Elif Batuman Quotes
When in doubt, it is better to do the less conservative thing and to err on the side of the more colorful, possibly terrible mistake. That comes from thinking of yourself as a writer.
Quotes to Explore
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As I followed my dream - stayed in-Spirit, that is, inspired - I made more money in the first year after I gave up my employment than I had made in the previous 35 years of my life.
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I don't think I have a signature.
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I would love to direct one day. I value the relationship that I have with a director so much, and I would be really excited to be on the other end of that relationship.
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I dig all kinds of competition.
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It's hard not to get depressed when you pay attention to the world and how strangely and corrupt the people in it sometimes behave.
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I believe in helping young people rock causes they care about because I was one of those young people... a long time ago.
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Sometimes, I find that just the simplest, cleanest things that are intelligently performed are funniest to me.
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I realized I didn't want to be a photographer. I gave it up, but I still worked that job in the restaurant and I found myself constantly hanging out in the kitchen.
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American business at this point is really about developing an idea, making it profitable, selling it while it's profitable and then getting out or diversifying. It's just about sucking everything up.
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I liked the people at Brown, while I really disliked most of the fellow students I had met at Northwestern.
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They have all different names for music. I think the music I'm going to change the style with is going to be really, really big-years and years after I'm gone.
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I barely watch TV apart from the news. Most of it is rubbish. There's all this reality nonsense and dross. I think there's a market for a well-produced, well-written melodrama like 'Dallas.' It's pure entertainment.
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Many comedians have a dark side that lets them take a negative thing and turn it funny.
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I want to go see Somalia because I've never been there, and I feel like I'm missing out. I want to learn that heritage; I want to learn about my culture.
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My hair is such a statement that it's like a neon sign asking for trouble.
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I'm a small and normal girl, and stories like mine no one likes to tell. Fortunately so, because I wouldn't like to play myself.
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My physical transformations - like changing my hair - are usually a reflection of what's inspiring me at the moment.
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I hate overweight, because it implies that there's a weight standard I should be adhering to.
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Everything counts! Everything you do helps or hurts, adds up or takes away.
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There's one Baldessari work I genuinely love and would like to own, maybe because of my Midwestern roots and love of driving alone. 'The backs of all the trucks passed while driving from Los Angeles to Santa Barbara, California, Sunday, 20 January 1963' consists of a grid of 32 small color photographs depicting just what the title says.
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I'm not trying to steal the show. I tend to shy away from - I don't want to say the spotlight - how about responsibility? It's just very daunting. These movies are very intimidating. 'Captain America.' This is the stuff I struggle with.
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When asked to make the formal declaration that I did not intend to overthrow the Constitution of the United States, I was fool enough to reply that I had no such purpose, but that were I to do it by mistake I should be inexpressibly contrite.
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When in doubt, it is better to do the less conservative thing and to err on the side of the more colorful, possibly terrible mistake. That comes from thinking of yourself as a writer.
