Elif Safak Quotes

When I was 10 years old, we moved to Spain with my mother. I learned Spanish before I learned English. But the English language stayed with me.

Elif Safak

• Mother
• English
• Spanish

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Quotes to Explore

• I never even held a guitar until I was 23 and living in California, but then loved it. I'm really not an accomplished instrumentalist. Maybe that has something to do with why I write and sing.

  

  J. D. Souther
  • Why
  • California
  • Loved

• It was inevitable at some point that I would bump into one of my father's plays. The reality of the situation is that I'm a jobbing actor, and any actor would give their eye-teeth to have one of those roles. It's a no-brainer! I'm pleased the stars have aligned around 'Arcadia.'

  

  Ed Stoppard
  • Father
  • Reality
  • Stars

• I don't really love to perform in music. Some people like it more, but it's not my thing so much, but just the writing, when you get the lyric, and the lyric just goes just the right way, or you find the right bridge that takes you to the solo, and those moments are tremendous, and it's difficult to portray.

  

  Pardis Sabeti
  • Writing
  • Way
  • Like

• Any government that has a sincere desire for reform and progress should understand the benefit of objective and constructive criticism.

  

  Hamad bin Isa Al Khalifa
  • Desire
  • Government
  • Progress

• Bowie is a musician, but he works like a painter. Thom always thought that we should aspire to that.

  

  Ed O'Brien Radiohead
  • Like
  • Always
  • Thought

• The Department of Justice will continue to pursue those that travel to fight against the United States and our allies, as well as those individuals that recruit others on behalf of ISIL in the homeland.

  

  Dana Boente
  • Justice
  • Travel
  • Fight

• All I've done all my life is disobey.

  

  Edith Piaf
  • Life
  • Done
  • My Life

• I miss my family and friends from Cali a lot. I also miss late-night business hours, hiking in the Sierra Nevada, and house boating in Gold Country. But in Ohio, housing is cheaper, everything is green year-round, and we get glorious thunderstorms. In California, I lived in a place that was infested with black widow spiders.

  

  Rae Carson
  • Country
  • Family
  • Business

• Congratulations. I knew the record would stand until it was broken.

  

  Yogi Berra
  • Broken
  • Stand
  • Would

• I wrote my novel 'Bitter Greens' as the creative component of a Doctorate of Creative Arts and am now looking at the history of the Rapunzel tale as my theoretical component.

  

  Kate Forsyth
  • History
  • Creative
  • Looking

• I'm not a role model. I say parents should parent and monitor their kids.

  

  Yul Vazquez
  • Kids
  • Parents
  • Model

• I don't really like to talk about other people. I think people who have things going on in their lives, I think they have enough to deal with, they don't need, you know, Abigail Breslin weighing in on their lives.

  

  Abigail Breslin
  • People
  • Think
  • Know

• I'm not graceful.

  

  Karlie Kloss
  • Graceful

• I've completely fallen in love with the U.K., and I'd love to spend a couple of months a year there.

  

  Taylor Lautner
  • Year
  • Months
  • Spend

• I'd rather go to a flea market than just about anything. It's the process I like - the same with getting dressed. If I've got someplace to be, I'll spend more time getting dressed than I spent at the actual event. Sometimes. Even in my own closet, I love to dig and search and find.

  

  Iris Apfel
  • Time
  • Like
  • Find

• There is always a type of man who says he loves his fellow men, and expects to make a living at it.

  

  E. W. Howe
  • Men
  • Man
  • Living

• Dried porcini add a substantial, deep flavour to otherwise more neutral vegetables. I use them in risottos, mashed roots and winter soups.

  

  Yotam Ottolenghi
  • Deep
  • Winter
  • Roots

• There was a verse that said if you are lukewarm rather than hot or cold, God will spit you out of his mouth on Judgment Day. And I felt like, I mean, I don't know. I'm lukewarm.

  

  Maggie Rowe
  • God
  • Day
  • Cold

• There's nowhere in New York to go and have your emotions to yourself. People just look the other way because every day people see someone crying on the subway!

  

  Lennon Parham
  • People
  • Crying

• Discussing economic reforms in Serbia is futile.

  

  Ivica Dacic
  • Reforms
  • Discussing
  • Futile

• My grandparents don't really listen to pop music, and they only speak Spanish and only listen to Spanish music.

  

  Becky G
  • Music
  • Speak
  • Listen

• There was one point where my mother was dying of lung cancer, and a journalist dressed up as a nurse and got in the house to get a picture of her, dying of lung cancer and stuff like that, and then you realise the fame's not all it's cracked up to be.

  

  Pete Burns
  • Up
  • Mother
  • House

• The enigma I will not explain – its 'dark saying' must be left unguessed, and I warn you that the apparent connection between the variations and the theme is often of the slightest texture.

  

  Edward Elgar
  • Dark
  • Connection

• When I was 10 years old, we moved to Spain with my mother. I learned Spanish before I learned English. But the English language stayed with me.

  

  Elif Safak
  • Mother
  • English
  • Spanish