Ask Me Quotes - Page 18

• To this day, if you ask me how I became a writer, I cannot give you an answer. To this day, if you ask me how a book is written, I cannot answer. For long periods, if I didn't know that somehow in the past I had written a book, I would have given up.

  V. S. Naipaul

  Book, Past, Long

  "V.S. Naipaul in Search of Himself: A Conversation" with Mel Gussow, "The New York Times", April 24, 1994.

  6 Copy quote

  Show source

• What really worries me is that those who are in positions of power are not really affected by what we are writing. In the moral dialogue you want to start, you really want to involve the leaders. People ask me: "Why were you so bold as to publish A Man of the People? How did you think the Government was going to take it? You didn't know there was going to be a coup?" I said rather flippantly that nobody was going to read it anyway, so I wasn't likely to be fired from my official position. It's a distressing thought that we cannot engage our leaders in the kind of moral debate we need.

  Chinua Achebe

  Writing, Men, Thinking

  Chinua Achebe, Bernth Lindfors (1997). “Conversations with Chinua Achebe”, p.19, Univ. Press of Mississippi

  4 Copy quote

  Show source

• "You sound as if you question the authority and the decision of the Oracle, who said he should die."
  "I do not. Why should I? But the Oracle did not ask me to carry out its decision." [...]
  "The Earth cannot punish me for obeying her mesenger," Okonkwo said. "A child's fingers are not scalded by a piece of hot yam which its mother puts into its palm."

  Chinua Achebe

  Mother, Children, Yams

  "Things Fall Apart" by Chinua Achebe, Fawcett Premier edition, (p. 64), 1969.

  9 Copy quote

  Show source

• People ask me how I stay happy and sane: I never google myself.

  Miley Cyrus

  People, Google, Stay Happy

  "Not a Girl, Not Yet a Woman: the Two Sides of Miley Cyrus". Interview with Tavi Gevinson, www.elle.com. April 30, 2014.

  13 Copy quote

  Show source

• Everybody always asks me what the big surprises were that I discovered about Woody and I never have a good stock answer for that, I never know quite what to tell them other than generally that he's much less neurotic and quirky than I would have expected.

  Robert B. Weide

  Quirky, Answers, Surprise

  "Director Robert Weide Talks WOODY ALLEN: A DOCUMENTARY, CURB YOUR ENTHUSIASM, and His Kurt Vonnegut Documentary". Interview with Adam Chitwood, collider.com. February 15, 2012.

  5 Copy quote

  Show source

• People ask me, "Are you right wing or are you left wing?" and I always say, "I'm for the whole bird." A one-winged bird didn't ever get off the ground.

  Rick Warren

  Wings, People, Bird

  "Rick & Kay Warren Extended Interview". Interview with Kim Lawton, www.pbs.org. September 01, 2006.

  13 Copy quote

  Show source

• People ask me whether I think that one day I might wake up one morning and run dry, but I've had the opposite feeling - that I would die before I had time to write all the ideas in my drawer.

  Woody Allen

  Running, Morning, Writing

  Interview with Geoff Andrew, www.theguardian.com. September 27, 2001.

  4 Copy quote

  Show source

• And there is something great about knowing that my only job is to be as happy as I can be about my life, and feel as good as I can about myself, and to lead as full and eventful a life as I can, so that it doesn’t ever feel like I’m just waiting around for some guy to ask me out. And most importantly, it’s good for us all to remember that we don’t need to scheme and plot and beg to get someone to ask us out. We’re fantastic.

  Liz Tuccillo

  Jobs, Waiting Around, Knowing

  Greg Behrendt, Liz Tuccillo (2009). “He's Just Not That Into You: The No-Excuses Truth to Understanding Guys”, p.19, Simon and Schuster

  4 Copy quote

  Show source

• Condemn me if you choose - I do that myself, - but condemn me, and not the path which I am following, and which I point out to those who ask me where, in my opinion, the path is.

  Leo Tolstoy

  Path, Opinion, Following

  Letter to N.N. In "The New Spirit" by Havelock Ellis, p. 226, 1892.

  4 Copy quote

  Show source

• He [Bogie] had tremendous character and a great sense of honor and would not tolerate lies, even if they asked him what he thought of a movie. We were once at a screening at somebody's house, I forget whose, and they ran a movie that he was in, that he never thought much of. Afterward, the producer asked what he thought of it, and Bogie said "I think it's a crock." And this producer was horrified! He was about to release the movie, and he said to Bogie "Why would you say that?!" Bogie shrugged and said "Then don't ask me." He never played the schmoozing game. He was not into that at all.

  Lauren Bacall

  Lying, Character, Thinking

  8 Copy quote

• People ask me, "What are you going to do to develop jobs in your state?" Well, that's not my job as a US senator to bring industry to the state. That's the lieutenant governor's job, that's your state senators' and assemblymen's job. That's your secretary of state's job, to make a climate in the state that says, 'Y'all come.'

  Sharron Angle

  Jobs, People, Climate

  "Angle: Unemployed are 'Spoiled'; It's not my job to fight for Nevadans' jobs". Sharron Angle's campaign appearance, www.youtube.com. May 14, 2010.

  4 Copy quote

  Show source

• If anybody asks me what I have accomplished, I will say all I have accomplished is that I have written a few good sentences.

  Eric Hoffer

  Accomplished, Sentences, Asks

  4 Copy quote

• People always ask me, Do you ever think you'll wake up one morning and not be funny? That thought would never occur to me--it's an odd thought and not realistic. Because funny and me are not separate. We're one.

  Woody Allen

  Morning, Thinking, People

  4 Copy quote

• When my life is throughAnd the angels ask me to recallThe thrill of them allThen I shall tell themI remember you

  Johnny Mercer

  Angel, Remember You, Remembers You

  10 Copy quote

• You know I've had people come up and ask me to sign their guns. Sign my name on gun handles and holsters and stuff. I've done it once or twice for law enforcement officials, but when people do that -- and there have been quite a few of them lately -- I always tell them no. I don't want to do that. I don't want my name on that and I hope you use this gun, whatever its purpose is, I hope it's used wisely.

  Clint Eastwood

  Gun, Law, Names

  5 Copy quote

• I have a small child. Being a parent takes a lot of time. People always ask me, "What movies have you watched lately?" I tell them, "Finding 'Nemo' ... 'Shrek'.

  Clint Eastwood

  Children, People, Parent

  4 Copy quote

• When people ask me, "Who was the toughest pitcher you ever faced?", I have to say that there has never been a pitcher who over-impressed me. That's not meant to be a bragging statement. It's just that I get up for good pitchers.

  Pete Rose

  People, Bragging, Get Up

  Pete Rose, Whitehall, Hadlyme & Smith (1979). “Pete Rose: my life in baseball”, Doubleday Books

  4 Copy quote

  Show source

• If you ask me to play myself, I will not know what to do. I do not know who or what I am.

  Peter Sellers

  Play, Knows, Asks

  "Halliwell's Filmgoer's Companion". Book by Leslie Halliwell 9p. 622), 1988.

  13 Copy quote

  Show source

• When children ask me what's my favorite [role], I say to them, "Imagine having ten beautiful new puppies in a basket and you had to say which one is your favorite, and you simply couldn't because you love them all for different reasons." POPPINS was such a learning experience, as was THE SOUND OF MUSIC. I tell you, every one of them just helped me grow in what I do and did and each one was such a phenomenal working experience.

  Julie Andrews

  Beautiful, Children, Sound

  9 Copy quote

• Unless a woman asks men out (the first time) as often as men ask her out, then the assertion 'He asked me out, therefore he pays' is just a double jeopardy of the male role: he must not only do the asking, he must pay extra for risking extra rejection.

  Warren Farrell

  Men, Rejection, Pay

  "Why Men Are the Way They Are". Book by Warren Farrell, 1986.

  6 Copy quote

  Show source

• Addiction is more malleable than you know. When people come to me for therapy, they often ask me whether their behavior constitutes a real addiction (or whether they are really alcoholic, etc.). My answer is that this is not the important question. The important questions are how many problems is the involvement causing you, how much do you want to change it, and how can we go about change?

  Stanton Peele

  Real, Addiction, People

  Stanton Peele. Ph.D., J.D. (2007). “7 Tools to Beat Addiction: A New Path to Recovery from Addictions of Any Kind: Smoking, Alcohol, Food, Drugs, Gambling, Sex, Love”, p.17, Harmony

  19 Copy quote

  Show source

• I think I would say to my daughters if they were to ask me this question... it [their virginity] is the greatest gift that you can give someone, the ultimate gift of giving and don't give it to someone lightly, that's what I would say.

  Tony Abbott

  Daughter, Thinking, Giving

  "The Monk might make sense" by Katharine Murphy, www.theage.com.au. January 28, 2010.

  4 Copy quote

  Show source

• I am a practicing Catholic, but my lineage is Jewish, so if someone asks me if I'm Jewish, I say yes.

  Neve Campbell

  Catholic, Lineage, Asks

  5 Copy quote

• People ask me a lot, 'what can one person do,' and I say 'I'm not really sure what one person can due except come together with other people.'

  Michael Franti

  People, Together, Persons

  "Spearhead" live at Coachella Valley Music and Arts Festival, www.youtube.com. April 19, 2007.

  4 Copy quote

  Show source

• It's funny, people ask me, 'What would you consider the most romantic track on your record Mr Caine?' And I say 'Swollen' by Bent, and they say 'I think he's off his rocker!'

  Michael Caine

  Thinking, People, Track

  "Michael Caine meets William Orbit". Interview with William Orbit, www.theguardian.com. October 14, 2007.

  4 Copy quote

  Show source