Raymond Kethledge Quotes

Writing's a great skill, but thinking's a better one.

I don't know how to organise thoughts. I don't know how to have thoughts.

Knowing what you're up against is part of the strength of writing something that is even, I guess, considered halfway original, knowing what's out there to begin with.

My intellect has always been more responsible than my emotions for how I respond to the world.

When you write down your ideas you automatically focus your full attention on them. Few if any of us can write one thought and think another at the same time. Thus a pencil and paper make excellent concentration tools.

I'm aware of my audience in a way, and I do try to engage with them while I'm trying to go about my business of thinking. I believe they help me by providing a focus.

Philosophy is a battle against the bewitchment of our intelligence by means of language.

I’m trying to think of one.

You can't just have a thought. You have to follow the thought through. But everything starts with the thought.

If a man's wit be wandering, let him study the mathematics; for in demonstrations, if his wit be called away never so little, he must begin again.

We are the product of our thinking, so it is important that we choose carefully where to focus our mental energy.

We find that the more you talk about it, the more you head off any spontaneous inspiration that might happen.

My lab is the place where I put my brain out on my fingers.

But even the people who don't like my opinions must admit that I always have a reason behind what I say.

Writing is investigation.

Part of the job involves thinking about things and eliminating them. You spend a lot of time coming up with ideas that are terrible and hating them and hating yourself.

I think throughout the day; there are always lines or certain words, and I'll just keep notes in my phone. It might just be one or two words, and then that could inspire a whole song, lyrically.

I think more with my head - things are 90 per cent in your head, and everything else comes after that.

Always make the choice to learn. What Princeton taught me was whatever mess you are studying, pull a thread with great persistence 'til you have clarity of thought. Princeton taught me how to solve a problem. How to think - that's what we pull out of this place.

I enjoy a good reasoned argument. I love the power of logic.

I like thinking and being able to answer questions that are tough to answer. You have to try to figure out how to get a good answer and look intelligent.

Scientists want to know the evidence behind a statement; they want reproducible tests and verifiable facts. There is a big difference in the thought process of a trial lawyer who is interested not in what's true but what he can convince a jury is true.

A lot of people ask me, did debating help me as a writer, and I honestly don't know.

Analytical clarity is the result of hard, syllogistic thinking, and that thinking has to be done alone. It's not just being physically alone but also alone with your thoughts - not looking at your phone, not hearing the buzz of an incoming text message or email.

I can't solve a puzzle for the life of me - my brain doesn't work that way. But I can take a very simple idea and extrapolate from it and spend time with it and pull things out of it.