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

There is a tendency to presume autobiography in fiction by women or minorities. Guys named Jonathan write universal stories, while there's this sense that everyone else is just fictionalizing their own small experiences. Rumaan Alam

Obama-as-dad is my favorite Obama. Obama-as-executive, with his stubborn faith in reasonableness in times absent of reason, presided over the country during its descent into madness. I find it a comfort that Obama-as-dad presided over a family that leaves the White House healthy and happy. Rumaan Alam

One of the many American ideals that make no sense at all is that we're all a million rugged individualists marching in lockstep. We dress accordingly, at least the men. If it's always been thus, I yearn for the halcyon days of the man in the gray flannel suit because at least that guy had some flair. Rumaan Alam

Man Rugged Men Sense Dress Some Guy No Sense Had Individualist Thus Days Ideals Make Because Always Least Yearn Been Accordingly American Flair Flannel Many Marching Million Gray Suit

Because the designers at Baby Gap and Crew Cuts have determined it would be cute if kids dressed like their dads, seemingly every American male between 2 and 52 dresses identically. Rumaan Alam

Years ago, I worked at a fashion magazine. I was the lowest man on the totem pole, one of the only men on that particular pole: a little brother with a dozen older sisters whose grace and glamour I so admired. Rumaan Alam

Fashion Man Grace Men Older Admired Brother Magazine Totem Totem Pole Only Glamour Pole Particular Years Years Ago Sisters Little Little Brother Worked Lowest Whose Dozen

Usually, when you see clothes on a model, by some transitive property, that garment is imbued with her beauty. Rumaan Alam

You Property Beauty Clothes See Some Model Garment Her

Every sense has the power to transport us through time, but it's taste I find the most mysterious, and writing about it often results in tortured metaphors. Rumaan Alam

Time Writing Power Sense Every Find Tortured About Results Mysterious Through Most Metaphors Taste Often Us Transport

Blackness, any sort of difference, is not a burden. Relegating blackness or other sorts of difference to serious books that explicitly engage with issues creates a context in which it can seem like one. Rumaan Alam

Burden Other Books Seem Blackness Like Sort Context Issues Any Difference Which Explicitly Creates Engage Serious

When you are young, it's deeply annoying to be told that certain things are a condition of your youth. There's almost always some condescension in the proposition that your reality, your hopes, your frustrations, are just a condition of your age, that what feels unique to you is a very common thing after all. Rumaan Alam

You Age Youth Reality Young Hopes Some Proposition Almost Feels Annoying Always Condition Very Just Common After Frustrations Certain Your Certain Things Unique Deeply Thing Things

That a friendship ends doesn't mean it was weak from the outset; that it ends says nothing about its importance. Rumaan Alam

Friendship Nothing Says Weak About Outset Importance Ends Mean

I know I've had a charmed experience of being a parent, with healthy kids, a helpful partner, access to good day care, and great public schools. Rumaan Alam

Good Day Great Experience Good Day Care Partner Healthy Public Schools Kids Parent Charmed Had Know Schools Access Being Public Helpful

Before the arrival of my first son, I gave up on the moribund business of magazine publishing, where I had long dreamed of a career, and went to work in advertising. That I could be paid great money to write was incredibly hard to believe. Rumaan Alam

Work Great Business Son Money Long First Before Believe Gave Incredibly Dreamed Magazine Could Write Had Advertising Arrival Up Where Paid Hard Publishing Career

Writing takes gall. I like to think that's true even for writers with several books under their belt, writers who have been doing it for years. It takes something - guts, gumption, self-delusion - to ask for a reader's time when we all know there's nothing new under the sun; that it's all been said, or written, before. Rumaan Alam

Time Writing Before Nothing Think Books Several Sun Guts Something Writers Written Takes True New Self-Delusion Like Know Reader Said Doing Been Years Gall Ask Nothing New Who Even Belt

I'm a square. I always wanted the standard-issue American dream: beautiful home, loving husband, couple of kids. I met another square, and we got married; a year later, we had a baby; three years later, had another. Rumaan Alam

Beautiful Home Husband Three Met Year Baby Later Kids Married Dream Had Beautiful Home Couple Another Always Got Year Later Years Square American American Dream Wanted Loving

We have all come from a woman in some fashion. Rumaan Alam

Fashion Woman Some Come

Children are weird. I was going to say 'most children,' but I think this a rare universal law. Rumaan Alam

Law Rare Think Say Weird Most Going Children Universal

Is deciding what you like an instinct, a sense that arrives as swiftly as my autoimmune response to cat dander? Or is it the result of reasoned consideration, the way wine tasters swish pinot noir around in their mouths, spit it out, and reach for complex metaphors about chocolate and tobacco? Rumaan Alam

You Result Wine Sense Consideration Way Complex Out Response About Spit Cat Instinct Noir Like Reach Around Metaphors Mouths Deciding Tobacco Chocolate Swiftly

Checking your phone during dinner is no less rude than reading 'People' during dinner, which I once saw a woman do at Blue Ribbon Brooklyn as she dined with her husband/boyfriend/whatever. Rumaan Alam

Woman People Phone Rude Dinner Reading Once Saw Dined Brooklyn Checking She Than Blue Which Ribbon Your Less Her

I work when I work, and that is often dictated by the things I cannot control. Rumaan Alam

Work Control Dictated Often Cannot Things

Nothing is ever ideal. You have to work all the same. Rumaan Alam

Work You Nothing Ideal Same Ever

Lindsay Hatton's novel 'Monterey Bay' so beautifully evokes the landscape of the titular locale, you'll feel transported to Northern California even if you're reading it on the bus on your morning commute. Rumaan Alam

Morning You Reading Bay Feel California Beautifully Lindsay Northern Northern California Bus Landscape Your Commute Even Novel

You can't control what's going to happen to the book you're about to publish. Rumaan Alam

You Book Control Publish About Going Happen

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