Red Herrings Quotes

• Life is full of a thousand red herrings, and it takes the history of a civilisation to work out which are the red herrings and which aren't.

  Peter Greenaway

  Work Out, Red, Life Is

  Peter Greenaway, Vernon W. Gras (2000). “Peter Greenaway: Interviews”, p.17, Univ. Press of Mississippi

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• Approach your lives as if they were novels, with their own heroes, villains, red herrings, and triumphs.

  Mary Higgins Clark

  Hero, Triumph, Red

  "Remembering the big day: when grad met Dad" by Joshunda Sanders, www.sfgate.com. June 8, 2003.

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• I think the whole human-induced greenhouse gas thing is a red herring... . I see climate change as due to the ocean circulation pattern. I see this as a major cause of climate change... . These are natural processes. We shouldn't blame them on humans and CO2.

  William M. Gray

  Ocean, Thinking, Climate

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• The most difficult part of any crime novel is the plotting. It all begins simply enough, but soon you're dealing with a multitude of linked characters, strands, themes and red herrings - and you need to try to control these unruly elements and weave them into a pattern.

  Ian Rankin

  Character, Crime Novels, Trying

  "Paperback Q&A: Ian Rankin on The Impossible Dead". www.theguardian.com. May 22, 2012.

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• She is nether fish nor flesh, nor good red herring.

  John Heywood

  Flesh, Red, Fishes

  "Proverbs". Book by John Heywood, 1546.

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• Any great movie in the old days has a red herring. Hitchcock was so good at that.

  Robert Knepper

  Red, Hitchcock, Old Days

  Source: collider.com

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• Gay marriage is a complete red herring to distract everyone from the economy and the war and health care and education.

  David O. Russell

  War, Gay, Care

  Source: www.ericspitznagel.com

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• I'm kind of like a combination of a red herring and a fake-out.

  Robert Englund

  Fake, Red, Kind

  Source: classic-horror.com

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• Neither fish, flesh nor good red herring.

  Unknown

  Fish Tanks, Flesh, Red

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• You can never really tell, it's kind of a red herring until you see the project I think. You just know if you like working with someone or not, and he does have a real sweetness about him, I think.

  Mary-Louise Parker

  Real, Thinking, Red

  Source: collider.com

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• That's America for you - a red herring culture, always scared of the wrong things. The fact is, there are a lot of creepy middle-aged men out there lusting for your kids. They work for MTV, the pharmaceutical industry, McDonald's, Marlboro and K Street.

  Bill Maher

  Kids, Men, Mcdonalds

  "Real Time with Bill Maher",

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• It's the way I feel about acting. That we are given clues by a writer about someone's essence or persona and it's our job to try to figure out which of those clues are true, which of clues we decide to follow and which of those clues we think are red herrings, or only in the way another character thinks of that character.

  Kevin Spacey

  Jobs, Character, Thinking

  "Kevin Spacey, Michael Shannon, Director Liza Johnson Kibitz ‘Elvis and Nixon’". Interview with Carole Di Tosti, blogcritics.org. August 8, 2016.

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• I'm not a vegetarian. Now, don't get me wrong - I like animals. And I don't think it's just fine to industrialize their production and to churn them out like they were wrenches. But there's no way to treat animals well when you're killing 10 billion of them a year. Kindness might just be a bit of a red herring. Let's get the numbers of animals we're killing for eating down, and then we'll worry about being nice to the ones that are left.

  Mark Bittman

  Kindness, Nice, Thinking

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• Delaying and withholding tactics, red herrings, partial and doubtful outcomes are stock in trade for fiction writers, especially crime writers.

  Garry Disher

  Red, Fiction, Tactics

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• We are trying to get marijuana reclassified medically.  If we do that, we'll be using the issue as a red herring to give marijuana a good name.

  Keith Stroup

  Marijuana, Names, Issues

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• Damn'd neuters, in their middle way of steering, Are neither fish, nor flesh, nor good red herring.

  John Dryden

  Flesh, Red, Way

  John Dryden (1755). “The Duke of Guise. A tragedy. Acted by their Majesties Servants. Written by Mr. Dryden, and Mr. Lee”, p.267

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• Such letters...from the FDA, are, filled with objectively demonstrable lies, practiced deceptions and deviousness, red herrings, directed misinformation, misdirected information, etc. ...Once FDA-NCI-AMA-ACS...concedes that Laetrile anti-tumor efficacy was indeed even once observed...a permanent crack in bureaucratic armor has taken place.

  Dean Burk

  Lying, Taken, Dark

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• I'm kind of ashamed to be a celebrity. I don't understand wanting to read about other people's dirty laundry. I think celebrity is the biggest red herring society has ever pulled on itself.

  Jude Law

  Dirty, Naughty, Thinking

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• Ah, Evelyn and Vivian, I love you both, I love you for your sad lives, the empty misery of your coming home at dawn. You too are alone, but you are not like Arturo Bandini, who is neither fish, fowl nor good red herring. So have your champagne, because I love you both, and you too, Vivian, even if your mouth looks like it had been dug out with raw fingernails and your old child's eyes swim in blood written like mad sonnets.

  John Fante

  Children, Love You, Home

  John Fante (2002). “Ask The Dust”, p.89, Canongate Books

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• When I was nine years old, I wrote a short story called 'How to Build a Snowman,' from which no practical snowperson-crafting techniques could be gleaned. The story was an assignment for class and it featured a series of careful but meaningless instructions. Of course, the building of the snowman was a red herring.

  Sloane Crosley

  Years, Class, Technique

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• The Arabs could have peace tomorrow if sufficient numbers of Palestinians were not content to be used as cannon fodder in fruitless assaults on Israel, even as the surrounding Arab powers distract the Arab masses with the red herring of Israel while retarding their countries with their repression and corruption.

  Conrad Black

  Country, Israel, Numbers

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