Walter Kirn Quotes
Good short-story collections, like good record albums, are almost always hit-and-miss affairs - successful if they include three or four great tracks, wildly successful if they have five. And that's as it should be.
Quotes to Explore
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This is who I am: a flyspeck of human vanity in a trillion miles of stone-dead interstellar space; a graceless lump of flesh and fear in a remote desert where nearly everything that I can see or touch is designed to hurt me.
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The more you work and get known for something, sometimes things begin to narrow a bit, and your opportunities get more... specific.
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I profoundly feel that the art of living is the art of giving. You're fulfilled in the moment of giving, of doing something beyond yourself.
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I found out that there was this project called the 'Great Green Wall' where they wanted to plant trees across the Sahara desert, and the idea was born that I wanted to create a support structure for that initiative.
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I started playing badminton when I was probably of eight years and ever since have been playing. I didn't go to university.
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If I had the use of my body, I would throw it out the window.
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He who would not be idle, let him fall in love.
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If you don't get killed, it's a lucky day for anybody.
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I don't look at myself as suffering.
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One of the things I like best about the Halloween show is that I change outfits about six times in the show. It is a lot of fun to play the different characters.
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Now I feel like whatever I do, no one can hurt me. I cannot be violated, I cannot be humiliated, I cannot be disregarded, I cannot be disrespected.
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Pain is such an important thing in life. I think that as an artist you have to experience suffering.
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Opening doors for us, helping us with our jackets and chairs - we love all that.
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To expect for me to be one-way every time you see me is to expect me to be a one-dimensional man, which I've never been. I've always applauded my efforts to be diverse and multi-faceted.
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It's funny, because I have periods where I just kind of go dark. I don't tweet, I don't talk, I don't interview, and then I have times where I do.
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I live for the text. It's my job.
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A philosopher once said, 'Half of good philosophy is good grammar.'
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I sign on to any project because of the director: because they won't change, and you've got to feel confident that you're in good hands, in their vision.
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I don't know the vast majority of you personally, and it may sound kind of corny, but I really feel as if we've become friends through the years. And you've been with me during a lot of good times and some very difficult ones. I can't tell you how grateful I am.
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No matter where you are, depression responds to the same treatment.
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We can all instinctively understand the idea of life insurance; most of us will feel an instinctive repugnance at the thought of the viatical industry, or 'dead peasants insurance.' As market thinking penetrated the life insurance industry, a moral line was crossed, and the application of market ideas was taken too far.
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I remember once when I was working on a magazine, and one of the male editors was going on a field trip with one of his sons. The office was full of, 'He's such a good dad,' whereas I came in late from a doctor's appointment for one of my children and was asked, 'Where were you? You'll need to make up the time.'
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Good short-story collections, like good record albums, are almost always hit-and-miss affairs - successful if they include three or four great tracks, wildly successful if they have five. And that's as it should be.
