“I was always kind of florid. And full of rhetoric. That was my flaw. My whole time writing, I've had to work against that because it can be a wrecking posture.”
Thoughtful feeling
Thoughtful Quotes — page 115 of 303
“I am very little inclined on any occasion to say anything unless I hope to produce some good by it.”
“As a general rule, I abstain from reading reports of attacks upon myself, wishing not to be provoked by that to which I cannot properly offer an answer.”
“Suspicions which may be unjust need not be stated.”
“In reading some books we occupy ourselves chiefly with the thoughts of the author; in perusing others, exclusively with our own.”
“It is more than probable that I am not understood; but I fear, indeed, that it is in no manner possible to convey to the mind of the merely general reader, an adequate idea of that nervous intensity of interest with which, in my case, the powers of meditation (not to speak technically) busied and buried themselves, in the contemplation of even the most ordinary objects of the universe.”
“There was much of the beautiful, much of the wanton, much of the bizarre, something of the terrible, and not a little of that which might have excited disgust.”
“I fashion the expression of my face, as accurately as possible, in accordance with the expression of his, and then wait to see what thoughts or sentiments arise in my mind or heart, as if to match or correspond with the expression.”
“I got this story from someone who had no business in the telling of it.”
“Unlearned men of books assume the care, As eunuchs are the guardians of the fair.”
“Gossip is only the lack of a worthy memory.”
“I have no tattoos. There's nothing I've even been that into to get a tattoo of it.”
“For in the end, it is all about memory, its sources and its magnitude, and, of course, its consequences.”
“I'm not a big Austen reader. I wouldn't say I dislike her, but if I had to choose between her and Eliot to bring to a desert island, it would definitely be Eliot.”
“In a novel, I could submerge my ego in a characters and let his perceptions take over.”
“Sometimes I think we know too much about our idols and that spoils the dream.”
“I won't have a hard time being brutally honest. But I won't be mean. You don't have to be mean to be honest.”
“The way I see it... If you need both of your hands for whatever it is you're doing, then your brain should probably be in on it too.”
“Eulogy is nice, but one does not learn anything from it.”
“Conceit is an insuperable obstacle to all progress. On the other hand, it is of little use to take criticism in a slavish spirit and to act on it without understanding it.”