Colson Whitehead Quotes

Quotes to Explore

• I try and take lots of vitamins and I don't drink. I do smoke, though, I'd be insufferable if I didn't smoke, you'd have to push me off a balcony I'd be so boring.

  

  Kate Beckinsale
  • Me
  • Try
  • Boring

• In 1949 - my father stayed on in Shanghai after the war. But in 1949, the Communists took over the whole of China, and in fact, my father was caught by the Communists in Shanghai. And he was there for about a year until he was finally able to get out.

  

  J. G. Ballard
  • War
  • Father
  • Year

• There's only two people in your life you should lie to... the police and your girlfriend.

  

  Jack Nicholson
  • People
  • Life
  • Police

• I have no regrets at all. I have done quite well for myself. I didn't have a conventional face, but I have done well, and I am proud of it.

  

  Om Puri
  • Success
  • Face
  • Conventional

• It has been said that the love of money is the root of all evil. The want of money is so quite as truly.

  

  Samuel Butler
  • Money
  • Love
  • Evil

• I just want to be part of great stories that are told and for them to be relevant.

  

  Zoe Saldana
  • Great
  • Want
  • Just

• One of the great political and economic challenges of our time is figuring out the balance between wealth that benefits society and wealth that distorts.

  

  Adam Davidson
  • Time
  • Great
  • Society

• Bad ballplayers make good managers.

  

  Earl Weaver
  • Good
  • Bad
  • Managers

• What do I think of Western civilization? I think it would be a very good idea.

  

  Mahatma Gandhi
  • Good
  • Think
  • Civilization

• When kids are met with the highest expectations and given the extra supports they need, they can be as motivated as kids anywhere.

  

  Wendy Kopp
  • Kids
  • Need
  • Expectations

• I used to get a shiver if I thought about holding balloons, because I was scared of floating away.

  

  Fiona Apple
  • Thought
  • Scared
  • Floating

• Sound as medium has an incredible elasticity. So, of course, it is tempting for artists of other fields to try something with sounds. Why not? We are living in the age when there is no limit in gathering all forms of art and music to mix it together if you so desire.

  

  Yoko Ono
  • Music
  • Why
  • Art

• Universities used to prepare young adults for the real world. I dare say the graduates today go in without a clue and graduate without a clue. It's time to acknowledge the college degree is not worth what it was in the past. Times are changing, and so is the way we prepare our youth to survive in a competitive world.

  

  Dale Archer
  • Time
  • World
  • Real

• Majority rule only works if you're also considering individual rights. Because you can't have five wolves and one sheep voting on what to have for supper.

  

  Larry Flynt
  • Government
  • Voting
  • Sheep

• Family is very important to me because that is the footprint we perpetuate. That is, the ripple in the water when the rock first impacts the pool, and it is those waves, that energy that one produces, that determines our direction.

  

  Larry Wilcox
  • Important
  • Family
  • Energy

• I'm really close to my family, and we talk through things.

  

  Naomi Scott
  • Family
  • Talk
  • Through

• I have lifestyle requirements. Photos, meetings, lunches, dinners, facial care, tooth care. It requires an exorbitant amount of money.

  

  Gary Coleman
  • Money
  • Care
  • Meetings

• Over the years I must have spent thousands of hours silently brushing on the liquid coatings, preparing each sheet in anticipation of reaching the perfect print.

  

  Irving Penn
  • Perfect
  • Years
  • Hours

• Once he became a series character, I made the conscious choice that he would never act like a series character, never wink at the reader, never pull his punches. Better for him, better for me.

  

  Donald E. Westlake
  • Character

• In spite of muzzling the press, imprisoning thousands, and engaging in torture, kidnapping and murder, the Socialist government was still vulnerable to the accusation of being 'soft on Basques.'

  

  Mark Kurlansky

• So many girls trying to be models, like, 'Oh my god, I want to be a model!' Nobody really knows the reality of it. It's a lot of hard work, but at the same time, it's a lot of fun.

  

  Olga Fonda
  • Time
  • Work
  • God

• There's great disparity between who goes to college and who goes to jail. Who lives long and who dies prematurely, is the defining issue of our time. And I submit to you, there's a significant race dimension, it is basically class-driven.

  

  Jesse Jackson
  • Time
  • Great
  • Long

• Life is full and overflowing with the new. But it is necessary to empty out the old to make room for the new to enter.

  

  Eileen Caddy
  • Life

• Once I got to college, it seemed that the Hamptons were a little bit too posh for me and didn't represent the kind of values I was embracing in my late teens. So, I didn't go out there, except to visit my parents, for a long time. And then, after 9/11, I discovered it was a nice, mellow place to hang out.

  Colson Whitehead
  • Time
  • Long
  • Parents