Elif Batuman Quotes
I had wanted to write 'The Possessed' as fiction, but everyone told me that no one would read a novel about graduate students. It seems almost uncivilized to tell someone writing a novel, 'No, you have to call this a memoir.'
Quotes to Explore
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In the case of my book, I don't think it's really the coming-out gay novel that everyone really needed, even though it was received as such. The boy is too creepy, he betrays his teacher, the only adult man with whom he's enjoyed a sexual experience, etc.
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I just like to stay a little quiet and just do my own thing. If I win a little more, I think I'll get a little bit more attention.
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When my lady and I sit down and watch TV, I find she gets annoyed at characters because they don't do what she would do in the situation. I'm always like, 'Well, she has to do that because that's what the story is.'
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I have no problem with violence, I have no problem playing horrible people.
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Stillness of person and steadiness of features are signal marks of good breeding.
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I made sacrifices willingly; it was what I did best.
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When we assess the impact of technological changes, we tend to downplay things that happened a while ago.
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I just make up lyrics off the top of my head. A lot of times, there's a phrase I really like, and I kind of build the song around that.
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I wonder now how tough you have to be to get big things done.
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Coming up with ideas isn't hard. The real challenge is finding the time to actually build something and then finding a home for it.
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'Vanity' means worthlessness.
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It's very important not to lose your temper in a courtroom, or in anything else you're doing.
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The woman who purposely destroys her unborn child is guilty of murder. With us there is no nice enquiry as to its being formed or unformed.
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Silk Road to Ruin has all the analysis and it's structured very well. I rely on my notes more and I use direct quotes. But there's nothing like writing about it right away.
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If you take shortcuts, you get cut short.
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Success in management requires learning as fast as the world is changing.
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We create success or failure on the course primarily by our thoughts.
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Life experience is not something to be denied, but to be celebrated.
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I've been a traveller, but I don't travel so much now. I'm trying to do it vicariously through my writing. I'm trying to write books that will draw readers away from their lives but send them back in a more awakened way.
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I refuse to confide and don't like it when people write about art.
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In the simplest terms the question who or what caused the Second World War can be answered in two words: Adolf Hitler.
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You can take Hollywood for granted like I did, or you can dismiss it with the contempt we reserve for what we don't understand. It can be understood too, but only dimly and in flashes. Not half a dozen men have ever been able to keep the whole equation of pictures in their heads.
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Writing is the geometry of the soul.
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I had wanted to write 'The Possessed' as fiction, but everyone told me that no one would read a novel about graduate students. It seems almost uncivilized to tell someone writing a novel, 'No, you have to call this a memoir.'
