Interviews Quotes

“I asked the Zebra,
are you black with white stripes?
Or white with black stripes?
And the zebra asked me,
Are you good with bad habits?
Or are you bad with good habits?
Are you noisy with quiet times?
Or are you quiet with noisy times?
Are you happy with some sad days?
Or are you sad with some happy days?
Are you neat with some sloppy ways?
Or are you sloppy with some neat ways?
And on and on and on and on and on and on he went.
I’ll never ask a zebra about stripes...again.”
― Shel Silverstein

“General fiction is pretty much about ways that people get into problems and screw their lives up. Science fiction is about everything else.”
― Marvin Minsky

“The Potter books in general are a prolonged argument for tolerance, a prolonged plea for an end to bigotry. And I think it's one of the reasons that some people don't like the books, but I think that's it's a very healthy message to pass on to younger people that you should question authority and you should not assume that the establishment or the press tells you all of the truth.”
― J.K. Rowling

“There is absolutely no single aspect of one’s personality that is more important to develop than empathy, which is not a skill at which men typically are asked to excel. I believe empathy is not only the core of art, literature and music, but should also be at the core of society, from ethics to economics.”
― Chris Ware

“When you’re talking about the culture, maybe there is something that just permeates sort of thing, you know you pass it on or take it in, without ever being aware of it. - Ivan Pavelić, Croatia”
― Peter Brune, Suffering, Redemption and Triumph: The first wave of post-war Australian immigrants 1945-66

“They worked hard all their lives, what they basically did was, they built a little Ukraine, a little society for themselves here in Brisbane. They did this in all the cities … not a ghetto, it wasn’t inward looking to that extent, but it was inward looking in the sense that it was a place to go—somewhere where you could identify; where you could be understood; go about remembering and preserving your roots. - Walter Sucharsky, 2nd Generation Australian”
― Peter Brune, Suffering, Redemption and Triumph: The first wave of post-war Australian immigrants 1945-66

“Q: Why do you blog?

A: Partly to make Butterflies and Wheels more frequently updated and more interactive (as well as that bit more interesting, I hope), but also because I think the world des-perately needs to hear my opinions, and I like to oblige.”
― Ophelia Benson

“Buscar la verdad es la mayor virtud y es lo que hace que un drama sea interesante. No me interesa contar historias con perfume de rosas en las que todo va bien”
― Clint Eastwood

“I was taken to a villa to meet Sabri al-Banna, known as 'Abu Nidal' ('father of struggle'), who was at the time emerging as one of Yasser Arafat's main enemies. The meeting began inauspiciously when Abu Nidal asked me if I would like to be trained in one of his camps. No thanks, I explained. From this awkward beginning there was a further decline. I was then asked if I knew Said Hammami, the envoy of the PLO in London. I did in fact know him. He was a brave and decent man, who in a series of articles in the London Times had floated the first-ever trial balloon for a two-state solution in Israel/Palestine. 'Well tell him he is a traitor,' barked my host. 'And tell him we have only one way with those who betray us.' The rest of the interview passed as so many Middle Eastern interviews do: too many small cups of coffee served with too much fuss; too many unemployed heavies standing about with nothing to do and nobody to do it with; too much ugly furniture, too many too-bright electric lights; and much too much faux bonhomie. The only political fact I could winnow, from Abu Nidal's vainglorious claims to control X number of 'fighters' in Y number of countries, was that he admired the People's Republic of China for not recognizing the State of Israel. I forget how I got out of his office.”
― Christopher Hitchens, Hitch 22: A Memoir

“As an artist you look into yourself to understand the human potential to be all kinds of things that are not necessarily pleasant but are real - a criminal, a murderer, a sadist, a rapist; to be all of these things that many people are. You can't allow yourself to say, 'I'm a different species from those people.' Because you aren't.

The criminal as monster is kind of common. That's very convenient because you can then say, 'Of course I'm not a monster, therefore I'm not a criminal therefore I have no potential in tern of criminality.' And that lets you off the hook. That gives you a nice wall between yourself and them.”
― David Cronenberg

“After you have done your work—challenging as it may have been to complete—and released it in the marketplace, be not concerned with sales, reviews, critical acclaim, or anything else of the like... After you've written and published a book, you're now an AUTHOR. And that great honor can NEVER be taken away from you, no matter what. ("My Book Place," 2018)”
― Cat Ellington

“I do not want to talk about it.”
― Don DeLillo

“I am an author of the analytical critique. And because of that, a ton of research is done by me in order to bring an examination into comprehensive being. ("Interviews With Writers," 2018).”
― Cat Ellington

“Sentences spoken by writers, unless they have been written out first, rarely say what writers wish to say. Writers are unlucky speakers, by and large, which accounts for their being in a profession which encourages them to stay at their desks for years, if necessary, pondering what to say next and how best to say it. Interviewers propose to speed up this process
by trepaning writers, so to speak, and fishing around in their brains for unused ideas which otherwise might never get out of there. Not a single idea has ever been discovered by means of this brutal method--and still the trepaning of authors goes on every day.

I now refuse all those who wish to take the top off my skull yet again. The only way to get anything out of a writer's brains is to leave him or her alone until he or she is damn well ready to write it down.”
― Kurt Vonnegut Jr., Palm Sunday: An Autobiographical Collage

“Question the opinions, don't question the facts.”
― Amit Kalantri, Wealth of Words

“When first asked if he would grant an interview with TIME, Greene responded by asking a question of his own: 'Does the candidate get paid?”
― Michael Scherer

“Some employers out there do want you. Yes, you. But it's not their job to find you. It's your job to find them.”
― Richard N Bolles

“I'm not a good person, sure. But I don't think I'm a bad person either. I feel like abraded is a better word for me. I'm only 22 but I often feel as if I'm twice that.

Not in the sense of having wisdom or experience, of course. I just feel worn away by the world. I'm often exhausted and impatient both mentally and physically. I've so quickly become a "get it over with" or "avoid completely" kind of person. It's even ruined my ability to have healthy relationships despite my excitement for romance.”
― Sasha Scarr

“Producing a great interview requires you to acknowledge the fact that, or to pretend as if, the person you are interviewing is more knowledgeable or interesting than you.”
― Mokokoma Mokhonoana

“If I am hiring someone at a senior level, it's critically important they are decent people. So I always take them out for lunch -- not a long one but enough so they relax, we talk, we get to know one another. But what I always do is notice how they treat the waiting staff; you can tell a lot about a person about how they do that.”
― Sophie Devonshire, Superfast: Lead At Speed

“In most interviews, both subject and interviewer give more than is necessary. They are always being seduced and distracted by the encounter’s outward resemblance to an ordinary friendly meeting.”
― Janet Malcolm, The Silent Woman: Sylvia Plath and Ted Hughes

“Search and All type of previously asked Interview Questions, If you really want to block mind of your next Interviewer.”
― Umesh Singh

“Don't be loud, lift your logic.”
― Amit Kalantri, Wealth of Words

“The more you know yourself and what you want, the more easily you'll recognise your potential dream school and the job that's right for you.”
― Tanya Bunting, Get the Teaching Job You Want: From Self-doubt to Being Confident in 10 Easy Steps

“The goal of an interview session is to find the right person fit for the job, not just to fill a role. It is finding the right cord that will spark the fire that makes stuffs work in real-time, and it is a two way thing for both the interviewer and the interviewee.”
― Olawale Daniel

“The aim of a great radio network, like that of a fine newspaper or magazine should be to integrate the disparate events and ides around us into accessible, regular programming: not just the classy events and elegant ideas, not just the natural concerns of aesthetics and charitable worthies. The result should be a mix of wordsin which those listeners who ne er read Call it Sleep might sense an invitation to do so and ... capture the voice of Noah Adams captured in Northern Ireland ...”
― Robert Siegel

“The economic world, the world of the equities markets, just seemed like a perfect foil, the ideal backdrop against which to contrast this story about legendary amphibians from outer space, because everything these days is all about money. In this book (Half Asleep in Frog Pajamas) I'm hoping to illustrate that there not only are far more important things than money, but there are far more interesting things. (from NPR Interviews edited by Robert Siegel)”
― Tom Robbins, Half Asleep in Frog Pajamas

“If a prospective employer tells you your compensation is above their budget, it’s not your problem. Your above-average pay is a validation that you are an above-average performer. Don’t apologize for being the best talent. You have reached there with hard work and determination. Don’t undersell. Mediocre salaries will only get them mediocre talent.”
― Pavithra Urs

“На Заході дуже легко зробити кар’єру, правильно відповідаючи на поставлені питання. Головне потім не повертатися додому.”
― Serhiy Zhadan, Біг Мак. Перезавантаження

“Sometimes this story is full of love and hope. Sometimes it is full of anger and resentment. This is how I was trained to write as an anthropologist: not to avoid bias but to be up front with it.”
― Savannah Mandel, Ground Control: An Argument for the End of Human Space Exploration