Alberto Manguel Quotes

The world knows already, they just don't have a picture up there or I'll spend the rest of my life in exile. It's hard to do that when you don't have any money.

I came to the conclusion that most people in America would really like to be able to get a job where they think they're doing something noble and nice and good and it isn't just for the money. But the reason they hate what they call the cultural elite is that they see it as a class that's grabbed all the jobs where you can get paid to do something that isn't just for the money - if it's art, if it's charity, if it's intellectual, if it's political, whatever it might be.

High culture always isolates, always drives men out of their class, and makes it more difficult for them to share naturally and easily the common class-life around them. They seek the few companions who can understand them, and when these are not to be had within a traversable distance, they sit and work alone.

When I was a teenager, I was the only black girl at a small, private Episcopal school, where my tuition was paid by the family my mother worked for. It was hard being the only one, and I faced a fair amount of racist and classist bullying there.

Politicians are so... detested; they don't actually walk amongst people now.

For me, being with Obama or having dinner with Bill Clinton... it's crazy. It's mind-blowing, because where I come from is just another world. We were just ignored by politicians - by America in general.

I don't see myself in an ivory tower.

In every country, politics is considered to be a waste of time.

I don't talk about politics. Not getting involved in politics at all.

I really don't like being on television. It makes me uneasy. It is not natural to be talking to a piece of machinery. But the money is very good.

I don't weigh into politics.

I'm in no way suggesting that my opinion matters more than anyone else's, of course, but the only thing that bothers me is apathy. People that sit out of the process and complain about it, or pretend that politics isn't a part of their everyday lives.

I had been an academic all my life. As academics, you tend to believe the smartest people are in academia.

I was a political junkie, and it just exhausted me, and after Obama won, I just kind of unplugged from all of that for a while.

I actually want to write a treatise in defence of pretension. I think the word 'pretension' has become like the word 'ironic' - just this catch-all term to distance people from interesting experiences and cultural engagement and possible embarrassment.

I wish I could renounce politics.

As a fighter, I recognise that the one thing we fight for is prizes. The one thing that motivates us is money. A lot of fighters do come back because of money. The biggest spur they have is financial, and thank God my finances were secure, and I didn't need to come back for that reason.

I'm not a political guy; I really don't care a lot about politics. I never have and probably never will.

I don't want to be close to politics.

Politics is not my cup of tea.

I think a lot of the political programmes have decided that most people aren't interested in politics, so they broadcast only for people who are.

I kind of became apolitical.

I grew up in a small town in a low-income family and was the only black kid in my elementary school. I felt like an outsider, and since I didn't know of LGBT people - much less LGBT black women - living happy, healthy, and successful lives, I didn't believe I could ever marry or have a child.

Pressure is the single mom who is trying to scuffle and pay her rent. We get paid a lot of money to play a game. Don't get me wrong: there are challenges. But to call it pressure is almost an insult to regular people.

I actually, honestly don't look into politics that much.