Shulman Quotes & Sayings

The true secret of success in the investment and speculative world is not so much which good securities to buy, but rather which investments to avoid. — Morton Shulman

For many decades my relations with my parents constituted unfinished business. I had dealt with them through sheer avoidance and guilt. — Alix Kates Shulman

Isn't that dangerous?" I objected. "What if somebody used it on people - what if they put it on replace and turned us all into fictional characters?"
"How do you know they haven't?" asked Marc. — Polly Shulman

And what could my father possibly want with another child, when he hardly bothered to talk to the one he already had? — Polly Shulman

I see old age not as something to hide from or dread (though there is much to oppose in the usual treatment of the old) but rather as something to embrace as the natural and inevitable end. — Alix Kates Shulman

What good is a dream house if you haven't got a dream? — Julius Shulman

I am a feminist. I'm trying to show the relationships between men and women, always the structural relations, not individual villains. I'd never make a husband a villain. I try very hard in my work not to - because if I made one man a villain, the rest would be off the hook. I'm interested in the system of oppression. — Alix Kates Shulman

When you witness the end of a life up close day by day, you begin to understand time and mortality in profound ways. You see time's relativity, death's necessity. — Alix Kates Shulman

Just let me wait a little while longer,
Under your window in the quite snow.
Let me stand here and shiver, I'll be stronger
If I can see your light before I go.
All through the weeks I've tried to keep my balance.
Leaves fell, then rain, then shadows, I fell too.
Easy restraint is not among my talents,
Fall turned to Winter and I came to you.
Kissed by the snow I contemplate your face.
Oh, do not hide it in your pillow yet!
Warm rooms would never lure me from this place,
If only I could see your silhouette.
Turn on your light, my sun, my summer love.
Zero degrees down here, July above. — Polly Shulman

If one day I should hear the hacker's slow, booted step on the stair, perhaps I'll suggest a cup of tea and try to get the story of his life. — Alix Kates Shulman

There is a lot of gender segregation. You still have many poor women who work in women-only jobs. In the family, in most cases, only women have the double job of working outside the home and taking care of the family. — Alix Kates Shulman

Only when we have something to value, will we have something to evaluate.. and we cannot value something that we cannot share, exchange, and examine. — Lee S Shulman

His hooves pound the beat, your heart sings the song. — Jerry Shulman

So how did you get this job, anyway?' I asked.
'My science teacher.'
'Why'd he pick you?'
'For my brains and good looks, obviously.'
'Yeah, right. My social studies teacher picked me, but I can't really figure out why.
'For your brains and good looks, obviously.'
'Um, thanks.' Had Aaron just complimented me? Wow. — Polly Shulman

As we have come to view teaching, it begins with an act of reason, continues with a process of reasoning, culminates in performances of imparting, eliciting, involving, or enticing, and is then thought about some more until the process can begin again — Lee S Shulman

People often say to me now, "Your work changed my life." I'm sure that's an exaggeration, but they say it had a big effect on them and enabled them to change. I'm not sure I believe that a book will cause someone to change. — Alix Kates Shulman

It's always difficult to write honestly of one's deepest feelings, particularly without the protective veil of fiction. But the more difficult, the more rewarding if one succeeds. Rewarding not only to the work but to one's peace of mind. — Alix Kates Shulman

Our society has very much limited our choices, even regarding the food we think acceptable. — Alix Kates Shulman

In my books, my idea is always to explore social context and social forces. — Alix Kates Shulman

I'm not modest about myself. I know for a fact that I am good. But good in the sense that I can put things together. I expound vociferously to students of architecture and photography, the significance of design. A photograph is a design in which you assemble thoughts in your mind. — Julius Shulman

Shulman argues that work that is valued is work that is presented to colleagues. The failure to make this kind of wider connection weakens the sense of community. This happens in scholarly life when such essential functions as professional service or teaching do not get discussed openly or often enough. — Charles E. Glassick

Good," said Dr. Rust. "Take Elizabeth up to stack 9 and show her the ropes."
"But the ropes are on stack 2."
"I meant metaphorically. — Polly Shulman

There are twenty-four characters in this book named Max. Let there be an end to this silly business of authors never giving their own names to characters in their novels. False modesty, faugh! — Max Shulman

The camera is the least important element in photography. — Julius Shulman

Sometimes you think in order to act, sometimes you act in order to think. — Lee S Shulman

In liminal space, one meets the unknown, the marginalized, the synchronistic, the other, the unconscious edge of one's former narratives. At this point, the possibility to try out new narratives, to reframe one's story, becomes critical. Through narratives of participation the center of gravity shifts from fear and defensiveness to curiosity, creativity, and celebration. One begins to take a stand to validate one own's affects and doubts while at the same time interrogating them. The effect of such a shift is that the area of questioning about the self, the world, and the use of narrative language begins to widen noticeably. We can no longer assume there will be an outcome of homogeneous accounts through dialogue. The frames of narratives of participation anticipate heterogeneity rather than accord. — Helene Shulman

I was convinced I felt as strongly about Jane Austen's books as Ashleigh had ever felt about any of her crazes, but my love was deep and silent - and therefore easily overshadowed. — Polly Shulman

I think you get mentally ill being homeless. Most of the bag ladies wind up mentally ill pretty quickly - what people would call paranoid - because they are in such danger. I don't know if it's really paranoia because they are in great danger. Terrible things happen to them, and they lose everything. How could they not become at the very least severely depressed? — Alix Kates Shulman

I don't really think myself that sex work is necessarily more demeaning than other kinds of demeaning work. — Alix Kates Shulman

Oh, a mermaid's comb. Heavy stuff, but safe enough as long as you don't use it around water. Or a busy highway. You're not planning to lure any young men to their doom, are you?
How embarrassing! I shook my head, blushing. — Polly Shulman

Seeing the transformation in Aaron made me wonder how it would feel to have someone-even a not-so-nice guy like Aaron- look at me the way he looked at Anjali. — Polly Shulman

Usually, ordinary histories don't get the emotional feel of a period. That's what a novel can do. — Alix Kates Shulman

To make a million, start with $900,000. — Morton Shulman

I did not intend to be a writer. I first wanted to be a lawyer, like my father. Then I got bit by the bug of philosophy and wanted to be a philosophy professor. I went to graduate school and quickly discovered it was impossible for a woman in those days - this was the early fifties - to be a philosopher, so I gave that up. — Alix Kates Shulman

Eva, stop,' he moaned. 'A kiss from me could kill you...'
'Then it would be a good death,' I breathed, taking his face in my hands. And when our lips met, I knew that wherever this love took me, it was a place I wanted to go. — Dee Shulman

As I experienced life on the island, without electricity, plumbing or telephone, I thought it was important to show that people can live as I did without dying or falling apart. I wanted people to understand that we don't need everything that our culture tells us we have to have to be satisfied. — Alix Kates Shulman

We have the librarians on our side. We have *justice* on our side. — Polly Shulman

The key to my work is that I stopped, physically, to observe something. I raised my camera and recorded my observations. — Julius Shulman

When farming became a corporate venture, and the distribution of food became corporate, the variety of foods that were considered good diminished greatly. I know that there's a lot of misconception about this, that people think we have more food variety than ever before, but, in fact, if you read any of the studies, you'll find we have fewer foods than before. — Alix Kates Shulman

The movement for women's liberation was about an emotional transformation, an explosion, a feeling all over the country that things must be different, and ideas about how they should be. I think fiction can capture that kind of thing better than other genres because in fiction you can explore the feelings of your characters - the before and the after. — Alix Kates Shulman

Sexism goes so deep that at first it's hard to see; you think it's just reality. — Alix Kates Shulman

I knew a mathematician who said 'I do not know as much as God. But I know as much as God knew at my age'. — Milton Shulman

My mirror image always had to be interpreted. And for that I sought my reflection in someone else's eyes. — Alix Kates Shulman

It is bad enough to reinvent the wheel. What really hurts is when they reinvent the flat tire. — Lee S Shulman

Did you get it back?"
"Of coarse, the very next day. And even if I hadn't-because there have been things I've been asked to give up for good ... Well, over the years here I've learned that sometimes a great loss is also a great gain." Under the slowly swirling freckles, Doc's face looked infinitely sad. Somehow I didn't find that reassuring. — Polly Shulman

What I mean is, all the terrible things that happen in fairy tales seem real. Or not real, but genuine. Life is unfair, and the bad guys keep winning and good people die. But I like how that's not always the end of it ... Evil is real, but so is good. They always say fairy tales are simplistic, black and white, but I don't think so. I think they're complicated. That's what I love about them. — Polly Shulman

What are you doing?"
"I'm darning a sock," he said, holding it up to show me.
"What's that lump inside?"
"A sock egg."
"A sock egg? I didn't know socks hatched from eggs."
"Only the best ones do. I can't wear the cheap kind, the ones that grow on trees. They give me blisters. — Polly Shulman

Within walking distance of any spot on Earth there's probably more than enough mystery to investigate in a lifetime. — Alix Kates Shulman

Would you really want to live in world where only the possible is possible? — Polly Shulman

For two years I watched my parents' lives wind to a close. This made me aware of old age as a one stage, the final one, of a long journey. — Alix Kates Shulman

One important part of historical recording is to get people of another generation to understand the feelings, the passion that went into social transformation. That's why oral history is so valuable. — Alix Kates Shulman

Fiction is ideally suited to re-creating the important emotional aspects of history. — Alix Kates Shulman

The world is abundant with food for us, and with everything we need, if only we just open our eyes. There's so much food that gets thrown out or never harvested. — Alix Kates Shulman

Nonsense," said another voice-Dr. Rust. "We're librarians. When we don't find what we're looking for in the first place we look, we don't give up. We keep looking. — Polly Shulman

Are you out of your candy wrapper? — Polly Shulman

You're just jealous," I said.
"You can believe what you want," Aaron said. "But somebody's stealing from the Grimm Collection. They're either taking the objects or somehow sucking out their magic. Doc and theh librarians are going to find out who, and if Marc is in on it, you're going to be sorry you were helping him."
"Marc isn't in on it. And I love this place too! We're all on the same side!"
"I hope that's true," Aaron said. — Polly Shulman

And I was very successful at baby photography ... Strange isn't it? Because some of my portraits of babies were - I used dramatic lighting, shadow lighting, and I didn't use flash. We didn't have flash in those days, we just had floodlights, and I was photographing babies as I would an object - an inanimate object, for that matter. — Julius Shulman

The one who asks questions does not lose his way. — Polly Shulman

When I became a feminist, when the movement started in the late sixties, I started writing because I had something urgent to say. My first novel, Memoirs of an Ex-Prom Queen, is the product of that urgency. — Alix Kates Shulman

I sell architecture better and more directly and more vividly than the architect does ... The average architect is stupid. He doesn't know how to sell. He's not a merchandiser. He doesn't know how to express his own image. He doesn't know how to create a design of his image ... And I do it. I've done it all my career over half a century, and it gets better. — Julius Shulman

Organic chemistry is the study of organs; inorganic chemistry is the study of the insides of organs. — Max Shulman

Mr. Klamp laid down the law. No tardiness, no talking above 40 decibels, no untied shoelaces, no visible undergarments, no eating, no chewing gum, no chewing tobacco, no chewing betel nuts, no chewing coca leaves, no chewing out students (unless Mr. Klamp was doing the chewing out), no chewing out teachers (unless ditto), no unnecessary displays of temper (unless ditto), no unnecessary displays of affection (no exceptions), no pets over one ounce or under one ton, and no singing, except in Bulgarian. I began to think Mr Klamp wouldn't be so bad ... — Polly Shulman

Nice people made the best Nazis. My mom grew up next to them. They got along, refused to make waves, looked the other way when things got ugly and focused on happier things than "politics." They were lovely people who turned their heads as their neighbors were dragged away. You know who weren't nice people? Resisters. — Naomi Shulman

I am not a psychological novelist, and I try very hard not to allow the reader to see the plight or circumstances of the characters as individual psychological plights. That's my preference; still, a lot of people do read my novels as psychological studies, and they're right to read them that way too, if that's what they mean to them. — Alix Kates Shulman