R.J. Lawrence Quotes

Art—the meaning of the pattern of our common actions in reality. The cloth-of-gold that hides behind the sackcloth of reality, forced out by the pain of human memory.

To achieve lasting literature, fictional or factual, a writer needs perceptive vision, absorptive capacity, and creative strength.

Of all the creative work produced by humans anywhere, a tiny fraction has continuing commercial value. For that tiny fraction, the copyright is a crucially important legal device.

If you put all your strength and faith and vigor into a job and try to do the best you can, the money will come.

Anything that you cannot sacrifice pins you. Makes you predictable, makes you weak.

The universe has a much greater imagination than we do, which is why the real story of the universe is far more interesting than any of the fairy tales we have invented to describe it.

Don't bow down to critics who have not themselves written great masterpieces.

The true self is not aware that it is a self. A bird, as it sings, sings itself. But not according to a picture. It has no idea of itself.

My audience is a diehard audience. They are dedicated. My audience always follows me and sticks with me. They're the reason I'm still here - in the films and in stand-ups.

Melania Trump did not object or make a speech when her husband retweeted this. "If Hillary Clinton can't satisfy her husband, what makes her think she can satisfy America."

Lack of comfort means we are on the threshold of new insights.

You are all stardust.

If a woman is determined, she will get what she wants because we are very determined creatures.

Are you willing to be sponged out, erased, cancelled, made nothing? Are you willing to be made nothing? Dipped into oblivion? If not, you will never really change.

I shall be glad when you have strangled the invincible respectability that dogs your steps.

Science is only truly consistent with an atheistic worldview with regards to the claimed miracles of the gods of Judaism, Christianity and Islam.

It's better to look strong and healthy.

Another head - and a black alpaca jacket and a serviette this time - to tell us coffee is ready. Not before it is time, too.

I completely agree when there are actors who say, "Actors should stay out of politics. We're not politicians."

Loud peace propaganda makes war seem imminent.

Pessimism is not only unwarranted, it is also a self-fulfilling prophecy. If you think the cause is lost, it will be. No one works hard for a cause they think will lose.

All around us are the consequences of the most significant technological, and hence cultural, revolution in generations.

On the silver screen, capitalists are usually vilified as greedy and heartless, while statists of every stripe are depicted as selfless, romantic idealists who only want to help people.

Where the electron behaves and misbehaves as it will, where the forces tie themselves up into knots of atoms and come united.

The greatest influence for good comes from those quiet folks who make morals, not moralizing, their vocation.

Technology means you can now do amazing things easily; but you couldn't easily do them legally.

Most of us are pretty good at keeping promises to others and pretty bad at keeping promises to ourselves.

If you look at the history of the American capital market, there's probably no innovation more important than the idea of generally accepted accountancy principles.

It came as a surprise to find that a professional society and journal (Econometrica) were flourishing, and I entered this area of study with great enthusiasm.

An early fascination with higher mathematics at the university level blossomed into speculative thinking that could provide a basis for dealing with economic issues.

Contagion has become very much a phenomenon, and it's a phenomenon of globalization.

But, George and Steven asked me to write the Indiana Jones sequels, and I didn't want to.

I believe that a man is converted when first he hears the low, vast murmur of life, of human life, troubling his hitherto unconscious self.

I mean, the trouble with some of the kind of relationship movies I've done, is there's only so many ways you can shoot a conversation. I was really tired of talking heads.

But better die than live mechanically a life that is a repetition of repetitions.

The human being is a most curious creature. He thinks he has got one soul, and he has got dozens.

I loved Alien, and I loved Carrie, and I loved The Exorcist - those were big movies for me. They were just brilliantly done, and unusual, and they all took horror to some new place.

The proper study of mankind is man in his relation to his deity.

Try to find your deepest issue in every confusion, and abide by that.

In politics, as in poetry, it is sometimes true that it is darkest before dawn.

It was wrong to allow Stalin to shape the European landscape of the 20th century. It would be even more wrong to let him shape the landscape of the 21st century

You must learn to respect," Papa said. But I do not respect her," I said. Papa paused for a moment, and patted my leg. "Then you must learn to hide your disrespect.

The most ordinary conditions for observing sailing birds are then the wind and sea are both aft.

There are many different rivers that lead into despair: there's poverty; there's political repression; there's gender apartheid - there's a sense of culture loss; there's religious fanaticism.

The whole point of writing is to have something in your gut or in your soul or in your mind that's burning to be written.

I have a tremendous desire to learn, and to grow, and to develop whatever I have that will make for any kind of improvement in me.

One aspect of serendipity to bear in mind is that you have to be looking for something in order to find something else.

I wasn't pretty enough to play the popular girl, I wasn't mousy enough to be the mousy girl, so I never fit in. And so I'd get close, but I never got anywhere, and it was really painful.

The internet to me is kind of like a black hole, and I never really go on it.

Teenagers only have to focus on themselves - its not until we get older that we realize that other people exist.