Nauen Brandenburg Quotes & Sayings

I think of Jeremy telling me I had to be ruthless to be a writer. And I think how I did not go visit my brother and sister and my parents because I was always working on a story and there was never enough time. (But I didn't want to go either.) There never was enough time, and then later I knew if I stayed in my marriage I would not write another book, not the kind I wanted to, and there is that as well. But really, the ruthlessness, I think, comes in grabbing onto myself, in saying: This is me, and I will not go where I can't bear to go - to Amgash, Illinois - and I will not stay in a marriage when I don't want to, and I will grab myself and hurl onward through life, blind as a bat, but on I go! This is the ruthlessness, I think. — Elizabeth Strout

When you wake in the morning, the naughtinesses and evil passions with which you went to bed have been folded up small and placed at the bottom of your mind; and on the top, beautifully aired, are spread out your prettier thoughts, ready for you to put on. I — J.M. Barrie

Transgression affirms the very rules it intends to flout. Nothing supports the norm like deviation. — Hanif Kureishi

Most inexperienced cooks believe, mistakenly, that a fine cake is less challenging to produce than a fine souffle or mousse. I know, however, that a good cake is like a good marriage: from the outside, it looks ordinary, sometimes unremarkable, yet cut into it, taste it, and you know that it is nothing of the sort. It is the sublime result oflong and patient experience, a confection whose success relies on a profound understanding of compatibilities and tastes; on a respect for measurement, balance, chemistry and heat; on a history of countless errors overcome. — Julia Glass

On the Rules of Perspective
A bad trick. Mistake. Dishonesty. These are the views of Braque. Why? Braque rejected perspective. Why? Someone who spends his life drawing profiles will end up believing that man has one eye, Braque felt. Braque wanted to take full possession of objects. He said as much in published interviews. Watching the small shiny planes of the landscape recede out of his grasp filled Braque with loss so he smashed them. Nature morte, said Braque. — Anne Carson

I remember somebody telling me they had been to Africa, and they were asking the people of a local tribe about their spirituality. The tribesman couldn't make sense of the word 'spirituality.' And so the visitor kept trying to explain what they meant by spirituality, and finally the man said, 'Oh, we call that life.'" Shepherd — Katherine Ozment

I know how I was born and I know that I have no choice. I know it may not show on the color of my skin, but I know it's in my heart and in my soul. — Sara Quin

But I think the thing I'm proud of about the film is that there aren't many films - either independent films or mainstream Hollywood films - that are like this; it's of its own times, and it's the film Mike Nichols wanted to make. — Patrick Marber

Christmas is the glorious time of great Too-Much. — Leigh Hunt

I'm probably the only kid in history whose parents made him stop taking music lessons. They made me stop studying the accordion. — Ricky Jay

What? Don't British women know how to use their knees? — Shannon Hale

I'd Begin to imagine my life in a foreign country, some faraway land where, if things went wrong, i could always blame somebody else, saying I'd never wanted to live there in the first place. — David Sedaris

Choice not chance determines destiny... — Lisa Alexander-Griffin

Christianity gave eroticism its savor of sin and legend when it endowed the human female with a soul. — Simone De Beauvoir

Believing in others is easy. It's believing in yourself that's the real challenge. — Giuseppe Bianco