Elif Batuman Quotes
Being in a heterosexual relationship for a woman is always implicitly a little bit humiliating.
Quotes to Explore
-
Don't go into any store that features shopping bags that can stand on their own accord in the middle of a table. This sort of shopping bag denotes prices that will start chipping into your children's college education fund. Avoid it.
-
Let's talk about Connie Britton, who I love. I don't know of a person who doesn't love her, I don't know a man or woman who doesn't have a crush on her, she's the most fabulous person in the entire world, and she's such an incredible actress, and so sweet, and I love her.
-
I really do inhabit a system in which words are capable of shaking the entire structure of government, where words can prove mightier than ten military divisions.
-
When something happens far back in the past, people often can't recall exact details. Blame depends upon point of view. There may be a villain, but reality is frustrating because it's often ambiguous.
-
I will never sign to a major record label again. If, by some mega fluke, a record of mine looked like it might break big, I'd try and do it via an indie or somehow license it. I'm not having my music owned by those corporate bastards again.
-
Religion is essentially the art and the theory of the remaking of man. Man is not a finished creation.
-
The director had come to Madrid to court me.
-
Water for People is a non-profit international organization that brings together communities, entrepreneurs, governments - people - to create solutions that empower people to maintain their own reliable water systems and sanitation.
-
In writing a series of stories about the same characters, plan the whole series in advance in some detail, to avoid contradictions and inconsistencies.
-
All business leaders need to be technologists, as every industry now has a Netflix or an Uber on the horizon, threatening to upend business as usual. Apps are driving this disruption, and every enterprise needs to become an app company.
-
The one thing I do not want to be called is First Lady. It sounds like a saddle horse.
-
I know people who prepare their roles in such a way that they technically look ahead and memorize their gestures, and then they stick to it. Those that are technically proficient enough can make it seem natural, but they do that and don't really take in what other people are doing.
-
L.A. is a great place to write because you have a lot of space. I have a big office at home, I can leave the doors open. Flowers bloom all year. But it's unglamorous in all the right ways.
-
I did live through Katrina and also Hurricane Rita, which hit Lake Charles. Interestingly, when Katrina hit, they evacuated and Lake Charles was one of the evacuation destinations. We opened up the civic center of the city to the evacuees and provided them free medical and psychiatric care there.
-
When you do take the home pregnancy test, it doesn't quite seem real. But when you see the baby and the heartbeat on the ultrasound, it's so incredible.
-
I don't recall ever desiring to go as fast as possible.
-
When I go home, I play with my baby dolls and strollers and diaper bags, and play with my sisters.
-
To have a sense of style, it shows you know yourself. People like that.
-
The disappearance of Israel as a Zionist project, through war, cultural exhaustion or demographic momentum, is... plausible... Many Israelis see the demise of the country as not just possible, but probable.
-
In my last band, Soundgarden, I had a couple of different drummers sit in on some stuff and it was fun for me to kind of take a break and watch the band.
-
Muslims are very keenly aware of the history of their community, of the history of that relationship between their community and the rest of the world. And they have had this all through the centuries and are very much heightened by modern communications. I mean now you have Muslims in the Muslim world who can compare their situations with people elsewhere and they find that very humiliating.
-
Since I've been in the Senate, is that my work with people like Tom Coburn on opening up transparency in government, making sure that every dollar the federal government spends that's out there - that that's all posted on a searchable database on the Internet.
-
Being in a heterosexual relationship for a woman is always implicitly a little bit humiliating.
