W. C. Fields Quotes
A comic should suffer as much over a single line as a man with a hernia would in picking up a heavy barbell.
Quotes to Explore
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Most actors go, 'I read the script and fell in love with it'; I fall in love with the directors.
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My interior is very, very dense - Proustian-looking, sort of Henry James. The walls are covered in pictures, and I transformed the big drawing room into a library lined with books.
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People should know what they want, not just what they don't want.
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Humor's always been the problem of my work, hasn't it? When working, I feel satisfied when I surprise myself. And when I surprise myself, I wind up laughing.
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The great thing about writing is that it has to work without that invisible layer of the reader's added knowledge.
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I loved London. In the 1970s... it was very exciting, really wild.
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Renouncement: the heroism of mediocrity.
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If I only had a little humility, I'd be perfect.
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Everybody is improving but I am improving slowly, which seemingly widens our distance.
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As long as government is allowed to collect all Internet data, the perceived exigency will drive honest civil servants to reach more broadly and deeply into our networked lives.
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Kuhn was the intellectual of whom many scientists said he's 'telling it as is it is' insofar as talking about a process of 'tinkering' in terms of theory and experiment followed by radical changes. But often, what Kuhn had in mind were some very spectacular incidents in the history of the sciences that changed our way of looking at the world.
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I once went on the most grueling radio tour. Living in hotel rooms, sleeping in the backs of rental cars as my mom drove to three different cities in one day.
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The easiest way around the bases is with one swing of the bat.
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The best cure for the body is a quiet mind.
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I write novels, mostly historical ones, and I try hard to keep them accurate as to historical facts, milieu and flavor.
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There has always been a saying in baseball that you can't make a hitter, but I think you can improve a hitter. More than you can improve a fielder. More mistakes are made hitting than in any other part of the game.
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If you learn from defeat, you haven't really lost.
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Reader was by far the most popular feed reader out there, and its user base had been in a steep decline for two years before Google decided to shut it down.
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I grew up in New York and have lived here all my life. I think it's the best city in the world and can write about it with gusto and fervor and passion.
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I teach 18- to 21-year-olds - the 'Harry Potter' generation. They grew up as voracious readers, reading books in this exploding genre. But at some point, I would love for them to give Umberto Eco or A.S. Byatt a try. I hope 'A Discovery of Witches' will serve as a kind of stepping-stone.
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In a storm, I think, 'What if the gospel be not true? Then thou art, of all men, most foolish. For what has thou given up thy goods, thy ease, thy friends, thy reputation, thy country, thy life?'
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People have a hard time accepting when someone displays even the slightest amount of discomfort in the spotlight. You're supposed to soak up every bit of fame like it’s sunshine.
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A comic should suffer as much over a single line as a man with a hernia would in picking up a heavy barbell.
