Elif Safak Quotes

When societies go backwards and slide into authoritarianism, nationalism, and tribalism, machismo and sexism are also emboldened.

Elif Safak

• Previous
• Next

Quotes to Explore

• The U.S. tax code was written by A students. Every April 15, we have to pay somebody who got an A in accounting to keep ourselves from being sent to jail.

  

  P. J. O'Rourke
  • Tax
  • April
  • Accounting

• But it's the particularity of a place, the physical experience of being in a place, that makes it onto the page. That's why I don't just do library research. I very rarely write about somewhere I haven't been.

  

  Hari Kunzru
  • Why
  • Experience
  • Library

• I have three Defensive Players of the Year. Only one other player has done that. But being a defensive lineman, it's hard to control the game.

  

  J. J. Watt
  • Done
  • Game
  • Control

• You might say that I'm the Michelangelo of the dress business.

  

  Oleg Cassini
  • Business
  • You
  • Dress

• Everybody did something. It was very entertaining. We had a lot of fun. Lot of fun. And there was no segregation, that I could see. I never saw any.

  

  Cab Calloway
  • Fun
  • Never
  • Segregation

• I didn't do the typical things that young kids do.

  

  Balthazar Getty
  • Kids
  • Things
  • Young

• I always trained hard in my life to win the title, and I will train twice as hard to stay at the top.

  

  Rafael dos Anjos
  • Life
  • Win
  • My Life

• I'm interested in seeking projects no matter where, no matter if it is in the United States, whether in Chile, whether in Venezuela.

  

  Kate del Castillo
  • Matter
  • United States
  • Where

• It took me a long time to realize you don't choose what you're famous for.

  

  D. B. Sweeney
  • Time
  • Long
  • Famous

• I was always crazy about New York, dependent on it, scared of it - well, it is dangerous - but beyond that there was the pressure of being young and of not yet having done work you really liked, trademark work, breakthrough work.

  

  Harold Brodkey
  • Work
  • Done
  • Crazy

• Oh, I love making independent films, it's such a special, magical thing because you collaborate with a small group of people and everyone's pitching in. You'll see producers setting up the lunch table and the sound guy driving a van. We're all really there because we want to be.

  

  Olivia Thirlby
  • People
  • Lunch
  • Magical

• Trump is a potential disaster as commander-in-chief-uninformed, volatile, poor judgment. Hard to believe this is the candidate of a major political party.

  

  Barry McCaffrey
  • Believe
  • Political
  • Party

• Leave the earth to the strong and athletic,And the sea to adventure upon.But the sun and the sandNo contractor can copy;We lie in the landOf the lotus and poppy;We vegetate, calm and aesthetic,On the beach, on the sand, in the sun.

  

  Ogden Nash
  • Earth
  • Strong
  • Sun

• If I had as many love affairs as you've given me credit for, I would now be speaking to you from a jar at the Harvard Medical School.

  

  Frank Sinatra
  • School

• In 1994, Burns told the editorial board of the Bozeman Chronicle that when asked by a constituent, 'How can you live back there in Washington, DC with all those niggers?' he replied, 'It's a hell of a challenge.' When he was asked about the use of the racial slur, he said: 'I don't know. I never gave it much thought.'

  

  Conrad Burns
  • Live
  • Challenge

• It's all right for a woman to be, above all, human. I am a woman first of all.

  

  Anais Nin

• In general, we like to play as a band - guitar, piano, and voice. We also tour with a bass player, a drummer, and somebody who plays keyboard and guitar. We try to play all of our parts and flesh it out to get a lush sound, while also keeping the energy of a three-piece punk act. We want to be the best of all possible worlds.

  

  Andrew Dost Fun.
  • Energy
  • Band
  • Player

• A key to McMaster's thinking is his 1997 book, 'Dereliction of Duty: Lyndon Johnson, Robert McNamara, the Joint Chiefs of Staff and the Lies that Led to Vietnam.'

  

  Peter Bergen
  • Thinking
  • Book
  • Lies

• Prayer is a very precious medicine, one that certainly helps and never fails, if you will only use it.

  

  Martin Luther
  • Prayer
  • Medicine
  • Fails

• As a quarterback, I always feel like it's my job to be that steady, calm presence in there.

  

  Alex Smith
  • Job
  • Calm
  • Quarterback

• That was a real learning element for me, because I realized that the more true you are to yourself, the more you will lose people.

  

  Bill Sienkiewicz
  • People
  • Real
  • True

• I love what's happened to me, but when I was a kid, I wanted to be the president of the United States.

  

  Chris Rock

• Despite a voluminous and often fervent literature on "income distribution," the cold fact is that most income is not distributed: It is earned.

  

  Thomas Sowell
  • Literature
  • Cold
  • Prosperity

• When societies go backwards and slide into authoritarianism, nationalism, and tribalism, machismo and sexism are also emboldened.

  

  Elif Safak