A synthesis—an abstraction, chunk, or gist idea—is a neural pattern. Good chunks form neural patterns that resonate, not only within the subject we’re working in, but with other subjects and areas of our lives. The abstraction helps you transfer ideas from one area to another. That’s why great art, poetry, music, and literature can be so compelling. When we grasp the chunk, it takes on a new life in our own minds—we form ideas that enhance and enlighten the neural patterns we already possess, allowing us to more readily see and develop other related patterns.
Once we have created a chunk as a neural pattern, we can more easily pass that chunked pattern to others, as Cajal and other great artists, poets, scientists, and writers have done for millennia, Once other people grasp that chunk, not only can they use it, but also they can more easily create similar chunks that apply to other areas in their lives—an important part of the creative process.


Barbara Oakley

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Families are nothing other than the idolatry of duty.
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Housework is work directly opposed to the possibility of human self-actualization.
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In creating my YouTube videos, I don't want to speak for my audience and the people I represent;...
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I always think about the fact that PewDiePie, who has tens of millions of followers, started with ze...
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In elementary school, I loved the 'Bailey School Kids' series. It was about a group of class...
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Being misunderstood - that's the thing that scares me. Because my life is about oversharing.
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All the money that's donated to the Trevor Project provides resources that directly affect the y...
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Once you dye your hair for the first time, you see other people with dyed hair, and you see them dif...
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Nowadays, if somebody in America is feeling alone and wants to find a coming out story, they just se...
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I feel like everybody, whether you have one follower or a million followers, has an opportunity to e...
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were very much trying to present themselves as reluctant warriors. They were very much reacting to d...
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I went all to pieces under the care of a home.
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When I was in my single digits, I was subjected to the worst torture you can possibly inflict on a c...
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such a hot potato that it was dropped.
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I don't think we'll see huge divisions here in Greece.
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Narcissism has existed for a long time; social media is just a new outlet to express it. Anybody who...
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Basically what it boils down to is whether Angela Merkel detaches the Greens from Chancellor Gerhard...
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prompted by a growing concern, deeply held, about the future of the country's national security.
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We are not going to see a full NATO operation,
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crumbling under an administration blinded by ideology and a callous indifference to the realities of...
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My one guilty pleasure is, every airport, I will drop everything to get an airport massage at those ...
TYLER OAKLEY
The west wasn't won on salad.
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Bush isn't going to follow the detail to the same extent (as Clinton), but he is helping to put his ...
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I really like Nick Jonas. I think he is super-cute, handsome and talented.
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There are so many versions of haggis nowadays. You can even buy haggis in a can.
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We have competitors coming in from California, and we even have one coming from Scotland to compete ...
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have spent their lives working to erect the stature and posture of the U.S. as a leader in the world...
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The most satisfactory definition of man from the scientific point of view is probably Man the Tool-m...
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The fact that George Bush has come to Belfast to meet Tony Blair in this location ... is in a sense ...
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(Blair) was saying that one way or another inaction was not a possibility -- there has to be action ...
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Prior to 2015, I had kind of approached every year like, 'Let's hope for the best.' I al...
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The moment I realised anyone could be watching - and this is going to sound so name-droppy - was whe...
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In middle school, I was really into the 'Redwall' series, about anthropomorphic rodents in m...
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Is not the semblance of guilt, however slight the tinge, already a corruption?
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As prosecutors, we're given a certain amount of discretion. Most use that discretion wisely and focu...
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This is why homophobia is a terrible evil: it disguises itself as concern while it is inherently hat...
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When it came to 'Binge,' it wasn't my intention to get on a little soapbox and have a te...
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I've never had a single person ask me to prosecute one of these. We're not going to go out and stake...
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This is not the direct result of one issue. We see it as a way to stay ahead as the competition incr...
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At the Sonoma County Fair, we pride ourselves on being out in front. We are interested in using DNA ...
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Basically, I just tried to let them know we were here and we were interested in having them. I told ...
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The mayor has let her rage, her distaste for Ray Hunt, cloud her vision. We have a mayor who thinks ...
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It's one more slap at Ray Hunt.
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If this weren't Ray Hunt, if this were anybody else the emotions wouldn't be there,
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You circumvent our authority and our process in this, ... You stood there and said 'I,' 'I,' 'I,' 'm...
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We have a policy, ... If you want to change the policy, go to the committee, go to the appropriate a...
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You think you can circumvent our authority and our powers. You can't.
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It is an unused park for the citizens of Dallas, and I think this is the right direction. It would b...
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If anyone does not think that a flood is possible in Dallas, I beg to differ. It is not only possibl...
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I made a promise to craft this, to put something on the ballot. And I've done that. I'm not going to...
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I would say it's in his best interest, at this stage of the game.
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It's a powder that is put into an inhaling device that makes the powder burst into fine particles th...
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It's the first new delivery device that has been on the market since we started treating diabetes. T...
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Any man who has got himself set over others and don't have any responsibility to something bigger th...
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In the beginning, all that was asked that they change the word from the N-word to Negro, and they sa...
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Are our concerns not just as valid?
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We asked them to either take it out or change the N-word to 'Negro' and they told us no. Because whi...
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We urge them to cancel that play in the name of human decency.
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When Hurricane Katrina hit, so many of our steering council members were called out of town to work ...
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The only constant you have from Point A, your birth to Point B, your death is you. There is no point...
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I'm convinced that this was well-planned,
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performance of great defiance and passion.
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The Civil Rights Movement, it wasn't just a couple of, you know, superstars like Martin Luther K...
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Wars and elections are both too big and too small to matter in the long run. The daily work - that g...
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Small change, small wonders - these are the currency of my endurance and ultimately of my life.
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I have a pig valve.
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Empathy is really the opposite of spiritual meanness. It's the capacity to understand that every...
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One may walk over the highest mountain one step at a time.
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Every citizen of this country should be guaranteed that their vote matters, that their vote is count...
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In 1984, George Orwell wrote of a world where the only colour to be found was in the propaganda post...
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Stop a minute, right where you are. Relax your shoulders, shake your head and spine like a dog shaki...
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The most expensive hobby a rich man could have is a boat, and the second most expensive hobby he cou...
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Trust is to human relationships what faith is to gospel living. It is the beginning place, the found...
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There's a lot of cruelty going on all the time, and I'm not just talking about inter-human c...
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I also found that for myself, since I've had no religious education, it was so interesting to se...
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A great many people think that polysyllables are a sign of intelligence.
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I find very often people like to confront rumors. It depends on how much they trust you. And you hav...
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First of all, the Jewish religion has a great deal in common with the Christian religion because, as...
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I found it interesting that as people become more technically oriented all over the world, at the sa...
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The world may be full of fourth-rate writers but it's also full of fourth-rate readers.
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I have affected the way women are regarded, and that's important to me.
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Parents of young children should realize that few people, and maybe no one, will find their children...
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Most of us have trouble juggling. The woman who says she doesn't is someone whom I admire but ha...
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When you're interviewing someone, you're in control. When you're being interviewed, you ...
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A man cannot be made comfortable without his own approval.
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Success can make you go one of two ways. It can make you a prima donna - or it can smooth the edges,...
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Wait for those unguarded moments. Relax the mood and, like the child dropping off to sleep, the subj...
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I didn't have a very religious family.
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Don't confuse being stimulating with being blunt.
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To put away one's own original thoughts in order to take up a book is a sin against the Holy Gho...
BARBARA TUCHMAN
To a historian libraries are food, shelter, and even muse.
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For me, the card catalog has been a companion all my working life. To leave it is like leaving the h...
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Nothing so comforts the military mind as the maxim of a great but dead general.
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The fleet sailed to its war base in the North Sea, headed not so much for some rendezvous with glory...
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Nothing sickens me more than the closed door of a library.
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No more distressing moment can ever face a British government than that which requires it to come to...
BARBARA TUCHMAN
Books are humanity in print.
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War is the unfolding of miscalculations.
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The unrecorded past is none other than our old friend, the tree in the primeval forest which fell wi...
BARBARA TUCHMAN
Honor wears different coats to different eyes.
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I didn't have any agent; I've never had an agent.
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Certainly, in Italy, nobody takes light for granted.
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In the sequence where I am burned at the stake, everything was so casual and hazardous that the bott...
BARBARA STEELE
The crew, like all Italian crews, was generous, warm, and enthusiastic.
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I don't have an objective overview of Black Sunday.
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If you were out of a job and your kid needed diapers and your husband just left you, you would be so...
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Italian cameramen grow up immersed in an awareness of light. It is part of their mythology.
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I was obliged to stand there, holding the leash of this creature for their welcoming publicity shots...
BARBARA STEELE
After all, film is so porous, and to my mind, so oddly occult, that I think that film itself absorbs...
BARBARA STEELE
I'm now the Lord of the Brighton Manor.
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My only problem is finding a way to play my fortieth fallen female in a different way from my thirty...
BARBARA STANWYCK
Career is too pompous a word. It was a job, and I have always felt privileged to be paid for what I ...
BARBARA STANWYCK
Egotism - usually just a case of mistaken nonentity.
BARBARA STANWYCK
A major problem for Black women, and all people of color, when we are challenged to oppose anti-Semi...
BARBARA SMITH
One of the greatest gifts of Black feminism to ourselves has been to make it a little easier simply ...
BARBARA SMITH
You can only paint through your experience and sub-consciousness.
BARBARA SMITH
This invisibility, however, means that the opportunities for creative research are infinite.
BARBARA SMITH
Black women as a group have never been fools. We couldn't afford to be.
BARBARA SMITH
Black women, whose experience is unique, are seldom recognized as a particular social-cultural entit...
BARBARA SMITH
It's essential to distinguish between events that are really beyond your control and events you ...
BARBARA SHER
We are like violins. We can be used as doorstops, or we can make music.
BARBARA SHER
You don't have to get it right the first time.
BARBARA SHER
Every single one of us can do things that no one else can do - can love things that no one else can ...
BARBARA SHER
Isolation is a dream killer.
BARBARA SHER
When you play it too safe, you're taking the biggest risk of your life. Time is the only wealth ...
BARBARA SHER
Imaginary obstacles are insurmountable. Real ones aren't.
BARBARA SHER
Change is not only likely, it's inevitable.
BARBARA SHER
When you start using senses you've neglected, your reward is to see the world with completely fr...
BARBARA SHER
Doing is a quantum leap from imagining.
BARBARA SHER
Real obstacles don't take you in circles. They can be overcome. Invented ones are like a maze.
BARBARA SHER
Each author has his or her own voice. I read each book slowly so I can see the patterns they use to ...
BARBARA ROSENBLAT
I went to Disney World for the first time, and I got an ice cream cone. The kid at the booth recogni...
BARBARA ROSENBLAT
As I read, I start to form clear ideas of the characters and allow myself to be a proper conduit for...
BARBARA ROSENBLAT
I'm always telling students when I do a master class on audiobooks: 'Watch Meryl Streep. Wat...
BARBARA ROSENBLAT
I've been recording audiobooks for more than 30 years. I've recorded over 500 titles on all ...
BARBARA ROSENBLAT
Nothing taxes an actor more thoroughly than a good audiobook.
BARBARA ROSENBLAT
Those quotations were really quite obscure. Anyone can see that he is a very well read man.
BARBARA PYM
How absurd and delicious it is to be in love with somebody younger than yourself. Everybody should t...
BARBARA PYM
I was a good kid, but I was just very chatty. Teachers were rarely entertained, but occasionally a c...
BARBARA PARK
My own pregnancies were all about me, me, me. My aches, my pains, my swollen feet, and my body that ...
BARBARA PARK
My criteria for what makes a book an official 'favorite,' is based almost entirely on how de...
BARBARA PARK
I've stopped reading about my books on the Internet because it's too hurtful.
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My senior year of high school, I was voted 'Wittiest.' So, several years later, I decided to...
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I find the term 'perfect child' to be an oxymoron.
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Of all the novels I've written, my favorite is 'Mick Harte Was Here'.
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Ever since I began writing my Junie B. Jones series, people have been assuming that the character is...
BARBARA PARK
Society just has a way of inhibiting you, which is good and bad.
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I'm so lazy as far as liking to get up, go to the office in my pajamas, get dressed about noon. ...
BARBARA PARK
I like to think that Junie B. looks at the world - and this isn't a negative comment on her - fr...
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I'm not actually sure I'm grown-up enough for grown-up books.
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There are many reluctant young readers who haven't yet found books that make them laugh.
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I find that when I'm struggling to think of how a six-year-old would feel about something, I jus...
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I wasn't that over-the-top, but I got sent to the principal in first grade for talking. And my f...
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For 20 years I've gotten to laugh my way through my work. For me, that's a dream job.
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All of my characters are less than perfect.
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There are those who believe that the value of a children's book can be measured only in terms of...
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Phones rang constantly, as if the White House was conducting some kind of pardon telethon.
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Hopefully, at some point, people will at least credit the Republicans with carrying out their oversi...
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It's difficult to believe that Al Gore was oblivious to the existing laws. He has to respond at ...
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Al Gore seems to have found a great political ploy: Picking up whatever issue he is most vulnerable ...
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I think that's going to be an issue: Whether or not voters are going to get more of the same in ...
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The mainstream media has chosen their candidates and their issues, and they're not the same as t...
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I think Gore does have to worry. He is tied to Bill Clinton. We know that there were telephone calls...
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It might seem unfair to reward a person for having so much pleasure over the years, asking the maize...
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I never thought of stopping, and I just hated sleeping. I can't imagine having a better life.
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I know my corn plants intimately, and I find it a great pleasure to know them.
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That is the exciting thing: I don't know what God has given me for tomorrow.
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I think it was 37 years that I did music.
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I am loving being Momma. I really, really am.
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And they just saw me on that and - from the time I was 11 until I was 12, I guess. And then when I h...
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When I had my television show, 'Barbara Mandrell and the Mandrell Sisters,' it was my high h...
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I'm a very competitive person, and I always competed with myself. Every year, I'd take six w...
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When I retired from my music November 1997, it had been 37 years.
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We had to go all through the night thinking that our baby was dead. When God showed him to us, he wa...
BARBARA MANDRELL
I am not saying that I'm happy about what's going on right now in our nation, but I am at pe...
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