39 Elif Batuman Quotes for You to Enjoy

Elif Batuman

American Author

Born: 1977

About Life Me Think Time You

Related authors: F. Scott Fitzgerald Frederick Douglass Helen Keller Henry David Thoreau Joyce Meyer Mark Twain Og Mandino Zig Ziglar

When in doubt, it is better to do the less conservative thing and to err on the side of the more colorful, possibly terrible mistake. That comes from thinking of yourself as a writer. Elif Batuman

Mistake Yourself Conservative Better Doubt Thinking Side Possibly More Colorful Writer Terrible Err When In Doubt Less Thing

Every time a meteor comes close to the earth, we all think about the end of the world - but our internal soundtrack doesn't turn off. We're also thinking about pizza or passing a slow tractor or making a turn, and for a magical instant, our lives seem to be in conversation with the stars. Elif Batuman

Time Conversation World Slow Stars Every Think Thinking Every Time Our Earth Our Lives About Magical Seem Instant Also Tractor Making Meteor Passing Soundtrack Off End End Of The World Close Pizza Turn Turn-Off Internal Lives

I like a novel to have a certain amount of dead time and filler - unremarkable scenery, descriptions of getting from point A to point B, dialogue in which not much is said - in between the parts that are electric. With a long work that you don't read in one sitting, I think that makes for the best reading experience. Elif Batuman

Work Time Best You Experience Long Reading Think Scenery Point Between Like Dead Read Parts Makes Said Dialogue Sitting Getting In-Between Which Much Certain Electric Novel Descriptions Filler Amount

Why is there an end of the year? Because the calendar imposes numerical order on time. There is a natural fitness in the celebration of the New Year, a holiday of numbers imposed on things, with lists, as well as with Advent calendars and songs like 'The Twelve Days of Christmas.' Elif Batuman

Fitness Christmas Time Natural Year Songs Advent New Days Like Calendar Calendars Well Because Imposed End Celebration New Year Lists Order Holiday Twelve Why Things Numbers Numerical

Lists are based on realism - on the coldly contemplated finitude of resources. Elif Batuman

Resources Contemplated Lists Realism Based

When I was growing up, many of my relatives had never seen a black person before. Today, hundreds, maybe thousands of Africans live in Istanbul's old city alone. It's hard to imagine their lives in their human totality. Elif Batuman

Today Alone Old Relatives Black Seen Before Live Hundreds City Thousands Totality Never Had Istanbul Up Person Human Maybe African Hard Many Growing Growing Up Lives Imagine

Much as there are things about our own life stories that we can learn only from the systematic study of our dreams, there are things about the human condition that we can learn only from a systematic study of literature. Elif Batuman

Life Dreams Own Our Our Dreams Systematic About Only Study Learn Condition Human Stories Human Condition Literature Much Things

Even in novels where the love relationship isn't the focus, I feel like it's often there, and the background is some barometer of whether this is a happy or sad story or whether this is a successful or unsuccessful life. Elif Batuman

I like to think that I know a lot of words, but I definitely don't know all of them. Elif Batuman

Words Think Definitely Like Know Lot Them

Read enough about the dung beetle, and a picture of its character emerges: patient, optimistic, uncomplaining. Elif Batuman

Character Picture Patient Enough About Emerges Read Beetle Optimistic

At the beginning of 'A Christmas Carol,' Scrooge embodies one of the central tenets of depression: that one has always been this way - and always will be. Elif Batuman

Depression Christmas Will Beginning Way Carol Embodies Always Been Central

My parents were born into a secular country. They met in Turkey's top medical school, moved to America in the nineteen-seventies, and became researchers and professors. Elif Batuman

School Secular Parents Country Met Top Born Became Were America Moved Turkey Researchers Professors Medical Medical School

I grew up hearing that if it hadn't been for Ataturk, my grandmother would have been 'a covered person' who would have been reliant on a man for her livelihood. Instead, she went to boarding school, wrote a thesis on Balzac, and became a teacher. Elif Batuman

Awkwardness is the consciousness of a false position. Elif Batuman

False Consciousness Awkwardness Position

'Awkward' implies both solidarity and implication. Nobody is exempt. Elif Batuman

Solidarity Both Implication Nobody Implies Exempt Awkward

I grew up thinking that it was immoral to idealize the past because, in the past, there was slavery and no penicillin. Elif Batuman

Past Thinking Penicillin Immoral Idealize Because Up Grew In The Past Slavery

Tolstoy didn't know about steampunk or cyborgs, but he did know about the nightmarishness of steam power, unruly machines, and the creepy half-human status of the Russian peasant classes. In 'Anna Karenina,' nineteenth-century life itself is a relentless, relentlessly modern machine, flattening those who oppose it. Elif Batuman

Life Power Oppose Machine Those Machines Relentless Relentlessly Status Classes About Russian Steam Unruly He Anna Know Itself Did Modern Who Tolstoy Peasant Creepy

I'm Turkish-American; I was a freshman at Harvard in 1995 and 96. I did teach English in Hungary in the summer of 1996. I'm an autobiographical writer in the sense that whether in fiction or nonfiction, the issues and relationships and phenomena and problems I'm most interested in exploring are the ones I've experienced personally. Elif Batuman

Problems Hungary Sense Relationships Summer Harvard Writer Most Nonfiction Freshman Issues Did Autobiographical Experienced Fiction Whether Interested Personally Teach Exploring English Phenomena

I don't believe in being ashamed about not having read things. Elif Batuman

Believe About Having Read Being Ashamed Things

Everyone has a certain amount of bad writing to get out of their system. Elif Batuman

Writing Everyone System Out Bad Get Certain Amount

A lot of fiction doesn't answer a question that any reasonable person would ever ask. Elif Batuman

Would Answer Question Lot Person Any Fiction Ask Reasonable Ever

Elif Batuman Quotes

No more Elif Batuman quotes