Elif Batuman Quotes

I grew up thinking that it was immoral to idealize the past because, in the past, there was slavery and no penicillin.

Elif Batuman

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• Thinking
• Past
• Slavery

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Quotes to Explore

• I was able to really see that connection as a football player where success requires a lot of hard work and effort, physically and mentally.

  

  Sam Hunt
  • Work
  • Success
  • Football

• God gets you to the plate, but once your there your on your own.

  

  Ted Williams
  • God
  • You
  • Own

• When we were younger, we sang at the dinner table. We started doing two part harmony, then three part, and then we added back up tapes and instruments.

  

  Isaac Hanson Hanson
  • Up
  • Doing
  • Harmony

• I went through a training camp; I worked extremely hard. I prepared for UFC 200. This was the big one. This one meant everything to me.

  

  Daniel Cormier
  • Me
  • Training
  • Hard

• If you are unhealthy, start by making small changes to become healthier. You are unique, beautiful, and worthy.

  

  Octavia Spencer
  • Beautiful
  • Small
  • Unique

• Political stories in general are tough. They just don't appeal to as wide an audience.

  

  Callie Khouri
  • Political
  • Audience
  • Tough

• Piecemeal social engineering resembles physical engineering in regarding the ends as beyond the province of technology.

  

  Karl Popper
  • Technology
  • Engineering

• When I was in school, you could pick any instrument you want, and they'd teach you how to play it. That changed my life. I loved playing music in school, and it sent me on my path as a musician.

  

  Flea Jane's Addiction
  • Life
  • Music
  • School

• What we set out to do was to ensure that this system of fair shares and the planning and controls continued after the war, and when we won, that's what we did.

  

  Barbara Castle
  • War
  • Planning
  • Fair

• I've never worn fur, either. I'm a naturally squeamish person, and fur smells like dead animal to me.

  

  Sadie Frost
  • Me
  • Never
  • Animal

• It's always, 'Are you the runner girl?' I say, 'My name is Sally actually.' I used to always get that at school as well, 'Are you the runner girl?' I'm not even the runner girl, I'm a hurdler.

  

  Sally Pearson
  • School
  • Girl
  • Name

• In writing, as in medicine, there are no short cuts. You need stamina.

  

  Abraham Verghese
  • Writing
  • Short
  • Medicine

• A lot of people I make music with are really talented and it doesn't stop at one instrument.

  

  Abbie Cornish
  • People
  • Music
  • Stop

• Children like being a little scared, but they don't want to be disturbed.

  

  Salman Rushdie
  • Children
  • Want
  • Scared

• If there's one thing that 2009 showed us, it's that everything is happening everywhere, across multiple platforms, each one making waves that end up crashing against each other and commingling into one giant media sea.

  

  Rachel Sklar
  • Up
  • End
  • Sea

• My idea of an actor is to be different persons with different roles. Every time a script interests me, I look for interesting characters because I intend to completely transport myself into it. This happens only because I am a very greedy actor. I am not part of the rat race because I am living a dream.

  

  Vidya Balan
  • Time
  • Different
  • Dream

• Ages when custom is unsettled are necessarily ages of prophecy. The moralist cannot teach what is revealed; he must reveal what can be taught. He has to seek insight rather than to preach.

  

  Walter Lippmann
  • Teach
  • Insight
  • Reveal

• Some struggle is healthy. If you can embrace it rather than be angry, you can use it as your pilot light.

  

  Damon Wayans
  • Light
  • Struggle
  • Angry

• I've actually had a copilot come out of the cockpit on a trip from L.A. to New York and ask me about Charles Manson.

  

  Vincent Bugliosi
  • Me
  • New
  • New York

• TV's hard work. I don't know how the hell Angela Lansbury survived doing 'Murder, She Wrote' all those years. And sure, everyone wants to be Bruce Willis or George Clooney - they want to be in film for the range of characters you get to play.

  

  Christopher Meloni
  • Work
  • She

• Science is far from the center of the world for most people: even for many with highly sophisticated tastes, interests, and accomplishments.

  

  Bruce Beutler
  • People
  • World
  • Science

• It never ceases to amaze me that readers who are willing to suspend their disbelief when it comes to the motivation of a vicious serial killer get high and mighty because I have put a coffee shop where there isn't one. Er... it's a novel. I made one up. I'm allowed to make stuff up. I'd go as far as to suggest that I make stuff up for a living.

  

  Mark Billingham
  • Up
  • High
  • Coffee

• I first met my husband when I was 15. He was very cool, in a band, all that kind of thing, but he took a long time to grow up. Our paths crossed again 10 years later, and after about two weeks I knew that was it. I'm glad I met him when I did, even though I was fairly young. Because I think sometimes you can crystallise into singledom.

  

  Natascha McElhone
  • Up
  • Time
  • Long

• I grew up thinking that it was immoral to idealize the past because, in the past, there was slavery and no penicillin.

  

  Elif Batuman
  • Up
  • Thinking
  • Past