Walter Kirn Quotes

I think of myself as writing realist American fiction. 'Cynical but hopeful' wouldn't be the worst thing I've ever been called.

Walter Kirn

• Writing
• American
• Myself
• Realist

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Quotes to Explore

• To be one's self, and unafraid whether right or wrong, is more admirable than the easy cowardice of surrender to conformity.

  

  Irving Wallace
  • Easy
  • Self
  • Conformity

• God surrounded me with people of faith, people of strong faith, people of power, spiritual power, and I saw little miracles happen in their lives. By it happening in their lives, I started believing it could happen to me.

  

  Natalie Cole
  • People
  • God
  • Power

• I look a certain way. I have a very specific kind of look.

  

  Famke Janssen
  • Way
  • Kind
  • Look

• I have no problem with violence, I have no problem playing horrible people.

  

  Mandy Patinkin
  • People
  • Problem
  • Violence

• It's been a long slog back, and we've still got a long way to go.

  

  Ted Strickland
  • Long
  • Way
  • Back

• Everything has two sides - the outside that is ridiculous, and the inside that is solemn.

  

  Olive Schreiner
  • Inside
  • Sides
  • Ridiculous

• I just make up lyrics off the top of my head. A lot of times, there's a phrase I really like, and I kind of build the song around that.

  

  Washed Out
  • Up
  • Song
  • Kind

• I'd never stop traveling, and I love bringing my family along with me. My children have points of reference everywhere, friends from Milan to Los Angeles. I think it's really fun for them.

  

  Valeria Mazza
  • Children
  • Family
  • Friends

• You need to make a trip to Des Moines in August, because the Iowa State Fair really is a sight to see. The Iowa Fairgrounds are usually packed for those 11 days, and you get a real sense of what a classic Midwest fair is all about.

  

  Zach Johnson The Fray
  • Real
  • You
  • Need

• Lets be clear, Dolly Parton is a rapper. Somewhere before all the country, I don't know what happens up there in the mountains when you're growing up, but she has been spitting rhymes for a very long time - 50 years I'd say.

  

  Queen Latifah
  • Up
  • Time
  • Long

• Meditation helps me to calm down.

  

  Lady Gaga
  • Me
  • Calm
  • Meditation

• Not obsessed with particularly Nike, but sneakers in general. I love them.

  

  Idris Elba
  • Obsessed
  • General
  • Sneakers

• That's really my goal now. I'm trying to be a positive role model to my kids and to just enjoy this ride, because it's hard. It's hard to enjoy it when you're in it.

  

  Taylor Dayne
  • Trying
  • Kids
  • Positive

• Eazy-E is going to remain Eazy-E. But I will not portray Compton as a bad city.

  

  Eric Lynn Wright
  • Bad
  • City
  • Will

• I've used a cellphone exactly twice. Things move on. The world changes. And I don't know it.

  

  Laura Hillenbrand
  • World
  • Know
  • Changes

• Fortunately analysis is not the only way to resolve inner conflicts. Life itself still remains a very effective therapist.

  

  Karen Horney
  • Life
  • Way
  • Analysis

• People in their handlings of affairs often fail when they are about to succeed. If one remains as careful at the end as he was at the beginning, there will be no failure.

  

  Lao Tzu
  • People
  • Beginning
  • Failure

• There's a molecule inside of you that is connected to everything - every person, every energy, every thing. You look for it, and when you find it, then you allow it to magnify and grow and be the dominating chemistry inside of you.

  

  Forest Whitaker
  • Energy
  • Grow
  • Chemistry

• People's creativity is very much alive, but when they get paid for their creativity, they often experience that as rather meaningless. Money as the reward for their creative process is very one-dimensional, a tremendous comedown.

  

  Chogyam Trungpa
  • People
  • Money
  • Experience

• With a gentleman I am always a gentleman and a half, and with a fraud I try to be a fraud and a half.

  

  Otto von Bismarck
  • Try
  • Gentleman
  • To Be

• My mission is to get on the stage and say, 'Listen, I'm a woman, I'm free, I'm a mother, I'm a lover, I'm a friend; I'm shattered by men most of the time, but I'll keep falling in love with them because it's the most thrilling thing in the world; that's what makes me human.'

  

  Lou Doillon
  • Time
  • World
  • Men

• There is something wrong with our culture when the view that marriage is between one man and one woman, a view shared by half the nation, is portrayed as evidence of hatred.

  

  Gary Bauer
  • Man
  • Culture
  • Marriage

• I think of myself as writing realist American fiction. 'Cynical but hopeful' wouldn't be the worst thing I've ever been called.

  

  Walter Kirn
  • Writing
  • American
  • Myself