Colson Whitehead Quotes
In the 1930s, the government paid writers to interview 80- and 90-year-old former slaves, and I read those accounts. I came away realizing - not surprisingly - that many slave masters were sadists who spent a lot of time thinking up creative ways of hurting people.Colson Whitehead
Quotes to Explore
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Prejudice is a great time saver. You can form opinions without having to get the facts.
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Amazon is holding its own because the service it provides - offering millions of books and other items quickly and easily from home at any hour of the day or night - is a real one, and one that was impossible before there was an Internet.
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Profit in business comes from repeat customers, customers that boast about your project or service, and that bring friends with them.
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If you date one woman a year, times 10 years, and that's 10 women.
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I debated free trade in college. I came out as a free trader. I'm a free markets guy. I'm an Adam Smith guy.
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The ruling ideas of each age have ever been the ideas of its ruling class.
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'Encyclopedia Brown Takes the Case,' 'The Secret of the Old Clock,' 'Are You There God, It's Me, Margaret,' 'Flowers in the Attic,' 'Gone With the Wind' - these are the books that defined my childhood. They thrilled me. They made me feel like I wasn't alone in the world.
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Great leaders have a heart for people. They take time for people. They view people as the bottom line, not as a tool to get to the bottom line.
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You'll be fooled if you only get your hip-hop from the mainstream, you know. The things that move people are not just found in the mainstream cultures. And when we talk about hip-hop in general, hip-hop's basically preoccupied with life.
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Without vanity, without coquetry, without curiosity, in a word, without the fall, woman would not be woman. Much of her grace is in her frailty.
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I spent years studying the teachings of Patanjali, and he reminded us several thousand years ago that when we are steadfast - which means that we never slip in our abstention of thoughts of harm directed toward others - then all living creatures cease to feel enmity in our presence.
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How accurately can the law fix the crime? There has to be a mechanism for very fast action. The law is like this: catch them and punish them.
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It's nice for me to be in touch with a younger generation.
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I changed that system in Florida when I was the Speaker of the House - I was the Minority Leader; I saw for 16 years the way a power system works.
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I'm not slim. I'm a curvy girl: I've got thighs and a bum. I don't mind baring the fact that I've got a bit of cellulite because everybody has. I find it off-putting when everybody on telly is the same size or looks the same build. For me, it's important for people to watch someone normal.
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'Firewall' seems both scary and protective at the same time. And how often does that happen within one word besides 'military' and 'government?'
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Music is pretty intimate stuff and I can only work with very few people: Gonzalez being one, Mocky being another and, on a completely different level, Broken Social Scene. With Broken Social Scene it's not one-on-one, it's a one-on-12. It's very healthy, very comfortable, like a big pot luck supper among old friends.
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In the British Special Air Service, combat fitness is all about running.
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Tricker the Squirrel is the best piece I ever wrote. It's intricate.
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Nobody is healthy in London, nobody can be.
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God was feeling sardonic the day He created the Universe. So it's rather up to at least one man every few centuries to pop up and come just as close to making him swallow his laughter as possible.
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No natural feelings are high or low, holy or unholy, in themselves. They are all holy when God's hand is on the rein. They all go bad when they set up on their own and make themselves into false gods.
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I can't inhabit my characters until I know what kind of work they do. This requires research because my jobs for the last decade have been author and professor, and I'd like to spare the world more author or professor novels.
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In the 1930s, the government paid writers to interview 80- and 90-year-old former slaves, and I read those accounts. I came away realizing - not surprisingly - that many slave masters were sadists who spent a lot of time thinking up creative ways of hurting people.
Colson Whitehead
