Ayad Akhtar Quotes
I started to understand that for me, art was no longer about self-expression but about creative engagement with the world. I started to respond in an excited way to making work inside an industry and not feeling the constraints of audience expectation as some kind of thing that I should avoid.
Quotes to Explore
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How small a part of time they share, That are so wondrous sweet and fair!
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I liberate minds with my music. That's more important than liberating a few people from apartheid or whatever.
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We have to surmount the difficulties that face us and work steadfastly for the happiness and prosperity of our country.
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When they offered me 'Wayne's World 2,' they said: 'We were going to give this to another actor, then we thought we'd see you'. I just thought: 'Surely you always had me in mind for that just in the way that it's written?', but they never admitted it. It was a wonderful gig to do. Really special.
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We're going to have shortages and prices are going to go up. Gasoline is going to be extremely tight for us.
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I've always felt a bit hard done by in England – you know, I've won the Bisto three times in Ireland, but it has felt like nobody has even heard of me in my home country.
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You are the only you. That means you don't lose roles to anybody else. There's no competition, so they either want you or they don't want you, and it's not that they wanted someone else over you.
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Today we are engaged in a deadly global struggle for those who would intimidate, torture, and murder people for exercising the most basic freedoms. If we are to win this struggle and spread those freedoms, we must keep our own moral compass pointed in a true direction.
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I can't remember writing any of the songs that I've written.
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I was very innocent and shielded as a child, so I didn't know a lot about music or dancing. When I was in Primary Six, no one would participate in a talent show, so I decided to go on. When the audience applauded me, I felt euphoric, and I started dancing right after that!
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Shaming people into being virtuous doesn't change behaviour.
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I was very aware of Jeff Buckley. My brother actually bought me The Mamas And The Papas and Jeff Buckley for my birthday when I was in my early teens.
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When you sample something, you're using the crutch of borrowing chords and melodies from a song that's already great, that's already stood the test of time, that's already special. When you're trying to do it all from scratch, you're writing something brand new that has to stand on its own.
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My style of playing is more enthusiasm and instinct than skill.
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Call me crazy - I love elk meat!
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I use to live on this street when I was a kid where there was an old person retirement home, and all of the old people would listen to that band Herman's Hermits, and they would wear white nursing shoes. And they would throw away stacks of VHS tapes, and I would go through the trash and take them.
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The journey matters as much as the goal.
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I think being recognized more is something you have to get used to, whether it's here or in California or when I'm traveling. It's more a part of my life. People recognize me from my play or a commercial I've done. It's just a normal part of life now.
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I have always, or for the most part, identified myself as a biracial person.
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I'm remixing an R.E.M. track called 'I've Been High' from their last album, 'Reveal.' It's a beautiful song, but record execs didn't put it out as a single because it didn't sound like the R.E.M. we're used to. So I asked Michael Stipe if I could have the tapes to do a remix, and he agreed.
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Every literary critic believes he will outwit history and have the last word.
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[her] mind blackens. The blackness is not a thought, but if it could be pressed into a thought, if a chemical from a dropper could be dripped onto it causing its color and essence to become visible, it would take the shape of this sentence: Why does no one want me?
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I started to understand that for me, art was no longer about self-expression but about creative engagement with the world. I started to respond in an excited way to making work inside an industry and not feeling the constraints of audience expectation as some kind of thing that I should avoid.
