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Top James Wood Quotes

Browse top 22 most favorite famous quotes and sayings by James Wood.

Favorite James Wood Quotes

1. "Life, then will, always contain an inevitable surplus, a margin of the gratuitous, a realm in which there is always more than we need: more things, more impressions, more memories, more habits, more words, more happiness, more unhappiness." ~ James Wood
2. "Fiction is most effective when its themes are unspoken. An ideal fiction has a kind of thematic ghostliness, whereby the novel marks its meanings most strongly as it passes, as it disappears, rather as on a street snow gets dirtier, more marked, as it disappears." ~ James Wood
3. "Some writers refuse to lay their heads peaceably on the pillow of literary history in order to give posterity good dreams." -- review in London Review of Books, of the works of Knut Hamsun (26 nov 1998)" ~ James Wood
4. "Melville, in his relation to belief, was like the last guest who cannot leave the party; he was always returning to see if he had left his had and gloves." ~ James Wood
5. "When I talk about free indirect style I am really talking about point of view, and when I talk about point of view I am really talking about the perception of detail, and when I talk about detail I'm really talking about character, and when I talk about character I am really talking about the real, which is at the bottom of my inquiries." ~ James Wood
6. "Literature differs from life in that life is amorphously full of detail, and rarely directs us toward it, wheras literature teaches us to notice. Literature makes us better noticers of life; we get to practice on life itself; which in turn makes us better readers of detail in literature; which in turn makes us better readers of life." ~ James Wood
7. "If religion is true, one must believe. And if one chooses not to believe, one's choice is marked under the category of a refusal, and is thus never really free: it has the duress of a recoil." With literary belief, however, "one is always free to choose not to believe." This, Wood argues, is the freedom of literature; it is what constitutes its "reality." ~ James Wood
8. "If you strive for the moon, maybe you'll get over the fence." ~ James Wood
9. "The silent killer of all great men and women of achievement - particularly men, I don't know why, maybe it's the testosterone - I think it's narcissism. Even more than hubris. And for women, too. Narcissism is the killer." ~ James Wood
10. "My parents loved each other. I was raised in a house of total love and respect. My dad worked very hard and my mother was incredibly devoted to him. I can unequivocally, without any peradventure of doubt, tell you that I was raised with the kind of love that we only dream of." ~ James Wood
11. "Sometimes the way you respond to horrific, evil deeds is the measure of one's self as a man, as a nation, as people, as a community." ~ James Wood
12. "It's a great battle, and it really is a battle, and there are people from all walks of life, you know, never judge anybody at the table: A man can be the greatest poker player and he might know all the numbers, but he might get beaten by a really savvy kid who works in a grocery store; and that's what's so great about this game." ~ James Wood
13. "I just love poker players." ~ James Wood
14. "I think that the economy, and the political system, has literally become such a disaster I don't know if it's possible to save it." ~ James Wood
15. "I think the iPhone was as significant an invention as the Gutenburg press, in terms of the future of humanity." ~ James Wood
16. "If General Motors can't survive and run their business like a business, let them go under." ~ James Wood
17. "If I say I'm the best actor for the part, I mean it and I'm not kidding." ~ James Wood
18. "The whole world has gone back to something we are genetically engineered to do - communicating through symbols." ~ James Wood
19. "Because of who I am, when I sit at a poker table, I meet people who engage me in conversation, not only about poker, but also about the movie business and about the world of celebrities." ~ James Wood
20. "I always have a rule that acting is acting and truth is truth and you just go out there and you do it. But what happens in each medium is that you have other responsibilities. The acting remains the same, but each medium dictates assuming other halves to make the acting work." ~ James Wood
21. "I am one of those guys who could do the most emotional scene and crack a joke instantly. I'm lucky. I'm just like an idiot savant. I have one enormously enjoyable, pleasurable - for me - talent, which is being able to act." ~ James Wood
22. "I was really bright as a kid and tested well, and it was clear that I was going to get scholarships to any schools I wanted. My dad always said I could be an engineer; at that time it was the elite of society: steady job, working in science, which was then the answer to every problem we had. It was kind of a mandate. Kind of a dream he had for me." ~ James Wood

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Today's Quote

My mother listened to all the news from the camp during the strike. She said little, especially when my father or the men who worked for him were about I remember her instinctive and unhesitating sympathy for the miners."
Author: Agnes Smedley

What Did James Wood Talk About?

Ally
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Con
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