Walter Kirn Quotes

Literary dementia seems dated now, but there was a time when a month in the funny farm was as de rigueur for budding writers as an M.F.A. is now. To be sent away was a badge of honor; to undergo electroshock, a glorious martyrdom.

Walter Kirn

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Quotes to Explore

• I was staying with my sister and messing around with the guitar every day for my own amusement. Then she took me around and introduced me to Muddy Waters, Jimmy Rogers, Little Walter, and the first time I saw that onstage, it inspired me to play. I thought that was the world.

  

  Otis Rush
  • Time
  • World
  • She

• If you are for freedom and equal rights, which we hear a lot of talk about these days, then you have to include the LGBTQ community in that. And if you're not willing to put your time where your mouth is, then I don't know quite what you mean by commitment in your life.

  

  Hal Sparks
  • Life
  • Time
  • Freedom

• I love Winston Churchill; I think he had the grace of coming and the grace of leaving - when things were hard he was there, and when it was time to leave, he left.

  

  Lapo Elkann
  • Time
  • Love
  • Think

• For an actor, a Mamet play is definitely on the list of things you hope to be a part of before it's time to exit.

  

  T. R. Knight
  • Time
  • Hope
  • You

• We had a few non-fiction books at home, but my dad was of the opinion that fiction was a complete and utter waste of time because it wasn't real - so what was the point of reading it?

  

  Malorie Blackman
  • Time
  • Real
  • Home

• I've been influenced by some of the greatest designers. Charles Eames. And Bruno Munari in the '50s in Italy - when they had to retool the industry of war into an industry to help society. In a way, I'm influenced by designers that were there at a radical time of change.

  

  Yves Behar
  • Time
  • War
  • Help

• A mate of mine told me recently, 'It's the first time I've seen you work, Worthington.' I thought that was quite funny, but he was right.

  

  Sam Worthington
  • Time
  • Work
  • Funny

• We're immersed in the spirit of God all the time. We just don't notice.

  

  Dan Millman
  • Time
  • God
  • Spirit

• When people talk about the impact of mobile dating, everyone focuses on real-time meeting - this idea that my pocket will vibrate every time a hot girl walks by. That's important. But it's not transformative.

  

  Sam Yagan
  • People
  • Time
  • Important

• I think I've paid my dues. I've really put in a lot of time on set.

  

  Victoria Pratt
  • Time
  • Think
  • Really

• I'm a psychologist. I was a psychology faculty member, and then I became an administrator of the department, then the Dean of the College of Arts and Sciences. At the time of the presidential search, I was the dean.

  

  I. King Jordan
  • Time
  • College
  • Search

• I think that God prepared me for Chris's death in some ways, because I've seen other people lose their spouses. I've known for a long time that life isn't fair.

  

  Taya Kyle
  • People
  • Life
  • Time

• I wrote 'White Teeth' in the late nineties. I didn't really feel trepidatious about it. It was a different time.

  

  Zadie Smith
  • Time
  • Different
  • White

• Half of the great comedians I've had in my shows and that I paid a lot of money to and who made my customers shriek were not only not funny to me, but I couldn't understand why they were funny to anybody.

  

  Florenz Ziegfeld
  • Great
  • Money
  • Why

• I like children - fried.

  

  W. C. Fields
  • Children
  • Funny
  • Like

• I got tired of books where the boy is a bit thick and the girl's very clever. Why does it have to such an opposition? Why can't they be like the girls and boys that I know personally, who are equally funny and equally cross? Who get things equally wrong and are equally brave? And make the same mistakes?

  

  Patrick Ness
  • Why
  • Girl
  • Funny

• President Mandela was not a hands-on president at any time.

  

  F. W. de Klerk
  • Time
  • President
  • Hands-On

• I was barely in grade school when I helped my mother rearrange the living room furniture for the first time.

  

  Nate Berkus
  • Time
  • School
  • Mother

• The first time I met Garry Shandling was my audition for 'The Larry Sanders Show,' with Garry and his casting director Francine Maisler. I can recall every minute of it. He was gracious and kind, and he read with me. He was terrific.

  

  Jeffrey Tambor
  • Time

• At one time they've been the most important thing to me. So I can't hear our records on the radio, I can't stand it, because they sound so out of what everyone else is doing.

  

  Ray Davies The Kinks
  • Time
  • Important

• I worked in Licorice Pizza when John Lennon was killed. I had the day off, but I came in anyway because people needed a place to mourn.

  

  Gary Calamar
  • People
  • Day
  • Pizza

• What's interesting about the shift from an industrial age to a technological age is that we keep inventing new media: movies, records, radio, television, the Internet, and now ebooks - and one of the things that's most interesting about the invention of a new medium is watching it reinvent itself as it penetrates the culture.

  

  David Gerrold
  • Age
  • Culture
  • Interesting

• My team and I used the actual footage to create a three-act story of the life of Ayrton Senna. There are no talking heads and no voiceover. Senna narrates his own epic, dramatic, thrilling journey.

  

  Asif Kapadia
  • Life
  • Team
  • Journey

• Literary dementia seems dated now, but there was a time when a month in the funny farm was as de rigueur for budding writers as an M.F.A. is now. To be sent away was a badge of honor; to undergo electroshock, a glorious martyrdom.

  

  Walter Kirn
  • Time
  • Funny
  • Honor