Walter Kirn quote: "Realize that the game of life is the game of, to some extent, being taken advantage of by people who make a science of it. Whether they are in government or personal life or in business, they're everywhere."

There are two sides to me. One is the writer. That's a savage person who looks at everything as ...
WALTER KIRN

E-mails, phone calls, Web sites, videos. They're still all letters, basically, and they've c...
WALTER KIRN

Novelists who pretend to understand what keeps them scribbling are really just guessing. A profound,...
WALTER KIRN

I had the impression from reading English literature that British women were great beauties, and I o...
WALTER KIRN

A sociopath doesn't warm up their environment, doesn't make it cozy. They don't have to;...
WALTER KIRN

I'm a magpie in my fiction, taking whatever looks shiny and curious to line the nest of my story...
WALTER KIRN

No matter how you cut them, paste them, rotate them, or distort them, lip syncing and air-guitar pla...
WALTER KIRN

Here's how adaptation works - almost everything in the movie is in the book in some form. But it...
WALTER KIRN

God is a freaking character, with enough foibles, tantrums, and paradoxical behaviors to supply a th...
WALTER KIRN

I think people get a sense of possibility when they're on a plane, even romantic possibility, wo...
WALTER KIRN

Thanks to Twitter, iPads, BlackBerrys, voice-activated in-dash navigation systems, and a hundred oth...
WALTER KIRN

Uncertainty doesn't make life worth living, quite, but it does make striving and gambling worth ...
WALTER KIRN

Everyone his own cinematographer. His own stream-of-consciousness e-mail poet. His own nightclub DJ....
WALTER KIRN

I review books as a day job, and through the years I've come to view the contemporary memoir as,...
WALTER KIRN

What is it in people, or just in people like me, that would rather let a lie go by, would rather wis...
WALTER KIRN

We want to believe that we're invulnerable, and that people who get tricked deserve it. Well, th...
WALTER KIRN

In fourth grade, I learned that reading was serious business, not just a pleasant way to pass the ti...
WALTER KIRN

I remember the first time I went to Italy when I was eighteen, I was in Florence and there were all ...
WALTER KIRN

The strange anthropological lesson of social media is that human beings, if given a choice, often pr...
WALTER KIRN

The reason con artists get away with what they get away with is, their victims are ashamed of their ...
WALTER KIRN

I've come to learn that the determined and gifted and genuine sociopath has far more power to de...
WALTER KIRN

Literary dementia seems dated now, but there was a time when a month in the funny farm was as de rig...
WALTER KIRN

I grew up in a little town in Minnesota, 500 people. I went out to Princeton, and I wasn't very ...
WALTER KIRN

Everyone loves a witch hunt as long as it's someone else's witch being hunted.
WALTER KIRN

To young people born under the weird planet of the SAT, intelligence was equated with agility, with ...
WALTER KIRN

A true nature is a gloomy monolith, sort of like that old black rotary phone that I had to sing '...
WALTER KIRN

Size matters in fiction, but so does lack of size. Everything else being equal, fat novels tend to b...
WALTER KIRN

I love reference books, especially collections of memorable quotations, world almanacs, and atlases....
WALTER KIRN

The room-service Caesar salads with soggy croutons, the distant relatives who show up at readings pi...
WALTER KIRN

Every generation looks at literature through the lens of their own experience, but with the Bible, e...
WALTER KIRN

The fictionally correct have all the answers, and that's what's wrong with them. They're...
WALTER KIRN

The success that Americans are said to worship is success of a specific sort: accomplished not throu...
WALTER KIRN

When I shoot at the range, I don't feel personally powerful but like the custodian of something ...
WALTER KIRN

When we have a favorite writer, it's always the places where they grew up, lived, worked, and th...
WALTER KIRN

Once you realize just the sort of glut of books that exists out there, it does become incumbent on y...
WALTER KIRN

Good short-story collections, like good record albums, are almost always hit-and-miss affairs - succ...
WALTER KIRN

Let the novelists fret about consistency - story writers should feel free to jam; to get things righ...
WALTER KIRN

Ask Jeeves! Who ever used that thing? College freshmen to find out who Goethe was - that's it.
WALTER KIRN

I'm a novelist, a critic, an essayist - I tend to see politics as a subset of cultures rather th...
WALTER KIRN

Art, art of any kind, shows that folks are trying.
WALTER KIRN

I read somewhere once that in the 1960s, fiction writers were troubled by the notion that life was b...
WALTER KIRN

It's been a concern of mine for years that the mainstream media coverage of culture and politics...
WALTER KIRN

[Most writers' view of the New West is] either phony - obsessed with the same tired mythology - or i...
WALTER KIRN

She started out all excited and impressed. ... (She took an immediate dislike to Bill, who struck he...
WALTER KIRN

I've been around - having gone to Princeton, and I went to Oxford after that - some pretty fancy...
WALTER KIRN

A hundred and fifty years ago, this was just a continent. You could move to the borders and start a ...
WALTER KIRN

because she was very upset and I was trying to do the gentlemanly thing.
WALTER KIRN

Since the founding of Facebook, Twitter, Instagram and other mainstays of what technology writers ha...
WALTER KIRN

When Loughner himself speaks and we find out his real influences are Spiderman, 'Gnome Chomsky,' Tay...
WALTER KIRN

The Bible has been through millions of rounds of exegesis and interpretation, but it hasn't been...
WALTER KIRN

Memo to extreme partisans: If you can't bring yourselves to love your enemies, can you at least lear...
WALTER KIRN

I wasn't above having thoughts of God's wrath.
WALTER KIRN

Just breathing can be such a luxury sometimes.
WALTER KIRN

In America, to be ID'd - sorted, tagged, and permanently filed - is to lose a bit of one's s...
WALTER KIRN

In the age of networked everything, life moves sideways and covers lots of ground while barely touch...
WALTER KIRN

A president, like a college freshman, can't know in advance which questions he'll have to an...
WALTER KIRN

Nothing is less suspenseful than a threat that threatens the maker of the threat at least as much as...
WALTER KIRN

You're able to do things in novels: introduce subplots, other characters, thematic layers and so...
WALTER KIRN

Cross the wrong state border with your gun, or wake up one morning to new legislation or a new presi...
WALTER KIRN

The jurors appear vaguely stranded and at loose ends, uprooted from their routines and livelihoods.
WALTER KIRN

Every day, God grants us the precious gift of life. Yet every day, we squander it with our selfish, ...
KIRN HANS

Gifts must affect the receiver to the point of shock.
WALTER BENJAMIN

America's health care system is neither healthy, caring, nor a system.
WALTER CRONKITE

I look forward to making tangible and inspirational contributions to the Houston Technology Center&#...
WALTER O'BRIEN

Every passion borders on the chaotic, but the collector's passion borders on the chaos of memori...
WALTER BENJAMIN

All human knowledge takes the form of interpretation.
WALTER BENJAMIN

I can never believe how much time and energy and money and talent and everything else is being poure...
WALTER BECKER

There are some things that I write that I know are personal in a way, or the gag is so obscure that ...
WALTER BECKER

We have been fortunate enough to do something that has always been out of the mainstream and yet hav...
WALTER BECKER

All our wives are experimental psychologists.
WALTER BECKER

If there's a strange way to do something, I would certainly like to know about it. I feel that I...
WALTER BECKER

I always look for the weirdest note to land on. I felt that that was the least I could do for the gr...
WALTER BECKER

From a linguistic point of view, you can't really take much objection to the notion that a show ...
WALTER BECKER

That's sort of what we wanted to do: conquer from the margins, sort of find our place in the mid...
WALTER BECKER

You have a kid, and it's like, 'He's gotta go to college! Gotta have some clothes!'
WALTER BECKER

'8 Miles to Pancake Day' is a reconciliation of the classic space-time dilemma.
WALTER BECKER

It seemed like the more complex the music we were playing, the less able we were to guarantee its co...
WALTER BECKER

There was a film called 'FM,' and we were asked to do the title song. And I said, 'Does ...
WALTER BECKER

'Deacon Blues' was special for me. It's the only time I remember mixing a record all day...
WALTER BECKER

The protagonist in 'Deacon Blues' is a triple-L loser - an L-L-L Loser. It's not so much...
WALTER BECKER

There's a great freedom in writing by yourself. You can write anything you want.
WALTER BECKER

I spent a couple of years not doing any music or anything, just here in Hawaii trying to get healthy...
WALTER BECKER

I'm not interested in a rock/jazz fusion.
WALTER BECKER

It's great fun to play with a really good band.
WALTER BECKER

People are really exercised about one particular thing, and that is themselves. They will bore you e...
WALTER BECKER

Rock music is being systematically merged with fashion.
WALTER BECKER

Cynicism, I contend, is the wailing of someone who believes that things are, or should be, or could ...
WALTER BECKER

When you start to work with someone, there's a negotiation that takes place involving what's...
WALTER BECKER

My primary influences were the best jazz players from the 50's and 60's and later some of th...
WALTER BECKER

I listen to a mixture of old jazz, contemporary, pop, some world beat stuff and various odds and end...
WALTER BECKER

I'm a self-taught musician aside from what I've been able to pick up from other players.
WALTER BECKER

Honor sinks where commerce long prevails.
WALTER BAGEHOT

You may talk of the tyranny of Nero and Tiberius; but the real tyranny is the tyranny of your next-d...
WALTER BAGEHOT

An influential member of parliament has not only to pay much money to become such, and to give time ...
WALTER BAGEHOT

No real English gentleman, in his secret soul, was ever sorry for the death of a political economist...
WALTER BAGEHOT

The being without an opinion is so painful to human nature that most people will leap to a hasty opi...
WALTER BAGEHOT

No great work has ever been produced except after a long interval of still and musing meditation.
WALTER BAGEHOT

Public opinion is a permeating influence, and it exacts obedience to itself; it requires us to drink...
WALTER BAGEHOT

The habit of common and continuous speech is a symptom of mental deficiency. It proceeds from not kn...
WALTER BAGEHOT

All the best stories in the world are but one story in reality - the story of escape. It is the only...
WALTER BAGEHOT

Life is a school of probability.
WALTER BAGEHOT

It is unsound for an independent editor to be a financial contributor to any cause which would cause...
WALTER ANNENBERG

I have very little respect for Nancy Reagan. There is something about her that is very petty.
WALTER ANNENBERG

I cannot compromise or inhibit my independence.
WALTER ANNENBERG

Your Majesty, I took the liberty because I was so desirous of visiting alone with you for a few minu...
WALTER ANNENBERG

God grant you the strength to fight off the temptations of surrender.
WALTER ANNENBERG

You will not be satisfied unless you are contributing something to or for the benefit of others.
WALTER ANNENBERG

What matters is that you are doing what you think is right based on the standards which you hold.
WALTER ANNENBERG

The greatest happiness comes from being vitally interested in something that excites all your energi...
WALTER ANNENBERG

Live rich, die poor; never make the mistake of doing it the other way round.
WALTER ANNENBERG

I shall participate, I shall contribute, and in so doing, I will be the gainer.
WALTER ANNENBERG

Adversity tests us from time to time and it is inevitable that this testing continues during life.
WALTER ANNENBERG

Accomplish something every day of your life.
WALTER ANNENBERG

People who think about art as an investment are pathetic.
WALTER ANNENBERG

The test of character is having the ability to meet challenges.
WALTER ANNENBERG

In the world today, a young lady who does not have a college education just is not educated.
WALTER ANNENBERG

Never buy four C-plus paintings when you can buy one A.
WALTER ANNENBERG

My country has been very good to me; I must be good to my country.
WALTER ANNENBERG

Some people find an interest in making money, and though they appear to be slaving, many actually en...
WALTER ANNENBERG

Many activities and team play participation will give you a training that will prove invaluable late...
WALTER ANNENBERG

Too much work, too much vacation, too much of any one thing is unsound.
WALTER ANNENBERG

The greatest power is not money power, but political power.
WALTER ANNENBERG

I am responsible. Although I may not be able to prevent the worst from happening, I am responsible f...
WALTER ANDERSON

Good listeners, like precious gems, are to be treasured.
WALTER ANDERSON

We're never so vulnerable than when we trust someone - but paradoxically, if we cannot trust, ne...
WALTER ANDERSON

I'm not afraid to learn from my coaches.
WALTER ALSTON

I put myself through college playing pool.
WALTER ALSTON

I always liked Casey Stengel as a manager because he seemed to have a grasp of so many things.
WALTER ALSTON

The toughest thing about managing is knowing your personnel and what it can give you under all condi...
WALTER ALSTON

I do worry about tomorrow's game, but never about next year's job.
WALTER ALSTON

I've won plenty of games by knowing when to take out my pitcher; whom to replace him with; or ho...
WALTER ALSTON

I think for being not unsympathetic that their appearance may also appear, so differently it, must; ...
ULRICH WALTER

Every astronaut flew into space for a living. But while NASA has not solved the security problems, I...
ULRICH WALTER

Judgment comes from experience - and experience comes from bad judgment.
WALTER WRISTON

She's been on more laps than a napkin.
WALTER WINCHELL

Nothing recedes like success.
WALTER WINCHELL

Hollywood is where they shoot too many pictures and not enough actors.
WALTER WINCHELL

Broadway is a main artery of New York life - the hardened artery.
WALTER WINCHELL

The best way to get along is never to forgive an enemy or forget a friend.
WALTER WINCHELL

The only ones who like Milton Berle are his mother - and the public.
WALTER WINCHELL

Today's gossip is tomorrow's headline.
WALTER WINCHELL

I never lost a friend I wanted to keep.
WALTER WINCHELL

What I would like to be remembered for is that Walter Washington changed the spirit of the people of...
WALTER WASHINGTON

Mine has been a concern for the people, a concern to maintain stability, a concern to get people wor...
WALTER WASHINGTON

I passed the Bar on the first shot, But I have never practiced law.
WALTER WAGER

I always liked spy stories.
WALTER WAGER

I use the city because it saves time, I don't have to do a lot of research on the setting.
WALTER WAGER

In France, I learned about wine and cheese.
WALTER WAGER

I keep working under the delusion that someday a library will ask for my manuscripts.
WALTER WAGER

The government of the German Democratic Republic rejects secret policies. It works for the people, a...
WALTER ULBRICHT

May we soon enjoy the fruits of our labor in a peaceful and united Germany.
WALTER ULBRICHT

The nature of a democracy consists to an important degree in the right of the people to criticize pr...
WALTER ULBRICHT

The more you participate in our common endeavors, the more successful your work in the factory, mine...
WALTER ULBRICHT

The West German population would protest passionately if it knew what secret meetings between the fe...
WALTER ULBRICHT

When has there ever been a government in German history that came to the people and revealed its det...
WALTER ULBRICHT

The plan shows that the twenty million people in the German democratic Republic and in the democrati...
WALTER ULBRICHT

In the past, people worked together only when some great disaster threatened.
WALTER ULBRICHT

The success of each of us benefits us all, and the success of us all benefits each of us individuall...
WALTER ULBRICHT

Something new has happened: For the first time in German history our fatherland is guided by a plan ...
WALTER ULBRICHT

The guiding principle is not to manufacture the goods everyone needs, rather to earn profits for a f...
WALTER ULBRICHT

The victory of the working people over the exploiters and slave holders is at the same time the vict...
WALTER ULBRICHT

Let us show our fellow countrymen and the entire world what the Germans can do when they work for pe...
WALTER ULBRICHT

This hunger for profits causes great misery for the people.
WALTER ULBRICHT

It is the most important contribution we can make to speeding up reunification.
WALTER ULBRICHT

Let there be great enthusiasm for the plan throughout the entire republic that will overcome all obs...
WALTER ULBRICHT

Gifts fall from heaven only in fairy tales.
WALTER ULBRICHT

The Old Firm clubs are not easy clubs to manage and sometimes I think frustration comes in that, in ...
WALTER SMITH

There are people for whom Rangers Football Club is their entire way of life.
WALTER SMITH

From my own point of view, I hope everybody would realise that people who work in Scottish football ...
WALTER SMITH

Paper and ink are all but trash, if I cannot find the thought which the writer did think.
WALTER SMITH

I started out in Scotland, not as a footballer of any note, and I didn't play to draw the attent...
WALTER SMITH

If you can achieve winning a league championship, that, to me, is the full test of the team and mana...
WALTER SMITH

Whether people like it or not, you have to say the Old Firm are a major part of Scottish football. I...
WALTER SMITH

Our works decay and disappear but God gentlest works stay looking down on the ruins we toil to rear.
WALTER SMITH

The race of mankind would perish did they cease to aid each other. We cannot exist without mutual he...
WALTER SCOTT

He is the best sailor who can steer within fewest points of the wind, and exact a motive power out o...
WALTER SCOTT

A rusty nail placed near a faithful compass, will sway it from the truth, and wreck the argosy.
WALTER SCOTT

Teach your children poetry; it opens the mind, lends grace to wisdom and makes the heroic virtues he...
WALTER SCOTT

Faces that have charmed us the most escape us the soonest.
WALTER SCOTT

Success - keeping your mind awake and your desire asleep.
WALTER SCOTT

When thinking about companions gone, we feel ourselves doubly alone.
WALTER SCOTT

One hour of life, crowded to the full with glorious action, and filled with noble risks, is worth wh...
WALTER SCOTT

Love rules the court, the camp, the grove, And men below, and saints above: For love is heaven, and ...
WALTER SCOTT

Discretion is the perfection of reason, and a guide to us in all the duties of life.
WALTER SCOTT

Of all vices, drinking is the most incompatible with greatness.
WALTER SCOTT

To all, to each, a fair good-night, and pleasing dreams, and slumbers light.
WALTER SCOTT

What I have to say is far more important than how long my eyelashes are.
WALTER SCOTT

A lawyer without history or literature is a mechanic, a mere working mason; if he possesses some kno...
WALTER SCOTT

Success or failure in business is caused more by the mental attitude even than by mental capacities.
WALTER SCOTT

We build statues out of snow, and weep to see them melt.
WALTER SCOTT

Look back, and smile on perils past.
WALTER SCOTT

When I come to London, I always like to see what's playing at the NFT.
WALTER SALLES

We all knew the book well because it's the cult book in Latin America. For me, this was a sacred...
WALTER SALLES

The Sundance Institute has been vital to the film communities of Latin America.
WALTER SALLES

The other aspect is that you become much more aware of the structural problems that pertain to that ...
WALTER SALLES

The necessity to conceptualise has to come very early on, and defining a vector of development for t...
WALTER SALLES

The films that I've done before were original stories most of the time, I did two adaptations be...
WALTER SALLES

That's why I have always admired documentaries, because they open windows that can make you unde...
WALTER SALLES

So when I was very young, I longed for Brazil.
WALTER SALLES

So the search for a father in Central Station is also a search for a country.
WALTER SALLES

Realize that the game of life is the game of, to some extent, being taken advantage of by people who make a science of it. Whether they are in government or personal life or in business, they're everywhere.

Copied!

Walter Kirn

Realize that the game of life is the game of, to some extent, being taken advantage of by people who make a science of it. Whether they are in government or personal life or in business, they're everywhere.

Walter Kirn

Share:

Related

More Walter Kirn