Colson Whitehead Quotes

Quotes to Explore

• I have to tell you, I'm proudest of my life off the court. There will always be great basketball players who bounce that little round ball, but my proudest moments are affecting people's lives, effecting change, being a role model in the community.

  

  Magic Johnson
  • People
  • Life
  • Great

• I don't think nostalgia has to be negative.

  

  Van Morrison
  • Think
  • Negative
  • Nostalgia

• A lot of authors, judging by their list, will put anything out that they finish... That's the worst model I've heard of in my life. It's just idiotic. Why wouldn't you just wait for the good ones?

  

  Patrick deWitt
  • Life
  • Good
  • Why

• There is nothing which at once affects a man so much and so little as his own death.

  

  Samuel Butler
  • Death
  • Man
  • Nothing

• That was a huge part of my training, doing improv in Chicago.

  

  Vanessa Bayer
  • Training
  • Doing
  • Chicago

• You live these three months in this reality, in this dark reality. You don't want to do those films every year because they're taxing. I started smoking a lot of cigarettes.

  

  Vin Diesel
  • Live
  • Reality
  • Dark

• The truth is not a bidimensional thing; it's not flat. It's rounded; it's like a sphere, so there's always a hidden face. There's one that is revealed because there's light reflecting on it, but there's always a hidden one, and once you go around to see the hidden one, it moves, and that's life.

  

  Edgar Ramirez
  • Life
  • Truth
  • Light

• The chief enemy of creativity is 'good' sense.

  

  Pablo Picasso
  • Good
  • Enemy
  • Creativity

• I've learnt more physics from Kabbalah than I ever did in school.

  

  Yehuda Berg
  • School
  • More
  • Physics

• My mother said to me, 'If you are a soldier, you will become a general. If you are a monk, you will become the Pope.' Instead, I was a painter, and became Picasso.

  

  Pablo Picasso
  • Mother
  • Me
  • Soldier

• I like everybody at 'Criminal Minds.' I would like to guest star, but I don't know if that is in the cards.

  

  Paget Brewster
  • Know
  • Star
  • Cards

• Films are really cool because, every couple months, or however many times you can get a job because there's a lot of luck involved in that, you're playing a different character.

  

  Zachary Levi
  • Different
  • Character
  • Job

• Because I was a tennis player, Billie Jean King was a hero of mine.

  

  Sally Ride
  • Player
  • King
  • Hero

• I like writing for individuals with really rich musical personalities.

  

  Edgar Meyer
  • Writing
  • Like
  • Rich

• We have a mantra: don't be evil, which is to do the best things we know how for our users, for our customers, for everyone. So I think if we were known for that, it would be a wonderful thing.

  

  Larry Page
  • Think
  • Best
  • Evil

• When children and youth are deprived of their right to education, their community is deprived of a sustainable future. It is all the more true with refugees.

  

  Forest Whitaker
  • Children
  • True
  • Future

• Before acting, I wanted to become a journalist. I also toyed with the idea of being a chef - but that's only when people asked me what I wanted to be. In fact, I always used to say I wanted to be an actor, but I didn't ever believe that I was good enough to be come one.

  

  Ian Mckellen
  • People
  • Good
  • Believe

• 'Boom! That's the house, right there, Robert. That's house I'm doing a B&E (breaking and entering).' He looked to me and he said: shakes head and makes hissing noise through nose. Moment of silence. 'I don't know what that means, but I'm doing it.'

  

  Dane Cook
  • House
  • Silence

• You are a perfect balance of heaven and hell, a purgatory of passion and pain.

  

  Jessica Katoff
  • Pain
  • Passion
  • Heaven

• I'm spinning records and I look across the restaurant and I see somebody who looks Asian. And I'm like, "Yo, that looks like Yoko Ono." I'm like, oh, I can just meet - that's going to be great. Then I look carefully and I'm like, "That's not Yoko Ono, that's Bruno Mars." And it was Bruno Mars. That just happened recently. I was bugging out. Because that was totally not Yoko Ono at all.

  

  Talib Kweli Black Star
  • Looks
  • Records
  • Mars

• That old question about whether, as a woman, you can be funny and attractive at the same time. Argh! I hate that question. Of course you can.

  

  Emma Stone
  • Funny
  • Question
  • Woman

• What defines a leader is his preoccupation with the future. In his head he carries a vivid image of what the future could be, and this image drives him on.

  

  Marcus Buckingham
  • Future

• I understand you, and I shall not attempt to make you change your mind. I am too old to want to improve the world. I have told you what I think, and that is all. I shall remain your friend even if you act contrary to my convictions, and I shall help you even if I disagree with you.

  

  Milan Kundera
  • Thinking
  • Freedom
  • Changing

• I'm of that subset of native New Yorkers who can't drive.

  Colson Whitehead