Elif Batuman Quotes

No time you spend writing will be wasted - even if you write something that's bad.

Elif Batuman

• Time
• Writing
• Bad

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Quotes to Explore

• I've had a pretty charmed life, so there's nothing that I need to take too seriously right now.

  

  Larisa Oleynik
  • Life
  • Pretty
  • Now

• When companies get big, they slow down. They're not as exciting. If you want to get something done, it takes a lot of time and a lot of meetings.

  

  Adam D'Angelo
  • Time
  • Done
  • Meetings

• They don't call it the Internet anymore, they call it cloud computing. I'm no longer resisting the name. Call it what you want.

  

  Larry Ellison
  • Internet
  • Name
  • Cloud

• I propose a Constitutional Amendment providing that, if any public official, elected or appointed, at any level of government, is caught lying to any member of the public for any reason, the punishment shall be death by public hanging.

  

  L. Neil Smith
  • Death
  • Government
  • Lying

• Novelty is always welcome but talking pictures are just a fad.

  

  Irving Thalberg
  • Always
  • Talking
  • Welcome

• I have written a lot about the fine arts, but I'd never written about the literary arts, and so on some level Dante really, you know, spoke to me, as new ground but also familiar ground.

  

  Dan Brown
  • Know
  • Written
  • Arts

• Finishing games has been something I'm really proud of, seeing something through to the end.

  

  Felicia Day
  • Proud
  • End
  • Seeing

• If I don't write down a thought - or an image or a line of poetry - the instant it comes to mind, it vanishes, which explains why I have pens and notebooks in my pants and coat pockets, the car, the bicycle basket, on one or two desks in every room including bathrooms and the kitchen.

  

  Floyd Skloot
  • Mind
  • Why
  • Car

• Cartooning was a good fit for me. And yet now, years later, I almost never think about it.

  

  Gary Larson
  • Good
  • Think
  • Me

• If the 'Post' can play the role of a connector between the West and the East, I have confidence in the paper's future success.

  

  Jack Ma
  • Future
  • Success
  • Confidence

• Waiting for me in Stockholm will be a personal assistant - Katrina from the Ministry for Foreign Affairs - as well the secretary of the Swedish Academy. They'll help us with our things and take us to our hotel. From the moment I arrive, I'll always be together with the other two laureates.

  

  Ada Yonath
  • Together
  • Help
  • Waiting

• If you live through the initial stage of fame and get past it, and remember thats not who you are. If you live past that, then you have a hope of maybe learning how to spell the word artist.

  

  Patrick Swayze
  • Live
  • Remember
  • Hope

• Being a role model is about being true to myself.

  

  Idina Menzel
  • True
  • Myself
  • Model

• The lives of African-Americans in this country are characterized by violence for most of our history. Much of that violence, at least to some extent, you know, done by the very state that's supposed to protect them.

  

  Ta-Nehisi Coates
  • Country
  • Done
  • History

• The hardest thing about being an unpublished writer is that there's always that voice in your head that asks if you're really being a fool. You might just really stink and not know it. You have to have a lot of blind faith in the process. You have to like it so much that you're going to do it anyway.

  

  Watt Key
  • Faith
  • Voice
  • Fool

• I loved Judy Garland. I thought she was such a classic beauty. I thought she was so endearing and charming, and I loved her voice. She was such a dreamer, and I think I was, too - and I am.

  

  Kara Lindsay
  • Beauty
  • Voice
  • Charming

• I think it's possible to be multi-rooted, rather like a banyan tree, without being deracinated.

  

  Vikram Seth
  • Think
  • Tree
  • Possible

• It seems astonishing to be paid for indulging in pure pleasure. For me to go to Coburg is rather as if a trainspotter was sent for a few weeks to Swindon or a chocoholic asked on holiday by Green and Black.

  

  A. N. Wilson
  • Black
  • Green
  • Holiday

• We're all interconnected. For example, a simple lack of fresh water can lead to population dislocation, which can lead to political radicalization, which can lead to great pressure on the states that receive refugees because of a migrating population.

  

  Harrison Ford
  • Great
  • Political
  • Simple

• He must not believe, because he would be making the mistake of his life, that he can mess the international community about yet again.

  

  Jack Straw
  • Life
  • Believe
  • Community

• It's my job, too, to keep up with pop culture and what the kids are into 'cause you don't want to sound like an old man trying to write for kids. I spend a lot of my time spying on them.

  

  R. L. Stine
  • Up
  • Time
  • Trying

• I hate mankind, for I think myself one of the best of them, and I know how bad I am.

  

  James Boswell
  • Bad
  • Hate

• My time at Yahoo, from its founding to the present, has encompassed some of the most exciting and rewarding experiences of my life.

  

  Jerry Yang
  • Life
  • Time
  • Present

• No time you spend writing will be wasted - even if you write something that's bad.

  

  Elif Batuman
  • Time
  • Writing
  • Bad