Elif Batuman Quotes
Quotes to Explore
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Never having alone time is real tough on people.
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I am in love with myself, with my friends, with my family, with kids, with life and my movies.
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I have been fortunate to experience a wide range of characters. What more can an actor ask for?
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For years, Judaism has been a sort of product put on the religious shelf, and on holidays, we would take it off the shelf and let seculars play with it for a bit. Now, Judaism is going back to being something that more closely touches everyone.
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I live with my mum and my nan. I think I will leave eventually, but not at the moment when they look after me so well. If you came to my house, they'd make you eat something.
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It's a fine balance for an athlete in enjoying the moment and being really satisfied, say, with a run, and with your day, and knowing you can make it better in the future.
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We make a ladder for ourselves of our vices, if we trample those same vices underfoot.
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Without children, men have more liberty to earn less - that is, they are free to pursue more fulfilling and less lucrative careers, like writing or art or teaching social studies.
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'The Last Airbender' is genetically engineered for me. I love martial arts. I study it. The movie's based on a lot of Buddhist and Hindu philosophy. I was raised Hindu.
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I guess I'm not really fond of just chit-chatting. I want to learn something and have an experience.
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When you're young, you're stupid.
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George Clooney had the web of celebrity from television and doing 'ER,' and he's able to parlay that into films. God willing, I'll be up there in a few years.
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I eat next to nothing.
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People will see me at Chelsea the way I am and judge me the way they want to.
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In many countries in the Middle East - and this is changing in the wake of the Arab Spring - but for a long time, censorship of books and film was a very big deal. There were books you couldn't buy; things with political content would be censored, but there were some genres of books and film that the censors just didn't understand.
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I could play for the worst team if they paid the most... If the last-place team offers $200 million and the first-place team offers $10, I'm going to go for the $200-million no matter what team it was.
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I originally wanted to be an astronaut when I was a kid. Then I had this huge fear of black holes because my brother learned a bunch of stuff about it, and he's like, 'Oh, yeah, if you go into one you're never coming back.'
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As weird as it is it to see yourself on screen, it made everything we've been through seem very real. And, well, London is only weeks away now.
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I felt like the big geek in high school. And I still feel like a big geek.
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I love performing, it's my favourite thing to do. I think the music comes across even stronger live. I started performing first, before I started writing or being in the studio. I just love the energy that we can share together, for just one hour or however long it is. We all come together from all walks of life. I know it sounds cheesy.
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Halp! My powerful brain is blowed itself up!
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The hot radio medium used in cool or nonliterate cultures has a violent effect, quite unlike its effect, say in England or America, where radio is felt as entertainment. (p. 30)
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Strive for perfection - never be content with mediocrity. You don't win until you conquer the little flaws. You don't beat these great ones until your form is perfect. This is true in all of life. A flaw in a product can ruin a business. A personal failing, a little one, can ruin a person's life. Don't be content with mediocrity - strive to live up to the greatest within you.
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Lists are based on realism - on the coldly contemplated finitude of resources.
