Walter Kirn Quotes
However old-fashioned and right-wing this may sound, the American genius for language lies in understatement, in saying things simply, pointedly and quickly, and in making new and clean and swift what otherwise might be ponderous, round and slow.

Quotes to Explore
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Western Christians have imagined that, at the end of the day, God is going to throw the present space-time universe into a trashcan and we'll be sitting on clouds playing harps. The ultimate future that we're promised is much more interesting than that. It's new heavens and a new Earth with new bodies to live in.
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Everyone should be commended for allowing people to make disasters, to make failures - you've just got to be sure that it's a magnificent failure and that, by creating a magnificent failure, you plant the seed.
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I love to see women who are comfortable in their skin and dress to suit their body - that looks fabulous because it's authentic.
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I worked from 10 p.m. until 1 a.m. every night for a year to write the first 'Chicken Soup for the Soul' book.
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A lot of the time, when I watch actors now, I think, 'I don't believe you.'
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I had rather be called a journalist than an artist.
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Television offered me the opportunity to do new things; I had written a lot of scripts other than scary movies. I had actually written some romantic comedies and stuff that I really wanted to try my hand at, and nobody would let me do that. Television allowed me to do anything I wanted.
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I've been doing African dance all my life.
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I think I have been very lucky as far as my acting career goes.
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My parents are so cool, so chill, super hip. They know what's up.
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China's one-child policy was born in 1980, after years of less severe measures to discourage births. The Communist Party promised that the policy would be temporary.
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I usually have about four books on the go - a bedside book, a lavatory book, a downstairs book, and the book in my study that I read sneakily while I should be writing. Short stories for the lavatory, obviously.
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I have lots of passions - gardens, art, music and reading. I have eclectic taste and read a huge variety of books.
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We can no longer tolerate losing one more innocent child or putting one more firefighter at risk in a fire that could have been prevented at the cost of pennies by making a couple simple changes to the construction of a cigarette.
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Commonsense is the realised sense of proportion.
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Acting was just another part of my life, as it still is today. It's 1 of the 10 things I love doing. It's never just been my life. As cheesy as it sounds, all my eggs were never in just one basket. I had a thousand baskets going on.
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This is how to avoid re-creating painful situations: Take the time to discover your real intention before you act. If it is to change someone or the world so that you will feel safe or better about yourself, don't act on it, because it is an intention of fear and can create only painful consequences.
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Los Angeles is the only place that I can honestly say I have ever called home.
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In Congress, while the House's proposed defense budget calls for significant increases, it also cuts 11 billion dollars from veterans spending - including healthcare and disability pay. Be clear: we can't equate spending on veterans with spending on defense.
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I was the biggest liar for no reason, and then as I got older, I thought, 'Why am I lying to everybody?' I would hear other people lie and be like, 'You sound so stupid.' So then I would just change my lies. The only person I lie to is my little sister, when I steal her clothes.
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I'd love to work more with the American Indians, my people.
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Focus on the positives and be grateful.
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The novel...creates a bemusing effect. The short story, on the other hand wakes the reader up. Not only that, it answers the primitive craving for art, the wit, paradox and beauty of shape, the longing to see a dramatic pattern and significance in our experience.
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However old-fashioned and right-wing this may sound, the American genius for language lies in understatement, in saying things simply, pointedly and quickly, and in making new and clean and swift what otherwise might be ponderous, round and slow.