Elif Batuman Quotes
There's a lot to be said for an American-style liberal-arts education, which prevents young people from professionalizing right away.

Quotes to Explore
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We're not ever interested in repeating ourselves or doing what people expect us to do, it's such a turn off.
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And upon this act, sincerely believed to be an act of justice, warranted by the Constitution, upon military necessity, I invoke the considerate judgment of all mankind, and the gracious favor of Almighty God.
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I think a lot of playwrights have a script in their bottom drawer that hopefully no one will ever see about a bunch of young people sharing a flat and getting up to crazy stuff.
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Though I am a Catholic, a professing one, I have serious doubts about the survival of the human personality after death.
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We shot 'Telusa Telusa' song in Bolivia. It took us 50 hours to get to the location. We shot in high altitudes, and oxygen cylinders were kept handy.
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One of the ways the North Korea regime has kept power is by keeping its people ignorant of the living standards in the outside world. That's the underlying lie that supports the regime - not that their country is 'normal' but that they are better off.
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I've never been to New Zealand before. But one of my role models, Xena, the warrior princess, comes from there.
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I'm more comfortable writing traditional protagonists. But 'Steve Jobs' and 'The Social Network' have antiheroes. I like to write antiheroes as if they're making their case to God about why they should be allowed into heaven. I have to find something in that character that is like me and write to that.
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The idea of collaborating with anyone else was quite daunting. If Battles had any trepidation in asking me, I can assure you I had more after agreeing to do it.
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Corporations cannot commit treason, or be outlawed or excommunicated, for they have no souls.
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Excelsior, higher and higher, but only step by step.
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Why are we tiptoeing on glass? You can ask me whatever you like; people usually do, and I try to be as honest as I can.
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Stay calm and aggressive.
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Tea does our fancy aid, Repress those vapours which the head invade, And keeps that palace of the soul serene.
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Every European goes on the streets and sees medieval churches. Not if you live in Indianapolis.
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The Left Elite only pretend to be concerned about what's best for everyone else because it is the most effective way to manipulate you and your children into their abyss.
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I love acting.
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The application of a strong magnetic field enables the measurement of the energy of the most penetrating particles to be carried out, and the method may be capable of still further extension and improvement.
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I like being like a chameleon who transforms himself with each role.
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No one conquers who doesn't fight.
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I joke, but only half joke, that if you show up in an American hospital missing a finger, no one will believe you until they get a CAT scan, MRI and orthopedic consult.
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Saddam was the creation of outsiders. He was created, strengthened, and kept by international force. He is like a man on a tree and the tree will be cut: he will fall down. The formation of a new front will inspire the Iraqi people to intensify the struggle, to give heart to people who before were faced with the whole world supporting Saddam.
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If for the sake of a crowded audience you do wish to hold a lecture, your ambition is no laudable one, and at least avoid all citations from the poets, for to quote them argues feeble industry.
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There's a lot to be said for an American-style liberal-arts education, which prevents young people from professionalizing right away.