All Quotes
From "Why do we read biography? Why..." To "Why does the past seem so..."
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Why do we read biography? Why do we choose to write it? Because we are human beings, programmed to be curious about other human beings, and to experience something of their lives. This has always been so - look at the Bible, crammed with biographies, very popular reading.
‐‐ Claire Tomalin -
Why do we take pleasure in gruesome death, neatly packaged as a puzzle to which we may find a satisfactory solution through clues - or if we are not clever enough, have it revealed by the all-powerful tale-teller at the end of the book? It is something to do with being reduced to, and comforted by, playing by the rules.
‐‐ A. S. Byatt -
Why do we use flash at all? Because photography is not the same as eyesight. We can see in low-light situations where cameras, dependent upon a physical process to record visual information, are half blind.
‐‐ David Hewson -
Why do we wait for tragedy to strike to tell someone how special they are, or how special they were?
‐‐ Juhi Chawla -
Why do we work so hard to feel so terrible.
‐‐ Hollis Stacy -
Why do women always get pointed at for their bodies?
‐‐ Lily James -
Why do women get paid less money? It doesn't make any sense.
‐‐ Val Kilmer -
Why do writers, say, give up a job in economics and decide to write poetry? Or, why do they give up a job in a bank and decide to paint, like Krishan Khanna? They want to convey something.
‐‐ Vikram Seth -
Why do writers write? Because it isn't there.
‐‐ Thomas Berger -
Why do you act? You act for an audience. In the theatre, you're in their presence. Film stars don't know what it is to have an audience.
‐‐ Ian Mckellen -
Why do you all push us around?
‐‐ Rosa Parks -
Why do you always insist on playing while I'm trying to conduct?
‐‐ Eugene Ormandy -
Why do you have to be a nonconformist like everybody else?
‐‐ James Thurber -
Why do you have to break up with her? Be a man. Just stop calling.
‐‐ Matt LeBlanc -
Why do you have to retire at 65? Why can't you start at 70? You know, like wine. Why can't music be that way? My new band, we're playing stuff that's never been done before.
‐‐ Herbie Mann -
Why do you have to translate and decode things? Just let the image be. It will have a special kind of reality that it won't once it's decoded.
‐‐ Laurie Anderson -
Why do you judge me as a musician, John? All I'm interested in is making money.
‐‐ Glenn Miller -
Why do you knock yourself out? Take it easy.
‐‐ David O. Selznick -
Why do you need to do a fancy cartwheel for before you hit him? It just looks stupid.
‐‐ Owen Hart -
Why do you need to drive a Ferrari to get stuck in a traffic jam anyway? How do people afford these cars?
‐‐ James Murdoch -
Why do you not practice what you preach.
‐‐ St. Jerome -
Why do you speak to me of the stones? It is only the arch that matters to me.
‐‐ Kublai Khan -
Why do you think I write these feminist songs, to try and teach myself to respect myself. You know, it's not because I'm a hero.
‐‐ Ani DiFranco -
Why do you think so many actors are only half-developed people? It's very easy when you're a young actor to have these intense, explosive friendships for short periods of time, because you can control what's shown of you. Then you go on to your next job and reinvent yourself again. I think it's important to find something constant.
‐‐ Damian Lewis -
Why do you think the fans like us - why they prefer our street raps over all that phony stuff out there? Because we're telling the real story of what it's like living in places like Compton. We're giving them reality. We're like reporters. We give them the truth.
‐‐ Eazy-E -
Why do you think the old stories tell of men who set out on great journeys to impress the gods? Because trying to impress people just isn't worth the time and effort.
‐‐ Henry Rollins -
Why does a man take it for granted that a girl who flirts with him wants him to kiss her - when, nine times out of ten, she only wants him to want to kiss her?
‐‐ Helen Rowland -
Why does a three-year-old, and it's usually boys, want to drive the tractor or have machinery and be in control of it? I don't know. Why wouldn't you ask to boil a kettle or something? Maybe you would, I dunno.
‐‐ Michael Fassbender -
Why does a woman work ten years to change a man's habits and then complain that he's not the man she married?
‐‐ Barbra Streisand -
Why does America always need to be the world's policeman?
‐‐ Ted Deutch -
Why does an iPhone cost only a couple hundred dollars? Because, as the stage performer Mike Daisey depicted in an arresting one-man show called 'The Agony and Ecstasy of Steve Jobs,' Apple's shiniest products are made by a shadowy company in China called Foxconn.
‐‐ Eric Liu -
Why does anybody want to be famous? You know what's important to me? Having lunch! Pasta! Seeing my friends! Is that so crazy?
‐‐ Sherry Stringfield -
Why does anything ever happen? Some things happen and some don't.
‐‐ Kid Rock -
Why does crime happen? Well, you might say that it's because youths don't have jobs. Or you might say that's because the doors of our buildings are not fortified enough. Given some limited funds to spend, you can either create yet another national employment program or you can equip houses with even better cameras, sensors, and locks.
‐‐ Evgeny Morozov -
Why does everyone cling to the masculine imagery and pronouns even though they are a mere linguistic device that has never meant that God is male?
‐‐ Carol P. Christ -
Why does everyone have to pretend to be stupid and not know long words?
‐‐ Martin Freeman -
Why does everyone think the future is space helmets, silver foil, and talking like computers, like a bad episode of Star Trek?
‐‐ Tracey Ullman -
Why does everyone think they need to be a star? It's ridiculous. The celebrity culture is so silly, and the fact that people grow up thinking that it's something to aspire to just seems wrong. I don't mean to bash my life. I love my life; I just think it's not the only way to go.
‐‐ Jennifer Garner -
Why does God endow us with compassion?
‐‐ Franz Schubert -
Why does Israel always have to suffer for others to feel bad for it?
‐‐ Zubin Mehta -
Why does it appear that interested readers so often attribute flaws to 'the press' rather than taking particular issue with particular reports?
‐‐ Barton Gellman -
Why does it have to be politics? Is there a dynamism to that world and a theoretical capacity to do things that draws many talented people? Absolutely. Are there other ways to be involved and lead an interesting life? Of course.
‐‐ Eliot Spitzer -
Why does Medicare have such difficulty accommodating a cut - no, wait, a trim to its annual spending increase - of two measly percentage points? Two words: baby boom.
‐‐ Timothy Noah -
Why does my brain insist on counting the steps every time I walk up a flight of stairs? I just can't help myself. There's something about my mind that always wants to keep counting.
‐‐ Rachel Nichols -
Why does one always ask a writer why they stopped? I am sure everyone finds in any drawer a few dear poems.
‐‐ Peter Bichsel -
Why does the Air Force need expensive new bombers? Have the people we've been bombing over the years been complaining?
‐‐ George C. Wallace -
Why does the Church grow and flourish? It does so because of divine direction to the leaders and members.
‐‐ James E. Faust -
Why does the eye see a thing more clearly in dreams than the imagination when awake?
‐‐ Leonardo da Vinci -
Why does the past seem so magical, so fraught, so luminous? At the time it was just, ugh, another boring bloody day. But, to look back on, it's a day full of miracles and light and extraordinary events. Why is this? What process do we apply to the past, to give it this vividness? I don't know.
‐‐ John Banville
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