Lydia Davis Quotes

Sometimes you make a connection with a writer or a piece of material, and there's not much to ask.

Some men's words I remember so well that I must often use them to express my thought. Yes, because I perceive that we have heard the same truth, but they have heard it better.

I think I was able to talk to people about values in ways that people - in ways that resonated with folks.

Literally, I see my writing as transcription - a transcription of what I see, hear, think, live.

I think fiction comes from everything you've ever done, and said, and dreamed, and imagined. It comes from everything you've read and haven't read... I think my work comes out of the culture of the world around me. I think that's where my language comes from.

You're not going to be able to look like anyone else, no matter how hard you try, unless you're a mimic, then you're not acting, you're just mimicking. You can't go on being John Wayne, that's John Wayne. So you're not going to steal from John Wayne. I'm not going to steal from John Wayne and you're not going to come back and say 'Didn't you get that from the circus?' You know. But he is one of those people who instructs me, whom I look up to - whom I think is one of the masters of his craft that I am so enamoured of.

Art is a delayed echo.

What the thinker thinks, the prover proves.

Metaphor lives a secret life all around us. We utter about six metaphors a minute. Metaphorical thinking is essential to how we understand ourselves and others, how we communicate and learn, discover and invent.

I don't think that there has been a film that I've done that hasn't been influenced by libraries and archives.

I think it's saying really that Donald Trump was the one person in the room who got it right, who understood America and reflected back to them what their aspirations and their fears and their frustrations were.

I usually think about a play anywhere from six months to a year and a half before I sit down to write it out.

I think one of the greatest compliments I've ever received was when a young kid came backstage at Joe's Pub, when I had the "Bronx In Blue" album out. He said, "What Jimmy Reed did for you, you do for me."

There are many ways to study Walt Disney, but I think learning about Walt as a leader probably has had the biggest impact on me.

I believe that in every person is a kind of circuit which resonates to intellectual discovery-and the idea is to make that resonance work

The thought process can never be complete without articulation.

When we read the right book generously, it can change the way think about the world around us.

I get inspired with passion, I think. I get inspired by people who are just passionate, and it doesn't matter what they do or what they're passionate about.

I think that mentoring is such a critical part of the role I can play in my position. I see how little bits of exposure and big bits of exposure really change my girls significantly, and I want that for more girls around the country and the world.

People not only gain understanding through reflection, they evaluate and alter their own thinking.

To have ideas is to gather flowers; to think is to weave them into garlands.

Oprah played a big role in my understanding of what it meant to be female and to really step into your own power. I wouldn't even call her a role model; she was literally a reference point. You have the dictionary, you have the Bible, you have Oprah.

I think that's my nature, to want to bring people together rather than to try to bombard them into agreement.

I have a lot of heroes. I don't think people give enough of a tribute to their mentors. They try to act like they're spontaneous generations - they are faking liars.

I write pretty fast, probably faster than most people. But I might think about something for six hours, then write it in 20 minutes. So did I write for six hours and 20 minutes, or just 20 minutes? I used to write absolutely every day, except for days when I had to travel or something.