Wallace Stegner Quotes

The flimsy little protestations that mark the front gate of every novel, the solemn statements that any resemblance to real persons living or dead is entirely coincidental, are fraudulent every time. A writer has no other material to make his people from than the people of his experience ... The only thing the writer can do is to recombine parts, suppress some characterisitics and emphasize others, put two or three people into one fictional character, and pray the real-life prototypes won't sue.

Wallace Stegner

• Novel
• Mark
• Gate
• Protestations

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Quotes to Explore

• Infinite striving to be the best is man's duty; it is its own reward. Everything else is in God's hands.

  

  Mahatma Gandhi
  • God
  • Man
  • Best

• As I lay so sick on my bed, from Christmas till March, I was always praying for poor ole master. 'Pears like I didn't do nothing but pray for ole master. 'Oh, Lord, convert ole master;' 'Oh, dear Lord, change dat man's heart, and make him a Christian.'

  

  Harriet Tubman
  • Heart
  • Man
  • Change

• The investor of today does not profit from yesterday's growth.

  

  Warren Buffett
  • Today
  • Growth
  • Yesterday

• I have always thought if there is a game, and there have been a lot of fouls on me, then I have been playing well for the team, so that means we're having a good match. You can win a free-kick when there's a foul, and that's a chance to score a goal.

  

  Eden Hazard
  • Good
  • Game
  • Free

• My daughter said, 'I don't think granddad really suits you.'

  

  Ian McShane
  • Think
  • Daughter
  • Suits

• Thirteen years I took on this last book.

  

  Gay Talese
  • Book
  • Years
  • Last

• I never sold any of my pieces. I had all the money I wanted. Then I would have lost my sculptures and just had more money.

  

  Irving Harper
  • Money
  • Lost
  • Never

• I find that once you start helping others, it makes you feel better about yourself. It helps you figure out what you want to do with your own life.

  

  Lance Bass NSYNC
  • Life
  • Yourself
  • Start

• My parents did everything possible. My dad has worked from eight in the morning until nine in the evening to make it possible so I can play tennis. We had to cancel tournaments because we couldn't afford to go there.

  

  Sabine Lisicki
  • Parents
  • Dad
  • Morning

• In some theoretical way I know that a half-million people hear the show. But in a day-to-day way, there's not much evidence of it.

  

  Ira Glass
  • People
  • Know
  • Evidence

• For me, I always like to get up bright and early.

  

  Andre Rieu
  • Up

• It means a lot when people understand what I'm going for.

  

  Donna McKechnie
  • People
  • Mean

• I start to wonder if I’m being creepy. I mean, I am creeping. Does creep-ing automatically make one creep-y? Or are there dispensations for…romance? I bet all stalkers believe they’re being romantic. I did it for love, officer.

  

  Laini Taylor
  • Believe
  • Mean
  • Wonder

• The true direction of the development of thinking is not from the individual to the social, but from the social to the individual.

  

  Lev Vygotsky
  • Thinking
  • True
  • Individual

• In a short story, you can use someone - we're only going to be with that person for maybe 10 pages, and they can have sort of a one note personality. And in a novel, you need to have arrows pointing more than one direction for that person.

  

  Rebecca Makkai
  • Personality
  • Direction
  • Someone

• What we've said to the girls is: 'If you guys ever decide that you're going to get a tattoo, then mommy and me will get the exact same tattoo, in the same place.' And we'll go on YouTube and show it off as a family tattoo.

  

  Barack Obama
  • Family
  • Tattoo

• There must've been some part of me that wanted to make my mark. But there was never a defining moment.

  

  Daniel Day-Lewis
  • Me
  • Moment
  • Part

• We must begin to understand the nature of intertextuality . . . the manner by which texts poems and novels respond to other texts. After all, all cats may be black at night, but not to other cats.

  

  Henry Louis Gates
  • May
  • Night
  • Black

• The flimsy little protestations that mark the front gate of every novel, the solemn statements that any resemblance to real persons living or dead is entirely coincidental, are fraudulent every time. A writer has no other material to make his people from than the people of his experience ... The only thing the writer can do is to recombine parts, suppress some characterisitics and emphasize others, put two or three people into one fictional character, and pray the real-life prototypes won't sue.

  

  Wallace Stegner
  • Novel
  • Mark
  • Gate