32 Tom Reiss Quotes for You to Enjoy

Tom Reiss

American Author

Born: May 5, 1964

Great Me Old People Revolution World

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

The demons you have are what motivate you to make your art. This is what drives the detective, this is what drives the painter, this is what drives the writer: a conflicting urge to forget pain and at the same time remember it and fight for some kind of justice. I know these powerful things are inside of me and everyone in some way or another. Tom Reiss

Art Time Me You Justice Fight Remember Pain Everyone Way Kind Inside Detective Some Writer Drives Powerful Know Make Another Demons Motivate Forget Same Same Time Conflicting Urge Your Painter Things

'The Secret Agent,' Joseph Conrad's 1907 novel about an anarchist plot to blow up the Royal Observatory at Greenwich - in fact, a scheme by a secret police agent to stir up a government backlash - has acquired a kind of cult status as the classic novel for the post-9/11 age. Tom Reiss

Government Age Police Secret Secret Agent Anarchist Backlash Plot Kind Status Classic About Fact Scheme Observatory Joseph Cult Stir Up Blow Greenwich In Fact Acquired Agent Novel Royal

Eighteenth-century doctors prescribed sugar pills for nearly everything: heart problems, headache, consumption, labor pains, insanity, old age, and blindness. Hence, the French expression 'like an apothecary without sugar' meant someone in an utterly hopeless situation. Tom Reiss

Heart Age Problems Old Insanity Hopeless Doctors Situation Old Age Sugar Everything Someone Consumption Headache Like French Without Blindness Pills Labor Meant Pains Expression Hence Prescribed Nearly Utterly

The French Revolution ends slavery unilaterally. And it does so at this moment when the British, the Spanish, the Portuguese and the Americans - all of the other major powers - keep slavery. And the fact is that it's almost bankrupting the French Colonial Empire. Tom Reiss

Revolution Other Colonial Fact Almost Empire Major French Powers French Revolution Does American Ends Spanish Moment Keep Slavery Portuguese British

The French Revolution was a kind of 21st-century moment in the heart of the 18th century - and Alex Dumas, outstanding though he was, could never have risen the way he did if not for that. The French Revolution was the American Revolution on steroids. Tom Reiss

Heart Revolution Way Though Kind Risen Could Never He Outstanding Steroids French French Revolution American Did Century American Revolution Moment Alex

There's nothing better than to be rootless cosmopolitans who seamlessly merge into whatever society. That's the greatest thing human beings can aspire to. Whether forced by duress, Jews became perfect modern human beings. After the Holocaust, one doesn't really mourn for that - it's too disturbing, seems like a mistake. Tom Reiss

Mistake Better Whatever Nothing Society Too Jews Disturbing Seems Perfect Merge Like Forced Became Greatest Greatest Thing Than Mourn Duress Modern Human Human Beings After Whether Holocaust Really Aspire Who Seamlessly Beings Thing

When Czar Ivan III took a liking to the Judaizers, they were invited to Moscow, where they managed to convert so much of the court nobility in the last decades of the fifteenth century that traditionalists felt the need to counter the trend through selective burnings at the stake. Tom Reiss

'The Secret Agent' remains the most brilliant novelistic study of terrorism as viewed from the blood-spattered outside. But 'Under Western Eyes' dares to leap inside - not only into the terrorist mind, but also into the troubled zone that divides West from East, 'the autocracy in mystic vestments.' Tom Reiss

Terrorism Eyes Brilliant Mind Secret Secret Agent East Dares Inside Only Remains Divides Mystic Troubled Outside Study Most Leap Also Terrorist West Western Autocracy Agent Viewed Zone

The first time I dedicated myself to resurrecting and preserving somebody's memories was with my great-uncle. I knew he was going to die in the next few years, and I had grown up listening to all his stories about people who had been trapped or chased by the Nazis. I began to record them. Tom Reiss

Time Myself Memories People Listening Somebody First Few Trapped Preserving Record About Chased Had He Knew First Time Been His Years Began Up Die Going Stories Them Next Dedicated Who Grown Grown-Up

In 1817, Czar Alexander I personally founded the Society of Israelite Christians but had less luck defeating Judaism than he'd had defeating Napoleon; gentile serfs and merchants in areas bordering the Pale even showed disturbing new signs of 'Judaizing.' Tom Reiss

While writing 'The Orientalist,' I played a soundtrack that alternated between ragtime and Azeri mugams, Russian operas and German and Italian pop songs from the 1920s and 30s. When I finally finished, I gorged on all my music from the 1960s, 70s, and 80s. Tom Reiss

Music Writing Finished Finally Russian Songs Between Operas Soundtrack Italian German While Pop Pop Songs Played

The revolution breaks out; they form this group of swordsmen called the Black Legion. Alex Dumas is there at every moment, protecting the revolution and protecting France, and he rises to the equivalent of a four-star general. Tom Reiss

Black Revolution Group Every France Out Rises General He Protecting Equivalent Legion Form Breaks Moment Alex

The original Alexandre Dumas was born in 1762, the son of 'Antoine Alexandre de l'Isle,' in the French sugar colony of Saint-Domingue. Antoine was a nobleman in hiding from his family and from the law, and he fathered the boy with a black slave. Tom Reiss

Family Son Law Black Sugar Hiding Born Colony He French Boy His Original Slave

For me, history is always personal. And it's how your personal history interacts with the history of your time. I'm very attracted to characters who were cursed, as the Chinese say, to live in interesting times. Tom Reiss

Time Me History Live Say Characters Attracted Always How Were Very Times Personal The History Of Cursed Chinese Interesting Your Who

The Dumas memoirs - which I also discovered when I was a kid - had a big impact on me. Tom Reiss

Me Big Kid Memoirs Impact Had Also Discovered Big Impact Which

The one thing I'm not tempted to ever do is stop working. Retirement would be too tough for me. As a workaholic and an insomniac, I identified with my subject, General Dumas, who, according to field reports, would ride on patrols without sleep sometimes for two nights on end before going into battle - and winning. Tom Reiss

Me Battle Ride Sometimes Tough Before Field Nights Too Would One Thing Would-Be Tempted General Winning Retirement Identified Without Subject According End Reports Going Stop The One Thing Workaholic Working Who Ever Thing Two Sleep

I once started a small business when I got out of college and enjoyed the stress of making it work. High-stress situations clear my head, and I love the challenge of getting along with many different kinds of people. I'm scared of routine. Tom Reiss

Work Love Business People Challenge Stress College Different Kinds Once Out Kinds Scared Small Small Business Clear Head Along Got Making Getting Situations Different Many Routine Enjoyed Started

I've considered myself a writer since I was 7 years old, but I've done a lot of jobs along the way. I enjoyed waiting tables and tending bar during college, especially when it got busy, so I might like managing a big restaurant. In fact, I might like managing many kinds of businesses or organizations. Tom Reiss

Myself Waiting Old College Big Busy Considered Way Jobs Restaurant Kinds Tables Fact Tending Writer Since Along Like Got Years Lot Done Managing In Fact Bar Might Organizations Businesses Many Enjoyed

Lev Nussimbaum was born in October 1905, the moment when the tolerant, haute capitaliste culture of Baku began to fall apart. Tom Reiss

Culture Fall Born October Began Apart Moment Tolerant

In the winter of 1940, 'The Atlantic Monthly' invited Peter Viereck, a twenty-three-year-old Harvard graduate who had won the college's top essay and poetry prizes, to write about 'the meaning of young liberalism for the present age.' Tom Reiss

Winter Age College Young Liberalism Top Monthly Harvard Atlantic About Poetry Write Had Invited Won Prizes Essay Graduate Meaning Meaning Of Who Peter Present

In early 1798, the Directory, the oligarchy that was ruling revolutionary France, ordered its top general, Napoleon Bonaparte, to plan the invasion of England. Instead, Napoleon organized and carried out the invasion of Egypt, which became the first modern incursion by the West into the Middle East. Tom Reiss

First France Top Ruling Carried East Out Invasion General Directory Instead Napoleon Became West Revolutionary Modern Egypt Middle Ordered Middle East Which Plan Organized England Oligarchy Early

Alexandre Antoine Davy de la Pailleterie - father of the future Alex Dumas - was born on February 26, 1714, in the Norman province of Caux, a region of rolling dairy farms that hung above great chalk cliffs on the northwest coast of France. Tom Reiss

Today, the world is so awash in sugar - it is such a staple of the modern diet, associated with all that is cheap and unhealthy - that it's hard to believe things were once exactly the opposite. The West Indies were colonized in a world where sugar was seen as a scarce, luxurious, and profoundly health-giving substance. Tom Reiss

Today World Seen Believe Sugar Luxurious Once Exactly Scarce Indies Cheap Opposite Were West Modern Diet Substance Where Unhealthy Hard Staple Things Profoundly Associated

Sugar planting was the oil business of the eighteenth century, and Saint-Domingue was the Ancien Regime's Wild West frontier, where sons of impoverished noble families could strike it rich. Tom Reiss

I soon abandoned the question of who Kurban Said or Essad Bey was for the more problematic one - who was Lev Nussimbaum? Tom Reiss

Abandoned More Soon Said Question Problematic Who

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