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When you write, you're inside the project. You can't really think about the reception. It has to be worth it even if no one reads it.


Ta-Nehisi Coates

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SPIKE JONZE If you think you can do it, you can.
JOHN BURROUGHS I've had to really teach myself that when you're not feeling it, you shouldn't write any...
COREY TAYLOR If you can dream it, you can do it.
ENZO FERRARI You have to be born a sex symbol. You don't become one. If you're born with it, you'll h...
SOPHIA LOREN But I think Kiss Kiss, Bang Bang really got that thing where, if a movie reads really funny and then...
ROBERT DOWNEY, JR. When you're surrounded by all these people, it can be even lonelier than when you're by your...
FIONA APPLE You are an adult and you don't understand me and what are the differences between the adult and the ...
DEYTH BANGER If you only get one roller-coaster ride, you don't want to be thinking about the second one when...
GREG POEHLER If you don't have nerves and a little trepidation about any new project, then I don't think ...
JOHN WELLS If you don't think it.
You'll never do it!
ANTHONY T. HINCKS If you're passionate about something and stick with it, even if your friends aren't doing it...
ELIZABETH GILLIES It's tough when you're No. 1. You don't have any private life, you can't even walk a...
BJORN BORG You have to be the one promoting yourself. If you don't think that you're worthy, you're...
MISTY COPELAND If you're a writer, write. You just keep writing. And if you're a filmmaker, you keep doing ...
DANA BRUNETTI When no one knows you, and you're just trying to break into stuff, it's so good because you ...
CHRIS LILLEY The fear of old age is something that one feels when they're younger. Once you get to being old,...
PAOLO SORRENTINO I think that comedy really tells you how it is. The other thing about comedy is that - you don't...
CARL REINER If you're writing a book that takes place in New York in the moment, you can't not write abo...
RICHARD PRICE If you do something that you're not genuinely passionate about, it is a little soul-crushing. Ju...
CLAIRE DANES Do the thing and you will have the power.
RALPH WALDO EMERSON If you can do it, why you won't do it???
If you have chance why you won't use it?
DEYTH BANGER You can't really think about more than one movie at a time. You're thinking about it conscio...
MARSHALL BRICKMAN If it's what you do and you can do it, then you do it.
VAN MORRISON It ain't bragging if you can do it.
DIZZY DEAN I don't think know if anything's going to translate anywhere. You're making a movie, you...
BEN STILLER No one thinks of the lab-testing experience as positive. It should be! One way to create that is to ...
ELIZABETH HOLMES I think if you're good and you can persuade people you're going to be able to do that role a...
ALEXANDER SIDDIG I think to this day, 'Superman/Wonder Woman' is probably one of the trickiest things I'v...
CHARLES SOULE Any project that I put out, I never want it to sound like the first one. It can have some vibes or s...
TREVOR JACKSON When you're in comedy, people always come up and say, 'Oh, it must be so hard.' It reall...
JERRY SEINFELD Motherhood has completely changed me. It's just about like the most completely humbling experien...
DIANE KEATON If you're going to write, then write a novel with a Haitian woman in it and try and describe her...
JEFF BUCKLEY It's way easier to write for other people. Yourself isn't in it. When you write for yourself...
SAM DEW Even when you write it, someone's got to play it. So if you can play it and bypass all the rest ...
ORNETTE COLEMAN I'm a big fan of 'Glee.' I think it's really smart. And I think it's well-timed....
CORY MONTEITH It's funny when people say, 'I don't think Julia likes me.' Honey, if I don't li...
JULIA ROBERTS You're not allowed to write about me if you haven't seen 'The Shawshank Redemption.'...
ZACK GREINKE It's more than a job. It's very personal, so when you're hurt, you're really hurt in...
CHARLOTTE GAINSBOURG When you give, you will be blessed. When you give, it will be given back to you.
CRAIG GROESCHEL You can tell if there's magic in something. When you start it, you want to finish it and you wan...
HALSEY When you're drunk, you always think you're not. If you even drink at all don't get behin...
BAM MARGERA Injuries aren't anything foreign to me. I am used to overcoming illness and injury; you can'...
CATE CAMPBELL Success is a Journey: so, don’t forget to pack your COURAGE: to face the obstacles heading your wa...
PHILIP T. M. If you're a musician, there's no instrument that can be withheld from you. If you're dra...
CYNTHIA ROBINSON Obstruction can be caused by so many factors - perfectionism, distraction, faltering confidence, ext...
CLAIRE MESSUD If you're not a beautiful person, you can't do anything about it.
DAN FOGLER If you're not really having a good time, it's not worth it.
KYLE CHANDLER No one really knows what I'm really like, and you won't unless you spend a day with me, or i...
AVRIL LAVIGNE You must be the person you have never had the courage to be. Gradually, you will discover that you a...
PAULO COELHO Do something because you really want to do it. If you're doing it just for the goal and don'...
KALPANA CHAWLA I never was really into comics as a child, and I think if you miss the boat when you're a kid, y...
VICTORIA PRATT No one ever said 'no' to me about anything. No one ever told me anything was wrong. Never. N...
MARC JACOBS When you're making the film, you don't really think the audience; it's only when you sta...
JONATHAN GLAZER I love how, when you're a teenager, you're really opinionated, you're really right, you ...
MAGGIE CAREY It's like there's some unwritten rule that if you're mates, you can say what you want to...
KARL PILKINGTON I love the idea that the editing room is the final time you write. You should still be creatively so...
NOAH HAWLEY If you know what you are going to write when you're writing a poem, it's going to be average...
DEREK WALCOTT If you're not in it you can't win it.
DALEY THOMPSON You love the game, but it's hard to do the things you do when you're feeling like you're...
CALVIN JOHNSON When you're happy you don't always have to be laughing, and when you're sad you don'...
FREDDIE HIGHMORE You'll be okay. No matter what shape reality takes, you can handle it.
SHIRO AMANO For me, when I'm writing something really personal, I don't feel good about it. It's wei...
SAMPHA Write every day. Don't kill yourself. I think a lot of people think, 'I have to write a chap...
CASSANDRA CLARE As long as you're in an environment where the worth of the project isn't based on the projec...
AVA DUVERNAY I don't think anything is unrealistic if you believe you can do it.
RICHARD L. EVANS You can be all that you want to be.
Keep dreaming and reach out to your dreams.
LAILAH GIFTY AKITA The one mistake you must never make is to agree to make a film or sign on to film that you don't...
PAUL GREENGRASS But I think it's more that when you're young, you're invincible, you're immortal - o...
DAMIEN HIRST I think you write the film that you want to see, and you try and do it honestly, and you can't c...
EDGAR WRIGHT I think it's very insulting to say, 'White people don't understand.' What are you ta...
KIMBERLY GUILFOYLE You can't really be picky when no one is offering you anything.
JOEL EDGERTON If you think you can, you can. And if you think you can't, you're right.
MARY KAY ASH I think if you're young and you're being compared with a successful family member, it's ...
DUNCAN JONES In Israel, if a person doesn't agree with you, she just says no. In Alabama, someone would say, ...
ODEYA RUSH I don't think you can cry if the script is rubbish. I have to feel it; it's as simple as tha...
OLIVIA COLMAN If you're sitting in a place like Martha's Vineyard, I don't think you're going to w...
ADAM SCHLESINGER I believe if you write a great book, the chances are it'll get a great reception.
CHARLAINE HARRIS I want to be honest, and even if that's scary, I know it's worth it.
EMM GRYNER Even when folks are hitting you over the head, you can't stop marching. Even when they're tu...
BARACK OBAMA I don't think that you can invent on behalf of customers unless you're willing to think long...
JEFF BEZOS In the film business, when you're young, you just want to work. But when you're older, it ha...
ALEC BALDWIN Be yourself, be who you can be.
LAILAH GIFTY AKITA God walked with humanity in the cool of the day and gave them the most difficult and hottest parts o...
JOEY TALLADINO For some reason, when I think feminism, I think, like, 'Well, you can't include men if you&#...
COBIE SMULDERS I don't think comedy is necessarily an attack. It's finding humour in life. I don't thin...
DAVID WALLIAMS One doesn't have to pursue unhappiness. It comes to you. You come into the world screaming. You ...
JAMAICA KINCAID I'm choosy to a fault. You want to hold out for a project that means something. You're the o...
LIZZY CAPLAN I think in most cases, when you're writing a song, you're just making up a little story, and...
ADAM SCHLESINGER I think that if you go about making movies to win Oscars, you're really going about it the wrong...
NICOLAS CAGE There really isn't a story that you can't tell inside of it. It's very much a clearingho...
AARON SORKIN Long-time viewing of Internet violence tend to change a person's temperament, making the person pron...
YOU QUANXI If positive and healthy materials are absent, negative materials are sure to be dominant in the cybe...
YOU QUANXI In a robust global business environment, our business units operated well in the first quarter. More...
HARRY YOU The Board of Directors and I are pleased to recognize Peter's outstanding contribution to the succes...
HARRY YOU We are pleased to close the books on 2004 following the painstaking review of almost five years of f...
HARRY YOU If you really think you're right, you should tell it.
CASS ELLIOT All you can do is really the prep work and make sure you're ready to hit each golf shot. Outside...
RICKIE FOWLER I don't think you should try to be anything you're not. If you're not smiling all the ti...
ELLE FANNING

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TA-NEHISI COATES I enjoy the challenge of trying to say things beautifully. The message is secondary in that sense. O...
TA-NEHISI COATES I wasn't the biggest Captain America fan, but increasingly, I see him as a great character. Wint...
TA-NEHISI COATES I just want to be really clear about this: Anyone who has read Colin Powell's biography - there&...
TA-NEHISI COATES When I see the Confederate flag, I see the attempt to raise an empire in slavery. It really, really ...
TA-NEHISI COATES I was born in West Baltimore, lived in a situation in which violence was everywhere.
TA-NEHISI COATES It's hard for me to view Baltimore outside the context of what Baltimore has always been in my m...
TA-NEHISI COATES You are growing into consciousness, and my wish for you is that you feel no need to constrict yourse...
TA-NEHISI COATES There was no United States before slavery. I am sure somebody can make some sort of argument about m...
TA-NEHISI COATES Racism is not merely a simplistic hatred. It is, more often, broad sympathy toward some and broader ...
TA-NEHISI COATES I'm the descendant of enslaved black people in this country. You could've been born in 1820 ...
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TA-NEHISI COATES I constantly write about my safety walking to and from school, and then I would come home at night, ...
TA-NEHISI COATES You can't tolerate anybody attempting to threaten or intimidate your body. You must respond with...
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TA-NEHISI COATES When people who are not black are interested in what I do, frankly, I'm always surprised. I don&...
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TA-NEHISI COATES I was peace pipes and treaties. My style was to talk and duck. It was an animal tactic, playing dead...
TA-NEHISI COATES The black people in these films seemed to love the worst things in life—love the dogs that rent th...
TA-NEHISI COATES I remembered that once, as a child, I was filled with wonder, that I had marveled at tri-folded scie...
TA-NEHISI COATES You may have heard the talk of diversity, sensitivity training, and body cameras. These are all fine...
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TA-NEHISI COATES You must resist the common urge toward the comforting narrative of divine law, toward fairy tales th...
TA-NEHISI COATES I think at places like 'Slate' or the magazine where I work, there was a really poor record ...
TA-NEHISI COATES I do understand how hate eats at the soul and how to purge yourself of hate.
TA-NEHISI COATES You can oppose reparations all you want, but you got to know the facts. You really, really do.
TA-NEHISI COATES I would not have you descend into your own dream. I would have you be a conscious citizen of this te...
TA-NEHISI COATES The essential relationship across American history between black people and white people is one of e...
TA-NEHISI COATES The American real-estate industry believed segregation to be a moral principle. As late as 1950, the...
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TA-NEHISI COATES In the 1920s, Jim Crow Mississippi was, in all facets of society, a kleptocracy.
TA-NEHISI COATES You do not give your precious body to the billy clubs of Birmingham sheriffs, nor to the insidious a...
TA-NEHISI COATES I would say as a journalist, I would envision travelling to other countries that have had to reckon ...
TA-NEHISI COATES When President Roosevelt signed Social Security into law in 1935, 65 percent of African Americans na...
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TA-NEHISI COATES I do not believe we can stop them, Samori, because they must ultimately stop themselves. And still I...
TA-NEHISI COATES Dylan's voice was awful, an aged quaver that sounded nothing like the deep-throated or silky R&B...
TA-NEHISI COATES In 2001, the Associated Press published a three-part investigation into the theft of black-owned lan...
TA-NEHISI COATES To be black in the Baltimore of my youth was to be naked before the elements of the world, before al...
TA-NEHISI COATES Superheroes are best imagined in comic books. The union between the written word, the image, and the...
TA-NEHISI COATES The spirit and soul are the body and brain, which are destructible-that is precisely why they are so...
TA-NEHISI COATES I know now that all people hunger for a noble, unsullied past, that as sure as the black nationalist...
TA-NEHISI COATES In Chicago and across the country, whites looking to achieve the American dream could rely on a legi...
TA-NEHISI COATES But race is the child of racism, not the father. And the process of naming “the people” has neve...
TA-NEHISI COATES The classroom was a jail of other people’s interests. The library was open, unending, free.
TA-NEHISI COATES I was made for the library, not the classroom. The classroom was a jail of other people’s interest...
TA-NEHISI COATES One Saturday morning last May, I joined the presidential motorcade as it slipped out of the southern...
TA-NEHISI COATES You have been cast into a race in which the wind is always at your face and the hounds are always at...
TA-NEHISI COATES I think it was like playing somebody in tennis who's a little better than you. You get better just b...
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AL COATES Particularly in the first period, he made two or three key saves that if one or two go in, maybe cha...
AL COATES Hopefully we can get through this quickly and get back to full strength.
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AL COATES I'm so not scary. I'm a pussycat. But what are you going to do, right? I mean, these cheekbo...
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ANNE COATES I like meeting the people. I'm a theatre person.
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ANNE COATES Preview days are the worst days of your life.
ANNE COATES Stephen shoots just enough coverage.
ANNE COATES Otherwise the investment which has gone in has been a waste up until now.
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KIM COATES What we generally fail to realize is that in talking today to the Indians we are face to face with t...
AUSTIN COATES When I decided to go to university I didn't know what I wanted to do. When I had an opportunity ...
KIM COATES These volunteers are wonderful. Some have been here since 5:30 this morning setting up and directing...
CAROLYN COATES They want a jury that can say, 'I've heard about this case, but I can set aside what I've heard, fol...
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ROY COATES The Ivy League is a step up for the most part.
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LINDA COATES If the public decides they're not in favor of fertility control, we have only one option left - gath...
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LINDA COATES It means if the board doesn't make a ruling in 45 days, we'll have to shut the program down for this...
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