Claire Messud Quotes
As a kid, I used to tell all these stories. I remember meeting a childhood friend, and we were talking. We remembered that I had made up this story about going to Mars. And she looked at me and said, 'I didn't sleep for a week after that!'
Quotes to Explore
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I'm ready to stretch my legs. I'm ready to jump in the ring.
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Do you force your kids to pay attention to what's going on, or do you let them live their lives outside of it? My hope is that my child is a strong activist. That would make me most proud.
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I belong to a specific category of writers, those who speak and write in a language different from that of their parents.
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Since the moment I could hold a pencil, I have spent nearly all day every day writing. And there is not an age group that I have not written for. You can read me from birth 'til death.
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In December 2004, I travelled on the road from Uzbekistan across the Oxus River on which the first Soviet convoys had rolled into Afghanistan 25 years before.
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Life isn't about quantity, it's about quality.
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Darwin's idea of natural selection makes people uncomfortable because it reverses the direction of tradition.
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I wasn't a major in political science for nothing, so I understood the politics of beauty and the politics of race when it comes to the fashion industry.
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I've written a screenplay that is a series of monologues and songs; they form this sort of human tapestry across time and place. The form is strange, but I find it really fascinating.
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You don't have to have a great voice to sing, just a distinctive one. But make sure you say the words clearly and tell a story.
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I'm not spending every second thinking about the World Cup, but it's always in my mind when I make choices and decisions.
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I have always been grateful to Colonel Longley. He proved to me that when people in authority take a stand, good can come out of it.
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My mom is super fabulous, and I remember her telling me at 13, 'You can start wearing makeup now.' And the funny thing is, I didn't take her up on it!
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Whatever one thinks of the wisdom of building a mosque near Ground Zero, this controversy now affords us an immense opportunity to examine who we are as a people. It provides us with the opportunity to get back to our foundational ideals, which have always stood as a beacon for the rest of the world.
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I felt that as long as we were being honest, and that we didn't bend the truth to accomplish another goal, to be entertaining or to be a happy ending, I was confident that we'd be able to tell the story the way it happened.
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Not too many people know it, but when I was in junior high, I was a pretty tough kid and was the leader of a street gang. Well, OK, it was less a street gang than an Ecology Club. We were pretty intimidating, though, and had our own meeting room until we got run out of there by a bunch of thugs from the Poetry Society.
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What made me move up to welterweight was all the effort I was doing, to look at my health and have a good life. I wanted to stop sacrificing so much.
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Well, Warren Harding, I have got you the presidency. What are you going to do with it?
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Feminism is a word that I identify with. The term has become synonymous with vitriolic man-hating but it needs to come back to a place where both men and women can embrace it. It is particularly important for women in developing countries.
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I never, ever would have imagined the kind of career I've had. It just wouldn't have occurred to me that anything like this could have been possible. I didn't have any such aspirations. And I still can't believe my good fortune.
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In ambition, as in love, the successful can afford to be indulgent toward their rivals. The prize our own, it is graceful to recognize the merit that vainly aspired to it.
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You always back off at the exact moment when you're about to tell the other person exactly what she needs to hear.
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I went to the doctor recently and she actually prescribed that I go out for ten minutes a day, I'm so depleted on vitamin D.
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As a kid, I used to tell all these stories. I remember meeting a childhood friend, and we were talking. We remembered that I had made up this story about going to Mars. And she looked at me and said, 'I didn't sleep for a week after that!'
