Edmund White Quotes

Now I have close to a million followers on Twitter, which is crazy because I don't even know how to spell. But it definitely forces me to think more about the "we" factor.

What is the government? Nothing, unless supported by opinion.

You really shouldn’t do that to people," I criticized. "It’s hardly fair." "Do what?" "Dazzle them like that – she’s probably hyperventilating in the kitchen right now." He seemed confused. "Oh come on," I said dubiously. "You have to know the effect you have on people." He tilted his head to one side, and his eyes were curious. "I dazzle people?" "You haven’t noticed? Do you think everybody gets their way so easily?" He ignored my questions. "Do I dazzle you?" "Frequently," I admitted.

It's crazy, if you think about it. The God of the universe - the creator of nitrogen and pine needles, galaxies and E-minor - loves us with a radical, unconditional, self-sacrificing love. And what is our typical response? We go to church, sing songs, and try not to cuss.

Where would the power of women be, were it not for the vanity of men?

I am so crazy with my music taste and I'm so .... I mean, I'll listen to a song. I'll become obsessed with it and then I'm on to the next one. It's just very inconsistent.

I think those who have impact and influence over us are often unaware.

To impress the idea of power on others, they must be made in some way to feel it.

It was [Kanye West] who spoke, and then we met and recorded some songs. After, you know what it is: we all bump like crazy.

In my songs there's a lot of intimate, personality - driven, sweet singing, and that's the kind I actually love the most, as close to how we speak as possible.I do get to do the crazy high notes, of course. But that's also a part of me. I'm full spectrum. A vulnerable side and a side that wants to kick ass.

Power, from the standpoint of experience, is merely the relation that exists between the expression of someone's will and the execution of that will by others.

When once enthusiasm has been turned into ridicule, everything is undone except money and power.

People are submissive to power, and few of them can be influenced by doctrines of righteousness.

Men who could willingly resign the luxuries and sensual pleasures of a large fortune cannot consent to live without the grandeur and the homage.

Politics is everywhere. It's in your shirt, it's in your pants. It's everywhere.

People are like ants: Just a few of them give all the orders. And most of them spend their lives getting squashed.

Realism as a foreign policy doctrine means basically you don't care about values; you consider them a luxury, and it leads to a kind of acquiescence in spheres of influence. Now, spheres of influence sound good if you're a graduate student, or a certain kind of - an academic with a certain habit of mind. But in fact, spheres of influence don't work out very well, certainly not for the victims, and there are always victims.

we should think not only of what the leader does to the group, but also of what the group does to the leader.

The media is the message and the messenger, and increasingly a powerful one.

If the only vision we have of ourselves comes from the social mirror - from the current social paradigm and from the opinions, perceptions, and paradigms of the people around us - our view of ourselves is like the reflection in a crazy mirror room at the carnival.

It's a pretty crazy thing in which I tried to make songs, real songs, not the quick stuff like on a tape. A dose of Kendrick Lamar, a dose of J. Cole... because it's got to be an album that goes [in the] club.

The thing we have to fear in this country, to my way of thinking, is the influence of the organized minorities, because somehow or other the great majority does not seem to organize. They seem to feel that they are going to be effective because of their own strength, but they give no expression of it.

I am so all over the place with my music taste, it's ridiculous. It is! I mean, I find myself listening to weird things like hardcore techno music and then I'll be listening to mainstream hip-hop music. But it's like I am so crazy with my music taste. I'll listen to a song, I'll become obsessed with it, and then I'm on to the next one. So it's just very inconsistent.

The competition of social power with State power is always disadvantaged, since the State can arrange the terms of competition to suit itself, even to the point of outlawing any exercise of social power whatever in the premises; in other words, giving itself a monopoly.

When you have a well developed body and you're confident, you see people bending your way, wanting to be on your side, wanting to do things for you.