What If Quotes - Page 31

• What about little microphones? What if everyone swallowed them, and they played the sounds of our hearts through a little speaker. [...] I wonder if everyone's hearts would start to beat at the same time.

  Jonathan Safran Foer

  Heart, Littles, Sound

  "Extremely Loud and Incredibly Close". Book by Jonathan Safran Foer, 2005.

  4 Copy quote

  Show source

• What if the book (of Genesis) is describing a dawning awareness of the world? The anthropologist Edmund Leach has argued that the 'bit' or binary digit is the basic unit of pre-logical communication. Genesis is a sprouting of 'bits', ie elementary binary distinctions.

  Charles Hampden-Turner

  Communication, Book, World

  Charles Hampden-Turner (1982). “Maps of the Mind”, Macmillan Publishing Company

  4 Copy quote

  Show source

• The problem with prostitutes is, what if you actually like somebody you meet in that situation? Where do you go from there? What do you do?

  Charlie Sheen

  Problem, Situation, Ifs

  Source: www.ericspitznagel.com

  4 Copy quote

  Show source

• ...If there's a noise in the woods, and there's nobody around to hear it, is it really a noise?" "Of course it is," she replied calmly. "How did you reach that conclusion?" Beldin demanded. "Because there's no such thing as an empty place, uncle. There are always creatures around --wild animals, mice, insects, birds --and they can all hear." "But what if there weren't? What if the woods are truly empty?" "Why waste your time talking about an impossibility?

  David Eddings

  Uncles, Animal, Talking

  8 Copy quote

• It's very easy for me to say that I think everybody should just be treated how they're supposed to be treated and tattoos shouldn't come into play. But what if someone has an offensive throat tattoo that might affect someone's business? I am sure there are a lot of opportunities out there for everybody.

  Nicole Richie

  Tattoo, Opportunity, Thinking

  Reddit AMA, www.reddit.com. July 17, 2014.

  4 Copy quote

  Show source

• I don't base my books on my life (thank goodness) and I don't pick the topic first. In fact, the topic picks me - via a question I can't answer as a mom, a wife, a woman, an American. I find myself wondering "What if..." and it blossoms into a whole novel.

  Jodi Picoult

  Mom, Book, Ifs And

  Source: www.bookclubforum.co.uk

  4 Copy quote

  Show source

• I worked for dad on the grounds and I was in high school and I said I wanted to go to college, and he said, well, you figure it out. He said I will pay for your college but you're going to go to St. Vincent. St. Vincent College right here. That's about as much as I can afford, you work here, right here at home. I said, what if I can get somewhere else? And he said if I can get there, that's your call.

  Arnold Palmer

  Dad, Home, School

  Source: kellysgolfhistory.blogspot.com

  4 Copy quote

  Show source

• It's funny that some ideas start with a little "What if?" and then suddenly you're spending a million dollars to shoot the scene and hoping that it works.

  Steve Martin

  Ifs And, Ideas, Dollars

  7 Copy quote

• In my opinion there are two basic questions that any writer tries to answer. "What is?" is the question non-fiction asks. "What if?" is the question fiction asks. That's the question I'm more interested in.

  Patrick Rothfuss

  Two, Trying, Fiction

  4 Copy quote

• But what if your obsession has nothing to do with drugs or thrills or money? What if what you want most in the world is to recapture the way life was a week, a month, a year ago-and you are willing to do whatever it takes?

  Jodi Picoult

  Years, Drug, Months

  Jodi Picoult (2007). “Perfect Match”, p.339, Simon and Schuster

  4 Copy quote

  Show source

• What about when someone doesn't need a shoulder? What if they need the arms?

  Stephen Chbosky

  Needs, Arms, Perks Of A Wallflower

  Stephen Chbosky (2013). “The Perks of Being a Wallflower YA edition”, p.189, Simon and Schuster

  7 Copy quote

  Show source

• So what if I'm smokin' weed onstage and doing what I gotta do? It's not me shooting nobody, stabbing nobody, killing nobody. It'sa peaceful gesture and they have to respect that and appreciate that.

  Snoop Dogg

  Weed, Rap, Appreciate

  64 Copy quote

• If art made you think, then this was Art. Staring at the ball, made of layers and layers of cloth, I wondered about the glass marble at its heart. What if you wanted to reach that marble? Make sure it was still whole? You'd have to remove the layers. You'd have to risk breaking the ball for a chance at freeing it. Fear, knowledge, certainty - you'd have to be willing to let them all go.

  Justina Chen

  Art, Fear, Thinking

  4 Copy quote

• We act like God's only good when the outcome is good. We say, 'We've got a good God because I've got a good job.' But what if I don't have a good job? Does that mean God's not good anymore?

  Max Lucado

  Jobs, Mean, Doe

  Source: smashinginterviews.com

  7 Copy quote

  Show source

• What if the very reason we have breath is because we have been saved for a global mission? And what if anything less than passionate involvement in global mission is actually selling God short by frustrating the very purpose for which he created us?

  David Platt

  Purpose, Passionate, Reason

  8 Copy quote

• You can't judge a book by its cover, though. People think I'm bad because I got tattoos or snort a little cocaine here and there. They think I'm a killer. But what if I wasn't a killer? Then what? Don't be tripping on me. I pay my damn taxes, OK? Chill.

  Gunplay

  Tattoo, Book, Thinking

  Source: pitchfork.com

  13 Copy quote

  Show source

• I'm amazed by the potential of more companies employing integrated philanthropic initiatives at earlier stages in their life cycle. What if this were done on an even more massive scale? Consider what would happen if a top-tier venture-capital firm required the companies in which it invested to place 1% of their equity into a foundation serving the communities in which they do business.

  Marc Benioff

  Business, Community, Done

  Marc Benioff, Carlye Adler (2007). “The Business of Changing the World: Twenty Great Leaders on Strategic Corporate Philanthropy”, McGraw Hill Professional

  10 Copy quote

  Show source

• I can't swim. I can't drive, either. I was going to learn to drive but then I thought, well, what if I crash into a lake?

  Dylan Moran

  Funny, Humor, Lakes

  "Dylan Moran: Monster". Documentary, Comedy, 2004.

  6 Copy quote

  Show source

• What if life after death is all based within memory: you die, and you don't ascend on a bed of clouds to Jesus, but your brain has a terrain that it can use to propel itself further. It's more of a theoretical afterlife. If that's true, all of these theoretical afterlives of people could potentially interact or network. That space seems way more powerful and exciting than reality. This potential boundlessness is more of what god is to me.

  Blake Butler

  Jesus, Memories, Powerful

  "'We don't realize what we're walking on half the time'". Interview with David Rice, logger.believermag.com. October 16, 2014.

  4 Copy quote

  Show source

• A writer, or a beginning writer, is faced by the huge walls of self-consciousness. Most people think, "What if I say the wrong thing? What if I don't sound erudite and sophisticated? I'll be considered a fool." In time, with a lot of practice, you realize that's your foolishness is your gift.

  Richard Bach

  Wall, Thinking, Self

  Interview with Michael Peter Langevin, www.inner-growth.info.

  10 Copy quote

  Show source

• To me, one of the most profound questions we can ask is: "So what?" And so what if there's an indefinite number of worlds with alternate "us-es" in them? The "so what," to me, comes alive when I ask myself: "What if I could find a way to get in touch with those alternate mes who made those choices?" That is, persons who, if I saw them now, I wouldn't even recognize because their choices, once small, have multiplied to make them such different people.

  Richard Bach

  Numbers, People, Profound

  Interview with Michael Peter Langevin, www.inner-growth.info.

  4 Copy quote

  Show source

• What if a tree fell in the forest and no one knew it's biological name? Did it exist?

  Richard Louv

  Names, Tree, Forests

  Richard Louv (2013). “Last Child in the Woods: Saving our Children from Nature-Deficit Disorder”, p.115, Atlantic Books Ltd

  4 Copy quote

  Show source

• What if the word of God was enough to inspire passionate worship among his people?

  David Platt

  People, Inspire, Passionate

  13 Copy quote

• I think people have been obsessed with the wrong question, which is how do we make people pay for music? What if we started asking, how do we let people pay for music?

  Amanda Palmer

  Motivation, Inspiration, Thinking

  "How Do You Get People To Pay For Music?". "TED Radio Hour" with Guy Raz, www.npr.org. May 17, 2013.

  14 Copy quote

  Show source

• There are days when I think: what if I just checked out? What if I grew a beard and went off to live somewhere remote? I have often wondered about the freedom that would bring.

  David Schwimmer

  Thinking, Beard, Grew

  10 Copy quote