Adam Gopnik Quotes

Teaching kids to become something other than what they were born to be is probably impossible; teaching them to behave in ways that seem unnatural to them at the start is actually not that hard.

Adam Gopnik

• Kids

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Quotes to Explore

• Life consists in what a man is thinking of all day.

  

  Ralph Waldo Emerson
  • Life
  • Thinking
  • Man

• One reason we love fiction is because stories have a comforting shape. They provide a resolution that's lacking in our regular lives.

  

  Patrick Rothfuss
  • Reason
  • Stories
  • Fiction

• I like to think I'm quite brave. I stand up for myself.

  

  Dakota Blue Richards
  • Up
  • Myself
  • Brave

• If you keep on saying things are going to be bad, you have a good chance of being a prophet.

  

  Isaac Bashevis Singer
  • Good
  • Bad
  • Chance

• Surely it is time to examine into the meaning of words and the nature of things, and to arrive at simple facts, not received upon the dictum of learned authorities, but upon attentive personal observation of what is passing around us.

  

  Frances Wright
  • Time
  • Nature
  • Words

• One of the issues I kept saying to my students is you have to learn to interrupt. When you raise your hand at a meeting, by the time they get to you, the point is not germane. So the bottom line is active listening. If you are going to interrupt, you look for opportunities. You have to know what you're talking about.

  

  Madeleine Albright
  • Time
  • Hand
  • Listening

• If you're a writer, write. You just keep writing. And if you're a filmmaker, you keep doing what you can to keep telling your stories; you don't stay on the one. Keep moving forward and doing what you can to tell whatever story you can tell, be it via writing, be it via filming it.

  

  Dana Brunetti
  • Writing
  • Moving
  • Moving Forward

• Being in a wheelchair for 30 years. I'm not whining about it because I don't dwell on things I can't do anything about, you know. I never really think about until somebody mentions it. I did take a bullet.

  

  Larry Flynt
  • Think
  • Know
  • Never

• I've always had a dream of owning a restaurant.

  

  Abby Wambach
  • Dream
  • Always
  • Restaurant

• In Shakespeare, unique individuals repudiate the stereotypes demanded by the structure of the play: Shylock commands our sympathy, Barnardine refuses to be hanged. Individuals trump the category.

  

  Iain McGilchrist
  • Play
  • Unique
  • Trump

• When I was 13, I thought I was pretty hot stuff because I knew BASIC programming, self-taught on the family's Commodore 64. One of my crowning accomplishments was writing a silly little program that showed a crudely-drawn Space Shuttle lifting off in a cloud of pixelated smoke.

  

  Walter O'Brien
  • Writing
  • Family
  • Pretty

• Jerusalem is united, will never be divided again.

  

  Yitzhak Rabin
  • Never
  • Again
  • Divided

• Intelligent analysis of the composer's intention and strict adherence to it automatically ensures sincerity.

  

  Kate Smith
  • Intelligent
  • Intention

• I have a close association with Gen. Petraeus... What you get in Dave Petraeus is a very unique officer, a combination of intelligence, extraordinary depth of knowledge and understanding.

  

  Jack Keane
  • Knowledge
  • Understanding
  • Unique

• I've never been strong with my time-management skills.

  

  Mackenzie Rosman
  • Time
  • Strong
  • Never

• There have been so many great moments in golf that you even forget some of them.

  

  Dan Jenkins
  • Great
  • Moments
  • Golf

• It's my job, too, to keep up with pop culture and what the kids are into 'cause you don't want to sound like an old man trying to write for kids. I spend a lot of my time spying on them.

  

  R. L. Stine
  • Up
  • Time
  • Trying

• I wanted to go to Jupiter. That was my plan from day one, and David Lynch gave me the ticket.

  

  Laura Dern
  • Me
  • Day
  • Plan

• We can have a World War, I see absolutely no reason why we shouldn't have a World Party.

  

  Vanna Bonta
  • World
  • Why
  • War

• My work on happiness is the only thing I've ever done where I've heard people in the supermarket talking about it, for instance.

  

  Angus Deaton
  • People
  • Work
  • Done

• I'm still working, I've got two arms, two legs, two gorgeous kids, a lovely wife. Fifteen years ago, I was homeless. So when you think about it, I'm lucky.

  

  Ian Hart
  • Kids
  • Think
  • Wife

• Our kids are growing up with more privilege than we had; that's true for most of my friends in L.A. I don't know any actor who grew up with any particular privilege, so everyone wrestles with this. And I think, a lot of times, it's about being patient with your kids.

  

  Matt Damon
  • Up
  • Kids
  • Friends

• I think kids in France, and certainly in my household, don't necessarily stop interrupting when you tell them, but they gradually become more aware of other people, and that means that you can have the expectation of finishing a conversation.

  

  Pamela Druckerman
  • People
  • Kids
  • Stop

• Teaching kids to become something other than what they were born to be is probably impossible; teaching them to behave in ways that seem unnatural to them at the start is actually not that hard.

  

  Adam Gopnik
  • Kids