E. L. Doctorow Quotes
I discovered Einstein said the same thing about his celebrated theories of relativity that writers say about their work when he said he didn't have any feelings of personal possession of these ideas. Once they were out there, they came from somewhere else. And that's exactly the feeling when you write. You don't feel possessive about it.
Quotes to Explore
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Every step of progress the world has made has been from scaffold to scaffold, and from stake to stake.
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There are no benefactors in Canada because there is no incentive.
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I try to talk about policy issues intelligently, I try very hard to avoid thought bubbles. I make sure my speeches are well researched and footnoted. I make sure I am not talking through my hat.
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Usually it is uses of words, not words in themselves, that are properly called vague.
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I didn't choose to write a military man as much as Vince Haven chose me.
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Boating on the lake is one of my favorite summer activities.
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I believe that of all the things I have done, exciting though many of them have been, there's no doubt in my mind that the most worthwhile have been the establishing of schools and hospitals, and the rebuilding of monasteries in the mountains.
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I've always felt a bit hard done by in England – you know, I've won the Bisto three times in Ireland, but it has felt like nobody has even heard of me in my home country.
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You shouldn't try to manufacture progress.
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My defensiveness in life really helps me as a driver.
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Vice is a creature of such hideous mien... that the more you see it the better you like it.
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Unlike fashion, art isn't applied. It doesn't have to serve anybody. It doesn't have to be there for any other reason than to give an impression of what the world is about.
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If you respect a language and culture, it shows in your work.
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My mom was an actress in the local Seattle theater doing experimental plays.
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Frankly speaking, it's only the script that matters to me the most. If I like the script, then I just commit to myself and go ahead with it. But I also look at the commitment and confidence of the director of the film because it's him who will shape the film.
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Children don't really understand the concept of health. You can't give them an apple and say 'if you eat this you will be healthy when you're older' because they don't understand. You have to find a different way to motivate them.
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I love football, football is my life.
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I hate when a guy brags... or he sweats.
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Novelists tend to go off at 70, and I'm in a funk about it, I've got myself into a real paranoid funk about it, how the talent dies before the body.
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The interesting thing about London is that there are always stylish surprises around every corner.
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'Pootie Tang' may be raw and slovenly - hey, it often is raw and slovenly - but it succeeds as a laugh getter because of the spot-on satirical notes. You might say that the movie walks it like it talks it; I'm not sure what Pootie would say.
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After two weeks of working on a project, you know whether it will work or not.
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It's much easier for me to sleep in space than it is back home. We sleep in a cabin, and you can float inside.
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I discovered Einstein said the same thing about his celebrated theories of relativity that writers say about their work when he said he didn't have any feelings of personal possession of these ideas. Once they were out there, they came from somewhere else. And that's exactly the feeling when you write. You don't feel possessive about it.
