Claire Messud Quotes
Quotes to Explore
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The reason for not getting married was that I just didn't have a partner to get married to. Climbing mountains was more attractive to me than marriage, or other fun things like that.
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Nuclear disarmament and non-proliferation are not utopian ideals. They are critical to global peace and security.
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If I get involved in a charity, I really want to be a part of it. I don't want to just put my name on your pamphlet.
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You can only learn by opening yourself up to engage with different sources of information. How can you learn something if you never see it, read it, or hear it?
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In Sweden, they broadcast the American shows in English with Swedish subtitles, whereas in many European countries they dub them. Watching those shows in English was big for me.
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I felt audiences are happier to take comedy people who play darker people because there's a link between the psychosis of comedy and the psychosis of being a twisted character.
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I'm not a really religious person, but those moments onstage feel like some sort of religious experience because no one holds back, especially 'Stay With Me' when I finish the show. It kind of turns into an anthem when I perform it live, and it feels like there's a lot of love in the room.
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I don't know how you make decisions in your life, but I weigh lots of things, and it's not always the purest of things for why I take a job or do this. I always try to think of the many different factors in my life, and not one is pure greed. One is pure quality of life.
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With freedom comes responsibility, and I can think of no responsibility greater than putting on a U.S military uniform and standing in the gap between an enemy threat and civilian life.
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Women I admired growing up - Debra Winger, Diane Keaton, Meryl Streep - were all beautiful and thin, but not too thin. There are a lot of actresses who are unhealthy-skinny - much, much too skinny. You can't Pilates to that.
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The mind is but too naturally prone to pleasure, but too easily yielded to dissipation.
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I read people; that's one of my strengths. It's not that I can't be fooled, but I'm not fooled often.
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I've lived in New York for a really long time.
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Some campaigns are not worth waging if you can't win; others have to be fought on grounds of principle regardless of the chances for success.
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Children should neither be seen or heard from - ever again.
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Each of the bracelets I wear is from a long trip I've taken. One is from Nicaragua. One is from Nepal. One is from Guatemala. One is from Laos. They don't come off. I walk into a lot of very high-level boardrooms now, and I present to distinguished conferences, but these bracelets remind me of the places I've been and the people I've met.
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Honestly, I find writing to be a very lonely job.
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I thought of learning cinematography, so I assisted a cinematographer for an ad.
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My father was a civil servant in northern India where I was born. As a boy I saw the dire effects of poverty and illiteracy, especially on women and children. It often seemed that the only thing separating me from them was luck.
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I don't write on demand - I wait for inspiration to come.
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Pursuing employment or climatic relief, we live in voluntary exile from our extended families and our longer past, but in an involuntary exile from ourselves and our own past.
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Retaining our capacity for reason
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The reality of split government puts a premium on creativity within the administration. President Obama needs to put the right people in charge of the agencies and then have them push the bounds of administrative power to change policy through those agencies. President Obama has a pretty good track record of this.
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I wish I were a really good photographer.
