Elif Batuman Quotes
Proust's 'In Search of Lost Time,' especially 'Time Regained,' made me think differently about what the novel is and can do. Then I forgot about it, then reread it and remembered again.
Quotes to Explore
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I wear the Jewish star, but I'm not - I haven't converted to Judaism, and I'm not - I'm not - I'm not Jewish in the conventional sense because the Kaballah is a belief system that predates religion and predates Judaism as an organized religion.
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When we have a good balance between thinking and feeling... our actions and lives are always the richer for it.
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I'm not convinced about marriage. Divorce is so easy, and that fact that gay people are not allowed to marry takes much of the meaning out of it. Committing yourself to one person is sacred.
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I feel like we all have our skeletons.
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Among my generation, there was a purist position that any contact with electoral politics was an unforgiveable compromise.
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I'm a different kind of Republican. I've introduced a five-year balanced budget. I've introduced the largest tax cut in our history. I stood for ten and a half hours on the Senate floor to defend your right to be left alone.
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I'm twitchy. I think I've got ADD. I find it hard to sit down. I need to be constantly challenged; otherwise, I get very... well, I guess 'bored' is the word.
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As a viewer, the minute I start getting confused, I check out of the movie. Emotionally, I'm severed.
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You walk past people in streets, or they serve you in shops, and you know nothing about the horrors they may be living with.
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I think there was a time when I considered myself a work addict, but that's no longer accurate. My life has changed so dramatically over the last number of years, especially having a family now. My priorities have shifted.
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On the face of it, China has won the Olympics. But it is not China that has won, but the Communist party. The Chinese people have lost.
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I can get really nervous before a race. People will think this is mad, but sometimes I have got to the start line and thought, 'What if I can't do this?' But the minute I sit on the bike, I am like a different person.
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Yeah, I'm very impressed with Lifetime, this is the first time I've worked with them. I really like the kind of programming that they're into, so I'm hoping that I will.
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I'm a big sports fan. College football is my favorite.
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The way to compose for me is to have lots of time.
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People think I am funny all the time. But I am not. I am serious, too. Also, I enjoy serious, dramatic films.
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Sneakers are not my thing.
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Football is my true love. I played with boys until I was 11 and then for a girls' club in Middlesbrough until I was 16.
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God is a great concept, but it doesn't work
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You cannot escape from the biological law of cause and effect - food choices are the most significant cause of disease and premature death.
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I always feel that a viewer has an expectation about every moment of the film and where it's going, so if I act against that, I've created a twist. In fact, it becomes a kind of game with the expectations of the viewer. This is the superficial appearance. In the layer beneath, there is a hidden theme.
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Every one of those old songs like "What's My Age Again?" and "All the Small Things" is like a tattoo or a scrapbook or an old photograph. There are just songs that define certain moments in your life. Everyone has a song that got them through a bad breakup or they put on and it made them feel like they wanted to go out and kick the world's ass with their friends on a weekend. Those songs still feel like that to me.
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Stretching was a major part of my preparation.
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Proust's 'In Search of Lost Time,' especially 'Time Regained,' made me think differently about what the novel is and can do. Then I forgot about it, then reread it and remembered again.
