Benjamin Britten Quotes
Quotes to Explore
-
I never want to hold myself up as the poster child of the successful mother-businesswoman. It's a total 'Gong Show.' I won't pretend. When you do so many things, something always suffers. You just can't be great at everything.
-
The fundamental difficulty that most novelists face when they are trying to adapt their own book into a screenplay is realizing that a screenplay is a completely different way of storytelling, and it has limitations.
-
I don't necessarily think that installation is the only way to go. It's just a label for certain kinds of arrangements.
-
We read deeply for varied reasons, most of them familiar: that we cannot know enough people profoundly enough; that we need to know ourselves better; that we require knowledge, not just of self and others, but of the way things are.
-
At the weekends, I usually have around 50 kids running around in my back garden. They are all friends of my kids. I know all their names. We have barbecues, put up tents, and play soccer. I love it.
-
When the tech geeks talk, I pay close attention.
-
When I told my parents that I was starting my transition, my Dad said, 'Well that makes so much more sense 'cause I never saw you any other way and now it totally works.'
-
Violence can be very grotesque and also intensely attractive. What interests me is how the two - beauty and violence - live side by side, and how moments can be created and erased almost simultaneously. Destruction is painful, but at times it can be very cathartic.
-
Men are moved by two levers only: fear and self interest.
-
You got to expand the sound to expand your horizon and your fanbase.
-
I'm slowly feeling more Chinese and feel I should be more proud of being Chinese and appreciate where I've come from.
-
I just don't think I've ever been comfortable at public functions and selling myself as an entity.
-
I think that, at the end of the day, I'm drawn to a certain level of ambiguous storytelling that requires hard thought and work in the same way that the 'New York Times' crossword puzzle does: Sometimes you just want to put it down or throw it out the window, but there's a real rewarding sense if you feel like you've cracked it.
-
Above all, I would teach him to tell the truth Truth-telling, I have found, is the key to responsible citizenship. The thousands of criminals I have seen in 40 years of law enforcement have had one thing in common: Every single one was a liar.
-
Although a man may wear fine clothing, if he lives peacefully; and is good, self-possessed, has faith and is pure; and if he does not hurt any living being, he is a holy man.
-
Once our carrier fleet went all nuclear in 2005, we went from having two aircraft carrier homeports on the East Coast to one.
-
One great object of the Constitution was to restrain majorities from oppressing minorities or encroaching upon their just rights.
-
As a songwriter, we're looking for a good story, and we're always looking to push the limits.
-
Writers are good at plucking out what they need here and there.
-
FDR once said he was like a cat, that he would pounce and then relax. That's much harder to do in the 24-hour cable world, because it's almost like the press demands of you to be saying something or doing something every day.
-
We will be more successful in all our endeavors if we can let go of the habit of running all the time, and take little pauses to relax and re-center ourselves. And we'll also have a lot more joy in living.
-
I love going to cities and getting lost. I love doing that rather than following a guidebook.
-
One day I'll be able to relax a bit, and try and become a good composer.