Maria Semple Quotes
Quotes to Explore
-
Islam is unusual in that it's the only one of the great world religions which was born inside recorded history. That there's an enormous amount of factual historical record about the life of a prophet and about social conditions in Arabia at that time. So it's possible to look at the origin of Islam in a scholarly way.
-
Walking down the street in any town or city in the world and having people look at you and start talking to you, convinced that they know you as well or better than they do members of their own family, that's just an odd phenomenon. But I mean, I wouldn't say it was a bad thing. It's an interesting thing.
-
People are overwhelmed looking up at the Mount Everest of environmental challenges that we face. But you put one foot in front of the other and you recognize that not everyone is Sir Edmund Hillary.
-
It was really in the Golden Age, between the two world wars, when the pure detective story - of which the locked room mystery is really the ultimate form - became popular.
-
Liberty is a word which, according as it is used, comprehends the most good and the most evil of any in the world.
-
My autobiography is a digressive illustration and exemplification of what race has meant in the world in the 19th and 20th centuries.
-
The incentive for digging up gossip has become so great that people will break the law for the opportunity to take that picture. Then it crosses the line into invasion of privacy. The thing that's really bad about it, though, is that the tabloids don't tell the truth.
-
I started out with a dream to make a star in a jar in my garage, and I ended up meeting the President of the United States!
-
I have laughter dates with myself, where I find comics on YouTube and watch them. Louis C.K. was my first laughter date a couple years ago. I'll also watch those videos of people doing idiotic things. That cracks me up.
-
Israeli teachers are not required to hold an academic degree, and their salaries are the lowest in the Western world.
-
Hanson has rapid female fans, which I'm completely proud of, but a lot of fans are a contingent that have grown up with us really - our peers. There's younger fans. More and more guys are Hanson fans, musicians or kind of guys who were into a Beatles record.
-
I don't tend to set out on huge world domination goals or have anything in mind. I just like to play. I like to gig a lot; I like to write music.
-
Being traditional is a choice for me. South Indian families bring up their children with a sense of freedom, self-respect and self-value. We do whatever we have to with earnestness and honesty, including being uninhibited. Yet we hold onto our roots.
-
Almost half of the population of the world lives in rural regions and mostly in a state of poverty. Such inequalities in human development have been one of the primary reasons for unrest and, in some parts of the world, even violence.
-
There is some group of Americans who are really, really curious to understand how we ended up at this point, where every week it seems like you can turn on your TV and see some sort of abuse being heaped on black people.
-
Theater will cast in a more open way; Denzel Washington might play Richard III. Television and film don't really cast openly like that. The theater world has always been a leader in diversity.
-
Decisions are made by those who show up.
-
What you do on tour is you build this 'You and me against the world' thing.
-
Profitability is the only way to control your own investments.
-
Nowadays, people don't ask you how you are, they say, 'Are you busy?' meaning, 'Are you well?' If someone actually does ask you how you are, the most cheerful answer, of course, is a robust 'Busy!' to which the person will reply 'Good!'
-
Don't pretend to be a journalist if you're not a journalist.
-
As for me, prizes are nothing. My prize is my work.
-
My father was a screenwriter, and I kind of grew up in that world.
