Biographies Quotes - Page 8

• Biographers use historians more than historians use biographers, although there can be two-way traffic - e.g., the ever-growing production of biographies of women is helping to change the general picture of the past presented by historians.

  Claire Tomalin

  Past, Two, Use

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• I read Michael Caine's biography. It was about him growing up

  Frank Lampard

  Growing Up, Growing

  "Quotes of the year - Part 1: The daftest quotes from players, managers and pundits" by Steve Anglesey, www.mirror.co.uk. December 27, 2008.

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• Kitty Kelley's method, already perfected in her unauthorised and unflattering biographies of Frank Sinatra and Nancy Reagan, is to write bestsellers that take what she describes as an 'unblinking look' at their subjects - which might, of course, mean that her eyes are permanently open or permanently closed... the result is a work so bad that Britons cannot realise how fortunate they are in being unable to buy it. The great mistake with this book is not that it has been published in Britain, but that it has actually been published anywhere else.

  David Cannadine

  Mistake, Book, Mean

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• Biographies by preachers are of no value. If they admire a man they always make him a saint, while if they dislike one, they always make him a demon.

  George C. Lorimer

  Men, Atheism, Saint

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• Any good biography has to got to lead you to the work. Many biographers have started out in love with their subjects and ended up hating them.

  D. T. Max

  Hate, Subjects, Biographers

  Source: www.interviewmagazine.com

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• I never did write a biography, and I don't exactly know how to set about it; you see I have to be accurate and keep to the facts, a most difficult thing for a writer of fiction.

  Elizabeth Gaskell

  Writing, Fiction, Facts

  Elizabeth Gaskell (2009). “The Life of Charlotte Brontë”, p.10, OUP Oxford

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• [Judge and Jury] is outstanding. I have
  learned more about the history of
  baseball, true history, than from
  anything I have ever read or heard
  about. [It's] research and documentation
  clarifies so many of the personalities
  and events that took place before 'my
  time' in the game. Jacques Barzun's
  quote: 'Whoever would know the heart
  and mind of America had better learn
  baseball' should be supplanted by [this]
  biography of Landis.

  Ralph Kiner

  Baseball, Heart, Games

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• Each of us needs an adequate biography: How do I put together into a coherent image the pieces of my life? How do I find the basic plot of my story?

  James Hillman

  Together, Plot, Needs

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• Reading any collection of a man's quotations is like eating the ingredients that go into a stew instead of cooking them together in the pot. You eat all the carrots, then all the potatoes, then the meat. You won't go away hungry, but it's not quite satisfying. Only a biography, or autobiography, gives you the hot meal.

  Christopher Buckley

  Reading, Men, Giving

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• Of all studies, the most delightful and the most useful is biography. The seeds of great events lie near the surface; historians delve too deep for them. No history was ever true. Lives I have read which, if they were not, had the appearance, the interest, and the utility of truth.

  Walter Savage Landor

  Lying, True Life, Events

  Walter Savage Landor (1853). “The works of Walter Savage Landor [ed. by J. Forster].”, p.243

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• Paintings invariably sum up; photographs usually do not. Photographic images are pieces of evidence in an ongoing biography or history. And one photograph, unlike one painting, implies that there will be others.

  Susan Sontag

  Photography, Ongoing, Pieces

  Susan Sontag (1983). “A Susan Sontag reader”, Vintage

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• I enjoy reading biographies because I want to know about the people who messed up the world.

  Marie Dressler

  Reading, People, World

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• I do not think that one is likely to write a good biography unless one feels some sympathy with its subject.

  Iris Origo

  Writing, Thinking, Feels

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• [On writing biography:] ... every human life is at once so complex and so simple, so perplexing and so clear, so superficial and so profound, that any attempt to present it as a unified, consistent whole, to enclose it within a rigid frame, inevitably tempts one to cheat or to falsify.

  Iris Origo

  Writing, Simple, Profound

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• He - A.J.[Muste] never got much credit, never got much attention. For example, I wrote a biography of him and nobody ever heard of it.

  Nat Hentoff

  Example, Attention, Credit

  Source: thedailyhatch.org

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• Somebody said, "Well, you're going to write your definitive book about your life, biography." No, I'm not. I haven't done that. I wrote a book of letters which gives an insight into the real me as opposed to the public perceptions of me. But I'm convinced historians will figure out the things we got wrong and hopefully the things we got right.

  George H. W. Bush

  Real, Book, Writing

  "Transcript: George H.W. Bush on "FOX News Sunday". "FOX News Sunday" with Chris Wallace, www.foxnews.com. November 4, 2007.

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• Some of the biographies [of princess Margaret] were really sensationalist, News of the World sorts, but they were great because they also gave first and secondhand accounts of her at home. The butlers come forward and give little moments, some of which you discard and some which ring somehow true and you use.

  Vanessa Kirby

  Princess, Home, Giving

  Source: www.harpersbazaar.com

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• What's bad about my biography? My father was a worker, my brothers, too, and I have always honestly served my country.

  Ivan Bagramyan

  Country, Brother, Father

  "The 900 Days: The Siege Of Leningrad". Book by by Harrison E. Salisbury, p.112, 2003.

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• I did a lot before [being cast] because I knew how important it would be for playing somebody real, or attempting to - to show the team [the role] was something I would be fascinated to do. I read a couple of biographies and I watched everything I could find [about princess Margaret].

  Vanessa Kirby

  Couple, Team, Real

  Source: www.harpersbazaar.com

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• I don't make films about celebrities, are not interested in celebrities. I don't make biographies at all.

  Heidi Ewing

  Film, Not Interested

  Source: www.indiewire.com

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• I was giving a lecture and I said, that's enough about The Photographic Life, meaning my biography, now let's talk about the life of a photograph. And in that one instant I got the title for a potential next book.

  Sam Abell

  Book, Giving, Meaning Of Life

  Source: dougplummer.blogs.com

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• [On writing biography:] If you wish to see a person you must not start by seeing through him.

  Iris Origo

  Writing, Wish, Persons

  Iris Origo (1984). “A Need to Testify”, p.37, Helen Marx Books

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• Behind each biography there should always be a rich treasury of unformulated knowledge, a tapestry that has not been unrolled.

  Iris Origo

  Rich, Should, Treasury

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• A good biography is the richest experience. When you watch a TV series together with someone is like being in a novel with them.

  Darcey Steinke

  Together, Tvs, Watches

  "Road Trip". Interview with Ali Liebegott, logger.believermag.com. October 25, 2013.

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• Most people when they have autobiographies, they're not autobiographies, they're biographies written by a ghost writer.

  Jeff Dunham

  People, Ghost, Autobiography

  TheCelebrityCafe.com interview, thecelebritycafe.com. November 23, 2011.

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