Lawrence Wright Quotes

Quotes about:

• I like the serendipitous surprises of reality.

  Lawrence Wright

  Reality, Surprise

  4 Copy quote

• Unlike the talent for war, the ability to make peace has always been rare.

  Lawrence Wright

  War, Talent, Ability

  Lawrence Wright (2014). “Thirteen Days in September”, p.10, Oneworld Publications

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• From the very beginning, when you go into Scientology your world narrows down very quickly.

  Lawrence Wright

  World, Scientology

  "Renowned journalist throws the book at Scientology". Interview with Daniel Burke, www.washingtonpost.com. January 31, 2013.

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• When you look at the science and the genetic studies that have been done on Palestinians and Jews, you find that there is a unity. They're both descended from the Canaanites. They're essentially the same people.

  Lawrence Wright

  People, Unity, Done

  Source: www.guernicamag.com

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• Journalism is a flawed profession, but it has a self-correcting mechanism. The rule of journalism is: talk to everybody.

  Lawrence Wright

  Self, Journalism, Flawed

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• I don't dispute Scientology can help people; I think that is a very important fact to keep in mind.

  Lawrence Wright

  Thinking, People, Mind

  "Lawrence Wright on 'Going Clear'". Interview with Mark Guarino, www.chicagotribune.com. January 18, 2013.

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• Every medium has its advantages and weaknesses and there are many things I can put down on paper that I might not be able to put into film or into a stage performance. In each form, one can communicate powerfully in different ways.

  Lawrence Wright

  Stage Performance, Might, Able

  "Lawrence Wright Brings Mideast Conflict to Stage". Interview with Lauri Neff, Associated Press Writer, www.sandiegouniontribune.com. October 07, 2010.

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• In my couple of books, including Going Clear, the book about Scientology, I thought it seemed appropriate at the end of the book to help the reader frame things. Because we've gone through the history, and there's likely conflictual feelings in the reader's mind. The reader may not agree with me, but I don't try to influence the reader's judgment. I know everybody who picks this book up already has a decided opinion. But my goal is to open the reader's mind a little bit to alternative narratives.

  Lawrence Wright

  Couple, Book, Goal

  Source: www.guernicamag.com

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• Radicalism usually prospers in the gap between rising expectations and declining opportunities. This is especially true where the population is young, idle, and bored; where the art is impoverished; where entertainment—movies, theater, music—is policed or absent altogether; and where young men are set apart from the consoling and socializing presence of women.

  Lawrence Wright

  Art, Opportunity, Men

  Lawrence Wright (2006). “The Looming Tower”, p.107, Vintage

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• To me the notion that Palestinians are actually Jews is, I think, quite revelatory and very radical and a possible bridge that has been ignored, I think, in this entire controversy and there's ample evidence to support it.

  Lawrence Wright

  Thinking, Bridges, Support

  "Lawrence Wright brings Mideast conflict to stage". Interview with Lauri Neff, www.boston.com. October 7, 2010.

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• Scientology is probably the most stigmatized religion in America already.

  Lawrence Wright

  America, Scientology

  "A Careful Writer Stalks the Truth About Scientology" by Charles McGrath, www.nytimes.com. January 2, 2013.

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• It's the hardening of these narratives that makes peace so difficult. If each side can see the narrative, the claims that the other has, then there is a much more likely possibility of making a resolution. But what I see is the opposite. There is a total disclaiming of the validity of the other side, and talk that I find really unsettling, the kind of chatter you get from ultra-right Israelis and Hamas is of annihilation. In that kind of dialogue, there's no way to move toward peace.

  Lawrence Wright

  Moving, Kind, Resolution

  Source: www.guernicamag.com

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• Coolness is temporary. You can't capture it or create it, it has to be discovered. It has to do with the people that are in a place, not with monuments or institutions. It's a momentary conjunction of personalities.

  Lawrence Wright

  People, Personality, Institutions

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• I get very antsy when I'm not occupied.

  Lawrence Wright

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• There are many different rivers that lead into despair: there's poverty; there's political repression; there's gender apartheid - there's a sense of culture loss; there's religious fanaticism.

  Lawrence Wright

  Religious, Loss, Rivers

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• When I'm writing about complicated subjects, it usually involves a world. It could be the world of Scientology or the world of Al Qaeda, or the world of counter-terrorism.I look for emblematic beasts of burden - what I call "donkeys" - who can carry the reader through this world. They serve a different purpose. Donkeys are not especially interesting or likeable, but they are serviceable. They will take you into this world. The distinction I'm trying to make is: It's not about them. It's about the world.

  Lawrence Wright

  Writing, Interesting, Trying

  Source: www.guernicamag.com

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• I don't hold America responsible for the largely oppressive governments in the 22 Arab countries. There are repressive Arab governments that are our allies and there are those that are our nominal enemies. It doesn't make a whole lot of difference to what extent we're involved in propping up those governments.

  Lawrence Wright

  Country, Government, Differences

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• When I went to Egypt right after 9/11 I was very upset. I used to live in Egypt. I had a lot of friends there. I spent two years teaching there. I had very fond feelings for that part of the world, and the fact that a culture I liked so much had attacked my own culture was really very upsetting to me.

  Lawrence Wright

  Teaching, Two, Egypt

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• When I was trained as a journalist, as a race-relations reporter in Nashville covering the end of the civil-rights movement, we were strictly forbidden to use the first-person pronoun. There was kind of an electric charge around it. To come out from hiding and use the word 'I' carried a lot of fright for me.

  Lawrence Wright

  Nashville, Rights, Race

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• It's funny how sometimes historians sneer at journalists, yet they depend on us in the future for the material that they mine. You realize that some of the stories wouldn't have been told if you hadn't gotten to them. There is that sense of capturing a moment that was just about to go over the horizon.

  Lawrence Wright

  Sometimes, Realizing, Moments

  Source: www.guernicamag.com

  4 Copy quote

• People often pulled into Scientology want to address personal problems in their life, and Scientology says we have technology that addresses these kinds of problems. Just focusing on the problems and trying to remedy them can be helpful.

  Lawrence Wright

  Technology, People, Trying

  "Lawrence Wright on 'Going Clear'". Interview with Mark Guarino, www.chicagotribune.com. January 18, 2013.

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• Paralysis, anxiety stomachs, arthritis and many ills and aberrations have been relieved by auditing them. An E-Meter shows them up and makes them confess their misdeeds. They are probably just compartments of the mind which, cut off, begin to act as though they were persons.

  Lawrence Wright

  Cutting, Anxiety, Mind

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• Churches are tax exempt because they are supposed to provide a public good. To prove that good to the IRS, churches arent supposed to hoard their money. They are supposed to spend it on goods and services for the faithful. Under this pretense, the church has made massive investments in tax free real estate all over the world. And when it comes to labor costs, they are almost free.

  Lawrence Wright

  Real, Faithful, Church

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• From the very beginning of this movement, Scientology has always been a very closeted organization. That aura of secrecy is something that the present-day management continues.

  Lawrence Wright

  Organization, Movement, Auras

  "Lawrence Wright on 'Going Clear'". Interview with Mark Guarino, www.chicagotribune.com. January 18, 2013.

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• You can't tell a story linearly if you want people to understand.

  Lawrence Wright

  People, Stories, Want

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