Colson Whitehead Quotes
Part of any book is establishing the rules at the end of the world. My first book, 'The Intuitionist,' takes place in an alternative world where elevator inspectors are important, so you have to establish rules, and part of that is, How do people talk? How do they behave?Colson Whitehead
Quotes to Explore
-
Sometimes a role might be difficult on my throat.
-
In 1958, my father invested everything he had in a business venture and became the largest automobile dealership in Chicago for Ford's new Edsel line. But Edsel sales plummeted and my father fell into bankruptcy. I watched him struggle; working long hours to protect us from poverty.
-
Moderation is a fatal thing. Nothing succeeds like excess.
-
I've been disappointed by so many movie stars that I've seen, and they go out and they don't do it up, you know. And they don't - I just get so disappointed.
-
It is my fate and perhaps my temperament to sign agreements with fools.
-
I think there is some truth to the fact that yeah, okay, cool, obviously the more mainstream kind of easier-to-grasp-onto dance music has become popular, but that holds true with almost any genre. It wasn't like the Sex Pistols hit the radio. It was poppier versions of that is what hit. It's never, like, the true core stuff.
-
A man will turn over half a library to make one book.
-
When I watch Rumble Johnson, he's a bully. He bullies guys. He makes them go backward, and he traps them. I'm not going to allow that. If he tries to bully me, I'll stand right in front of him, and if he hits me, I'll hit him right back. And then we'll see how the bully handles it when nobody is going to run away from him.
-
You just have to enjoy what you're doing. You just never know how people are going to receive it.
-
When decorum is repression, the only dignity free men have is to speak out.
-
People still text me to say that there is something about me in the paper, and what really annoys me is that if it's nasty, I then have to go and have a look, even though actually I don't want to know.
-
I just respect Kanye as an artist.
-
My mom was Jewish, so some would call me Jewish.
-
There's no way that a third party wins without being in the presidential debates. I think the vast majority of Americans are Libertarian; they just don't know it.
-
When the line started to blur between the fans and the players, sometimes things can get ugly.
-
I do two months of strict dieting, so after fight night, I go for whatever my body is craving. It's usually sushi. But after that, I go home to Guadalajara and indulge in a lot of tacos before I have to start getting in shape for another fight.
-
The People's Republic of China has not yet reached the military might of the Soviet Empire. It requires a little more time and a little more infusion of Western aid, loans, technology and the hard currency of our tourists.
-
Your initial idea may or may not work, but you have to remember that a failed idea is nothing but a stepping stone to a bigger success.
-
He had a cane, he had an eye-glass, he had a snuff-box, he had rings, he had wristbands, he had everything but any touch of nature; he was not like youth, he was not like age, he was not like anything in the world but a model of deportment.
-
I don't think you get successful to brag and throw what you have in the world's face. That's all private.
-
This level of competition is extremely high. Everybody is trained. Everybody has a game plan. Everybody has a nutritionist. Everybody has everything. It's here that you realize, as people, we're all equal.
-
It is my personal conviction that almost any one of the newborn states of the world would far rather embrace Communism or any other form of dictatorship than acknowledge the political domination of another government, even though that brought to each citizen a far higher standard of living.
-
Throughout the day, my phone will variously chirp, burp and growl – it's like living with a velociraptor. The last time I went to try to shut it off, the thing bit me.
-
Part of any book is establishing the rules at the end of the world. My first book, 'The Intuitionist,' takes place in an alternative world where elevator inspectors are important, so you have to establish rules, and part of that is, How do people talk? How do they behave?
Colson Whitehead
