57 Rumaan Alam Quotes for You to Enjoy

Rumaan Alam

American Author

Children Family Men Time Work You

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

Kids are the ultimate trump card: a way to get out of co-op board meetings or lunch with a friend you don't want to see or your brother-in-law's set at a comedy club. It's fair to use your kids as an excuse to sidestep what you don't want to do; it's less fair to blame them for not being able to achieve what you do want to do. Rumaan Alam

You Blame Comedy Achieve Club Lunch Meetings Way Kids Out See Able Brother-In-Law Fair Excuse Comedy Club Ultimate Trump Friend Get Being Want Board Them Use Your Less Card Set

When my husband and I first became parents, we joked that our chubby baby was destined to grow into an Alex P. Keaton Reaganite - the most unlikely, and therefore hilarious, course for the child of an interracial gay couple in gentrifying Brooklyn. Rumaan Alam

In a strange way, Louise Erdrich is perhaps our least famous great American writer; she is not reclusive, but she is reticent, and her public appearances give the impression of a carefully controlled performance. But Erdrich has also shared many of her most intimate emotions and experiences, in some form, in her novels. Rumaan Alam

Great Strange Emotions Carefully Great American Our Intimate Way Reclusive Some Give Writer Shared Performance Perhaps Most Also She Least Impression Louise American Controlled Famous Experiences Form Public Strange Way Many Appearances Novels Her

I'm not black myself, but my sons are. Rumaan Alam

Myself Black Sons

I always like it when writers posit writing as an act of empathy. It's such a grand turn of phrase, such a noble ideal; empathy is so worth aiming for in life that the same must hold true in art. But personally, I can't think too deeply about that when I'm working, or I'd never get anything down on the page. Rumaan Alam

Life Art Writing Worth Down Think Too Aiming Must Phrase About Writers Never Empathy Noble True Ideal Like Always Get Same Hold Anything Grand Personally Turn Working Page Act Deeply

Parenting is love, sure, but it's as much about receiving love as it is giving it. Parenthood is a kind of vanity. Rumaan Alam

Love Parenting Giving Kind Vanity About Parenthood Sure Much Receiving

My husband and I adopted our children through a private agency, Spence-Chapin Services to Families and Children. As a nonprofit organization, it relies on client fees as well as donor support to do its work. Rumaan Alam

Work Organization Husband Our Adopted Through Support Fees Well Client Nonprofit Private Families Donor Children Agency Services

Contemporary families can be made in many ways. You might step up when relatives or friends are unable to meet their obligation to their children. You might marry someone who is already a parent. Or you might, as in my case, yearn to create a family and decide to adopt. Rumaan Alam

Family You Obligation Relatives Made Meet Ways Unable Marry Case Someone Parent Adopt Step Contemporary Yearn Up Friends Families Children Decide Might Create Who Many

Form ossifies into genre through repetition. Rumaan Alam

Through Genre Repetition Form

A writer cannot be judged for his project, only its execution. Rumaan Alam

Project Only Writer Execution Judged His Cannot

I married the man I love when the state of California said I could. We made a family through adoption, as New York State said we could. From the outside, our family - two dads, two sons via adoption - seems like an experiment, but what family isn't an experiment? Rumaan Alam

Love Family Man Made Experiment State Our Married Seems Adoption Could Through Outside Sons New Like California Said York Via New York New York State Dads Two

I mourn for the kind of dad I didn't have; I rue my first broken family while taking joy in the one that I've made. Rumaan Alam

Family Broken Joy Made First Kind Taking Mourn While Dad

Among this country's enduring myths is that success is virtuous, while the wealth by which we measure success is incidental. We tell ourselves that money cannot buy happiness, but what is incontrovertible is that money buys stuff, and if stuff makes you happy, well, complete the syllogism. Rumaan Alam

Happiness Success Buy You Happy Money Wealth Country Complete Virtuous Ourselves Tell Myths Stuff Well Makes Enduring Cannot Which While Success Is Measure Incidental Among Incontrovertible Buys

I don't have a Winslow Homer or a Renoir, but I do have the liberty to live as I like. Rumaan Alam

Liberty Live Like Homer

I love fiction's ability to allow me to inhabit a wholly different life. Rumaan Alam

Life Love Me Ability Allow Different Fiction Different Life Inhabit Wholly

I've spent many hours of my life browsing in stores. At 21, I admired clothes I couldn't afford. At 30, I bought them. At 40, I sometimes go simply for the pleasure, of seeing what is new, of learning what counts as beautiful now. Rumaan Alam

Instead of a passion for the Yankees or fly-fishing or birding, I want to pass on to my sons a love of books, music, and art. I accept that this is partly about the gratification of my own ego, but it's also one of the only ways I know of making a rich life. That's what we all want for our progeny. Rumaan Alam

Life Love Music Art Ego Passion Own Rich Our Books Ways About My Own Only Instead Sons Know Also Partly Accept Yankees Pass Making Want Gratification Progeny

Some writers are prolific; some are shape-shifters. It's rare and intimidating to encounter one who is both. Rumaan Alam

Rare Intimidating Prolific Some Both Writers Encounter Who

There are probably some readers who don't want a great American writer to acknowledge that cleaning out the bottom drawer of the refrigerator has ever crossed their mind. Rumaan Alam

Great Cleaning Mind Great American Drawer Out Some Crossed Writer Bottom Readers American Refrigerator Want Acknowledge Who Ever

For many writers, the endless performance of being a writer - tweeting, appearing, making the rounds - is required simply to attract enough attention to make a living. Rumaan Alam

Living Enough Writer Writers Simply Attention Performance Attract Make Making Endless Being Required Tweeting Many Appearing Rounds

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