.
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The day that you walk out in front of 30,000 people and don't get nervous is probably the day to give it up. It's inspiring to be a little terrified.
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You know in my own area of Waltham Forest, we've had many murders as a result of the gang violence and often innocent bystanders get caught up in it.
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I'm not having to go outside and switch the role model hat on. It's me, and it's important for me to leave that legacy to help inspire younger players because I didn't have a role model growing up.
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I've never been an all-black girl. I like pinks and blues and greens. If you come over to my closet, you'll be able to find a rainbow of things to wear.
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I hate to look at myself in a mirror, and I never go and see films.
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I like films that are well-written and concise and with not a lot of room for improvisation.
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You learn real early to make a film and then duck, and basically that's how I go about it.
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I'd want to direct a video for Yoko Ono. As long as I got to work with Yoko Ono someday, I'd be really happy. I just think she's such a great artist - it would just be so nice.
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On the 11th anniversary of 9/11, it is some consolation that the man most responsible for that terrible morning will not be smiling smugly to himself as satellite TV brings to the leafy boulevards of Abbottabad the somber images of New Yorkers commemorating those who perished in the Twin Towers.
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The novel is like a melancholy form. It's about some kind of disillusionment with the way things are versus the idea of how they could be or how they used to be.