Colson Whitehead Quotes

Quotes to Explore

• It's great when a director like Cameron Crowe can take what you do and fit it into what he's doing. If someone's a fan of you already, they can take what you do and make it work for what they're doing. You don't know their vision, and you're thinking, 'How is this guy going to take what I do and make it work in this movie?'

  

  J. B. Smoove
  • Work
  • Great
  • Thinking

• I try to live my life in a holistic way, show that all of it intersects because I'm coming from the same place. Now, at the core of it, I'm just trying to connect and be there, so I'm trying to be there for my family, my wife, my kids, my friends.

  

  Forest Whitaker
  • Life
  • Live
  • Trying

• I was certainly a better actor after my five years in Hollywood. I had learned to be natural - never to exaggerate. I found I could act on the stage in just the same way as I had acted in a studio: using my ordinary voice, eliminating gestures, keeping everything extremely simple.

  

  Walter Huston
  • Simple
  • Better
  • Voice

• I think coming to work and being absurd and neurotic and thoughtful at the same time is far more interesting.

  

  Lake Bell
  • Time
  • Work
  • Interesting

• The society Shakespeare knew was heading for tremendous change, and he seems to have recognized that and written about it in a coded way. I understand those codes, I think.

  

  Vanessa Redgrave
  • Think
  • Society
  • Change

• I do remember in high school I wanted to be a disc jockey.

  

  Calvin Trillin
  • School
  • Remember
  • High

• I feel that the world is increasingly about the bottom line, and not so much about human respect or human dignity. In that regard, people who care about other people will not be in a position to make choices and do things that other people who they're competing against will get to do.

  

  Dan Gilroy Breakfast Club
  • People
  • World
  • Respect

• All I ever wanted to do is make music.

  

  Caleb Johnson
  • Music
  • Wanted
  • Ever

• Grass-roots work is not flashy, and rarely celebrated on the national media level, but that is where change begins.

  

  Ilyasah Shabazz
  • Work
  • Change
  • Media

• Democracy presumes that we're all created equal; competition proves we are not, or else every race would end in a tie.

  

  Nancy Gibbs
  • Democracy
  • End
  • Competition

• The surface is all you get of me.

  

  Gary Hume
  • You
  • Me
  • Get

• Susan, an only child who never had any roots, and I, a lone wolf who got married 20 years to late, were adopted by the kids as much as they were by us.

  

  Harpo Marx
  • Kids
  • Child
  • Roots

• Music is the social act of communication among people, a gesture of friendship, the strongest there is.

  

  Malcolm Arnold
  • People
  • Music
  • Friendship

• I want to serve the people.

  

  Malala Yousafzai
  • People
  • Want
  • Serve

• What you wear onstage is a reflection of your artistry.

  

  Sabrina Carpenter
  • You
  • Reflection
  • Artistry

• After all my various relationships I find myself now home alone.

  

  Francesca Annis
  • Home
  • Alone
  • Myself

• Chekhov is this poet of melancholy and isolation and of wishing you were somewhere else than where you are.

  

  Salman Rushdie
  • You
  • Poet
  • Isolation

• Every good story needs a hero. Back when I wrote 'The Search,' that hero was Google - the book wasn't about Google alone, but Google's narrative worked to drive the entire story.

  

  John Battelle
  • Good
  • Book
  • Alone

• Only he is truly a patriot who, whatever his post, high or low, tries to do the greatest possible good to his countrymen.

  

  Apolinario Mabini
  • Good
  • Patriot
  • Countrymen

• Everybody comes to film differently; everybody has different backgrounds. Just find whatever your lane is naturally. Don't try to force yourself into someone else's vision or try to tell a story that you're not passionate about.

  

  F. Gary Gray
  • Different
  • Vision
  • Story

• Smiles are the language of love.

  

  David Hare

• Nowadays, many Americans have forgotten the meaning and traditions of Memorial Day. At cemeteries across the country, the graves of the fallen are sadly ignored, and worse, neglected.

  

  Allen West
  • Country
  • Memorial

• When I'm working on a book, I try to do eight pages a week. That seems like a good amount. Less than that, I'm not getting a nice momentum, and more than that, I'm probably putting out too much crap.

  Colson Whitehead
  • Good
  • Book
  • Nice