22 Teju Cole Quotes for You to Enjoy

Teju Cole

Nigerian Writer

Born: Jun 27, 1975

Book Good People Work Writing You

Related authors: Ayn Rand Dr. Seuss H. L. Mencken Napoleon Hill Niccolo Machiavelli Thomas Mann Thomas Paine Voltaire

Always say 'no pun intended' to draw attention to the intended pun. Teju Cole

Pun Say Draw Attention Always Intended

In countries with a properly functioning legal system, the mob continues to exist, but it is rarely called upon to mete out capital punishment. The right to take human life belongs to the state. Not so in societies where weak courts and poor law enforcement are combined with intractable structural injustices. Teju Cole

Life Legal Law State Weak Punishment Intractable System Out Rarely Law Enforcement Properly Structural Take Countries Combined Courts Exist Mob Legal System Human Where Poor Capital Capital Punishment Enforcement Human Life Injustices Right Societies Belongs

A mob is not, as is so often said, mindless. A mob is single-minded. Teju Cole

Mindless Said Single-Minded Mob Often

One of the difficulties of photography is that it is much better at being explicit than at being reticent. Teju Cole

Photography Better Difficulties Than Being Explicit Much

There was a feeling during the years of George W. Bush's presidency that his gracelessness as well as his appetite for war were linked to his impatience with complexity. He acted 'from the gut,' and was economical with the truth until it disappeared. Teju Cole

Barack Obama is an elegant and literate man with a cosmopolitan sense of the world. He is widely read in philosophy, literature, and history - as befits a former law professor - and he has shown time and again a surprising interest in contemporary fiction. Teju Cole

Time History Man World Law Sense Philosophy Obama Cosmopolitan He Contemporary Read Surprising Fiction Literate Literature Again Former Interest Barack Barack Obama Shown Elegant Professor Widely

I am on Vine. It's another early-adopter kind of thing. I'm trying to figure out what I'm going to do with it. What's interesting about it is that everybody knows these amazing restrictions we've put on it: I have to use my iPhone, I can only use one continuous take, I cannot edit afterwards, I cannot put sound afterwards. Teju Cole

Amazing Everybody Out Kind About Only Restrictions Take Put Knows Another Edit Sound Am iPhone Continuous Trying Going Cannot Afterwards Interesting Use Figure Vine Thing

The content of Saul Leiter's photographs arrives on a sort of delay: it takes a moment after the first glance to know what the picture is about. You don't so much see the image as let it dissolve into your consciousness, like a tablet in a glass of water. Teju Cole

You Water Delay First Picture Dissolve Photographs See Tablet About Glance Takes Glass Like Know Sort Content After Much Your Moment Consciousness Image Saul

I was in New York City on 9/11. Grief remains from that awful day, but not only grief. There is fear, too, a fear informed by the knowledge that whatever my worst nightmare is, there is someone out there embittered enough to carry it out. Teju Cole

To read Transtromer - the best times are at night, in silence, and alone - is to surrender to the far-fetched. It is to climb out of bed and listen to what the house is saying, and to how the wind outside responds. Each of his readers reads him as a personal secret. Teju Cole

Alone Saying Best Silence Surrender Wind Secret Responds Out Outside House Him Read Readers Reads Bed How Climb His Times Personal Listen Far-Fetched Each Night

We have for too long been taught that the sight of a man speaking to himself is a sign of eccentricity or madness; we are no longer at all habituated to our own voices, except in conversation or from within the safety of a shouting crowd. Teju Cole

We don't experience our lives as plots. If I asked you to tell me what your last week was like, you're not really gonna give me plot. You're gonna give me sort of linked narrative. And I wanted to see how do we bring that into fiction without losing the reader. Teju Cole

Me You Experience Losing Our Our Lives Plot Tell Plots See Give Give Me Week Like Reader Sort Without Narrative How Linked Fiction Wanted Gonna Asked Really Your Lives Bring Last

Because I'm an art historian, I have some experience of writing that comes out of close attention. That's what really art history is. You're looking at something very closely, and you try to write in a meticulous way about it. Teju Cole

Art History You Experience Writing Try Looking Way Out Some About Something Write Attention Because Meticulous Historian Art History Very Close Close Attention Closely Really

Breughel is an example of an artist - I mean, this is true about artists and painters in general, but he is a specific example of an artist whose work contains more than you think it does at first glance. Whose work rewards, sustains attention and looking. Teju Cole

Work You Example First Looking Think About General More Glance He True Attention Contains Does Than Artist Artists Rewards Sustains Mean Painters Whose Specific

On many days my primary artistic struggle is, in fact, photography because it is harder to do good work with that. I see myself as an observer of the world who has a strong drive to testify, which I can do because I have the privilege of living in New York with enough food to eat and shelter. Teju Cole

Work Myself Good Food Struggle Photography World Strong Drive Good Work Living Enough See Eat Fact Observer Primary New Days Because Shelter Testify Privilege York Artistic New York In Fact Which Who Many Harder

In 'Open City,' there is a passage that any reader of Joyce will immediately recognise as a very close, formal analogue of one the stories in 'Dubliners.' That is because a novel is also a literary conversation. Teju Cole

Conversation Will Analogue Immediately Recognise City Open Joyce Also Reader Because Passage Very Close Any Formal Literary Stories Novel

Probably the biggest temptation that young writers face is to be entertaining, to show your bag of tricks and do a bit of tap dancing. I read a lot of things, and I keep seeing this brocade of voice where someone is trying to be too pally with you or ingratiating on the page. Teju Cole

You Face Young Too Dancing Bit Tricks Entertaining Seeing Someone Temptation Voice Writers Bag Read Tap Lot Trying Where Biggest Young Writers Page Your Show Keep Things

Lyrical poetry is not a big part of most people's lives. Twitter now becomes an interesting way of getting cared for language into people's space. Because there is something deep inside of us that responds to cared for language, whether it's literary, poetry, or really good lyrics in a song. Teju Cole

Good People Song Space Language Big Twitter Lyrical Lyrics Way Responds Inside Something Poetry Part Most Because Becomes Big Part Getting Literary Whether Interesting Interesting Way Us Really Deep Deep Inside Now Lives Cared

I'm not trying to be a poet on Twitter; I'm trying to be aware of the fact that a very simple sentence, well written, can have a very moving effect without that person knowing why. There's a deep genetic part of you that somehow, even without your permission, recognizes good language when it arrives. Teju Cole

Good You Simple Language Poet Twitter Somehow Fact Part Written Genetic Knowing Well Without Permission Well-Written Effect Very Person Trying Moving Sentence Your Deep Even Aware Why

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