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Walter Kirn Quotes

Love is a powerful painkiller Picture Quote #1

Quiet cunning bested boastful brawn Picture Quote #1

When I was writing about the Republican primaries, it was as though the Bible was a black box that people reached into to pull out edicts and prejudices and rules and opinions, and I wish they had fact-checked it! Especially Rick Santorum Picture Quote #1

Once you realize just the sort of glut of books that exists out there, it does become incumbent on you not to add to it unless you have a damn good reason Picture Quote #1

In America, to be ID’d - sorted, tagged, and permanently filed - is to lose a bit of one’s soul. To die a little. This sounds like a subtle, poetic notion. It’s not. In American legal and cultural tradition, one essential privilege of citizenship is not having to prove it on demand Picture Quote #1

The reason con artists get away with what they get away with is, their victims are ashamed of their own blindness and their own gullibility, and they tend to just quietly go away Picture Quote #1

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Ask Jeeves! Who ever used that thing? College freshmen to find out who Goethe was - that’s it Picture Quote #1

A president, like a college freshman, can’t know in advance which questions he’ll have to answer or what topics he’ll have to master. He has to be flexible, supple, and responsive. He has to be comfortable with multiple-choice Picture Quote #1

However old-fashioned and right-wing this may sound, the American genius for language lies in understatement, in saying things simply, pointedly and quickly, and in making new and clean and swift what otherwise might be ponderous, round and slow Picture Quote #1

People can be so neglectful of each other and of their own heritage - then death intrudes. Conversations we wish that we’d had earlier are had too late Picture Quote #1

God is a freaking character, with enough foibles, tantrums, and paradoxical behaviors to supply a thousand screenplays. But who do you cast? Picture Quote #1

To young people born under the weird planet of the SAT, intelligence was equated with agility, with raw acuity. It produced a certain sort of person of which I was a typical specimen: the mental contortionist, able to rise to almost every challenge placed before him, except the challenge of real self-knowledge Picture Quote #1

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The room-service Caesar salads with soggy croutons, the distant relatives who show up at readings pitching weird, far-fetched investment schemes, the fans who have you sign a book to ‘Cathy’ and then tell you, ‘No, it’s Kathy with a K’ - it gets challenging after a while. It tests your stamina Picture Quote #1

The reason that last-ditch political maneuvering has become business as usual in Washington is that the actors involved are drunk on blame and are convinced that the voting public is, too. They count on outrage, thereby spreading numbness. They cherish the prospect of partisan fury, thereby inspiring nonpartisan disgust Picture Quote #1

At the beginning of a novel, a writer needs confidence, but after that what’s required is persistence. These traits sound similar. They aren’t. Confidence is what politicians, seducers and currency speculators have, but persistence is a quality found in termites. It’s the blind drive to keep on working that persists after confidence breaks down Picture Quote #1

Size has nothing to do with literature. All legs are long enough to touch the ground, and all books are big enough to fill their covers Picture Quote #1

The best anti-depressant pill for me would be one the size of a house so you could drop it on me and put me out of my misery Picture Quote #1

Yes, in the commercial world there’s room for both McDonald’s and Whole Foods, but in the realm of politics, we’re told, it’s either Filet-o-Fish or line-caught salmon: only one can prevail - and which is up to you Picture Quote #1

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The fictionally correct have all the answers, and that’s what’s wrong with them. They’re artistic technocrats. There’s no dilemma so knotty, no question so baffling, that it can’t be smoothly neutralized by dialing up the right attitude adjustment. Poor old Hemingway. If only he’d known Picture Quote #1

I’ve noticed that the few times I’ve traveled first class myself, you’ve already got your drink, and your coat has been taken by the time the rest of the passengers file on, and it’s hard not to feel sorry for them. They’re sort of trooping past you like cows to slaughter and you’re sitting there in your, you know, wide-body seat Picture Quote #1

A true nature is a gloomy monolith, sort of like that old black rotary phone that I had to sing ‘Happy Birthday’ to Grandpa on. But novelists, damn us, still need true natures - so we can give them to our protagonists. And so readers can vaguely predict how they’ll behave when we trap them in ‘situations’ that they can’t IM their way out of Picture Quote #1

Novelists who pretend to understand what keeps them scribbling are really just guessing. A profound, unmet childish need to be acknowledged? Maybe. It hardly matters, though. The termite that asks itself why it keeps chewing risks becoming sluggish and inefficient, as does the writer who grows self-conscious in the middle of chapter five Picture Quote #1

Good short-story collections, like good record albums, are almost always hit-and-miss affairs - successful if they include three or four great tracks, wildly successful if they have five. And that’s as it should be Picture Quote #1

Let the novelists fret about consistency - story writers should feel free to jam; to get things right in new, surprising ways by allowing themselves, now and then, to get things wrong Picture Quote #1

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Everyone his own cinematographer. His own stream-of-consciousness e-mail poet. His own nightclub DJ. His own political columnist. His own biographer of his top-10 friends! Picture Quote #1

In fourth grade, I learned that reading was serious business, not just a pleasant way to pass the time, and that like medicine or engineering, it had a definite, valuable purpose: to foster ‘comprehension.’ Picture Quote #1

I read somewhere once that in the 1960s, fiction writers were troubled by the notion that life was becoming stranger and more sensational than made-up stories could ever hope to be. Our new problem - more profound, I think - is that life no longer resembles a story. Events intersect but don’t progress. People interact but don’t make contact Picture Quote #1

I grew up in a little town in Minnesota, 500 people. I went out to Princeton, and I wasn’t very well-accepted out there by the fancy folks of Princeton University, I felt. I came away bruised and feeling rejected Picture Quote #1

On the Web, we can be whoever we wish to be, editing the face we show to others in ways that aren’t possible in physical space. We can also fine-tune the complexity and depth of our interactions and relationships Picture Quote #1

Short stories are fiction’s R and D department, and failed or less-than-conclusive experiments are not just to be expected but to be hoped for Picture Quote #1

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Friendship Quotes

Motivational Quotes

Inspirational Quotes

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Text Quotes

Love is a powerful painkiller (Walter Kirn Quotes) Quiet cunning bested boastful brawn (Walter Kirn Quotes) When I was writing about the Republican primaries, it was as though the Bible was a black box that people reached into to pull out edicts and prejudices and rules and opinions, and I wish they had fact-checked it! Especially Rick Santorum. (Walter Kirn Quotes) Once you realize just the sort of glut of books that exists out there, it does become incumbent on you not to add to it unless you have a damn good reason. (Walter Kirn Quotes) In America, to be ID’d - sorted, tagged, and permanently filed - is to lose a bit of one’s soul. To die a little. This sounds like a subtle, poetic notion. It’s not. In American legal and cultural tradition, one essential privilege of citizenship is not having to prove it on demand. (Walter Kirn Quotes) The reason con artists get away with what they get away with is, their victims are ashamed of their own blindness and their own gullibility, and they tend to just quietly go away. (Walter Kirn Quotes) Ask Jeeves! Who ever used that thing? College freshmen to find out who Goethe was - that’s it. (Walter Kirn Quotes) A president, like a college freshman, can’t know in advance which questions he’ll have to answer or what topics he’ll have to master. He has to be flexible, supple, and responsive. He has to be comfortable with multiple-choice. (Walter Kirn Quotes) However old-fashioned and right-wing this may sound, the American genius for language lies in understatement, in saying things simply, pointedly and quickly, and in making new and clean and swift what otherwise might be ponderous, round and slow. (Walter Kirn Quotes) People can be so neglectful of each other and of their own heritage - then death intrudes. Conversations we wish that we’d had earlier are had too late. (Walter Kirn Quotes) God is a freaking character, with enough foibles, tantrums, and paradoxical behaviors to supply a thousand screenplays. But who do you cast? (Walter Kirn Quotes) To young people born under the weird planet of the SAT, intelligence was equated with agility, with raw acuity. It produced a certain sort of person of which I was a typical specimen: the mental contortionist, able to rise to almost every challenge placed before him, except the challenge of real self-knowledge. (Walter Kirn Quotes) The room-service Caesar salads with soggy croutons, the distant relatives who show up at readings pitching weird, far-fetched investment schemes, the fans who have you sign a book to ‘Cathy’ and then tell you, ‘No, it’s Kathy with a K’ - it gets challenging after a while. It tests your stamina. (Walter Kirn Quotes) The reason that last-ditch political maneuvering has become business as usual in Washington is that the actors involved are drunk on blame and are convinced that the voting public is, too. They count on outrage, thereby spreading numbness. They cherish the prospect of partisan fury, thereby inspiring nonpartisan disgust. (Walter Kirn Quotes) At the beginning of a novel, a writer needs confidence, but after that what’s required is persistence. These traits sound similar. They aren’t. Confidence is what politicians, seducers and currency speculators have, but persistence is a quality found in termites. It’s the blind drive to keep on working that persists after confidence breaks down. (Walter Kirn Quotes) Size has nothing to do with literature. All legs are long enough to touch the ground, and all books are big enough to fill their covers. (Walter Kirn Quotes) The best anti-depressant pill for me would be one the size of a house so you could drop it on me and put me out of my misery. (Walter Kirn Quotes) Yes, in the commercial world there’s room for both McDonald’s and Whole Foods, but in the realm of politics, we’re told, it’s either Filet-o-Fish or line-caught salmon: only one can prevail - and which is up to you. (Walter Kirn Quotes) The fictionally correct have all the answers, and that’s what’s wrong with them. They’re artistic technocrats. There’s no dilemma so knotty, no question so baffling, that it can’t be smoothly neutralized by dialing up the right attitude adjustment. Poor old Hemingway. If only he’d known. (Walter Kirn Quotes) I’ve noticed that the few times I’ve traveled first class myself, you’ve already got your drink, and your coat has been taken by the time the rest of the passengers file on, and it’s hard not to feel sorry for them. They’re sort of trooping past you like cows to slaughter and you’re sitting there in your, you know, wide-body seat. (Walter Kirn Quotes) A true nature is a gloomy monolith, sort of like that old black rotary phone that I had to sing ‘Happy Birthday’ to Grandpa on. But novelists, damn us, still need true natures - so we can give them to our protagonists. And so readers can vaguely predict how they’ll behave when we trap them in ‘situations’ that they can’t IM their way out of. (Walter Kirn Quotes) Novelists who pretend to understand what keeps them scribbling are really just guessing. A profound, unmet childish need to be acknowledged? Maybe. It hardly matters, though. The termite that asks itself why it keeps chewing risks becoming sluggish and inefficient, as does the writer who grows self-conscious in the middle of chapter five. (Walter Kirn Quotes) Good short-story collections, like good record albums, are almost always hit-and-miss affairs - successful if they include three or four great tracks, wildly successful if they have five. And that’s as it should be. (Walter Kirn Quotes) Let the novelists fret about consistency - story writers should feel free to jam; to get things right in new, surprising ways by allowing themselves, now and then, to get things wrong. (Walter Kirn Quotes) Everyone his own cinematographer. His own stream-of-consciousness e-mail poet. His own nightclub DJ. His own political columnist. His own biographer of his top-10 friends! (Walter Kirn Quotes) In fourth grade, I learned that reading was serious business, not just a pleasant way to pass the time, and that like medicine or engineering, it had a definite, valuable purpose: to foster ‘comprehension.’ (Walter Kirn Quotes) I read somewhere once that in the 1960s, fiction writers were troubled by the notion that life was becoming stranger and more sensational than made-up stories could ever hope to be. Our new problem - more profound, I think - is that life no longer resembles a story. Events intersect but don’t progress. People interact but don’t make contact. (Walter Kirn Quotes) I grew up in a little town in Minnesota, 500 people. I went out to Princeton, and I wasn’t very well-accepted out there by the fancy folks of Princeton University, I felt. I came away bruised and feeling rejected. (Walter Kirn Quotes) On the Web, we can be whoever we wish to be, editing the face we show to others in ways that aren’t possible in physical space. We can also fine-tune the complexity and depth of our interactions and relationships. (Walter Kirn Quotes) Short stories are fiction’s R and D department, and failed or less-than-conclusive experiments are not just to be expected but to be hoped for. (Walter Kirn Quotes)

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