#mp

Scientists do stand on the shoulders of giants, just as do writers. Conversely, in the arts we do make discoveries. We do refine our tools. So I am arguing with, or at least playing with, the idea that art never improves. ↗

— Ian Mcewan

#arguing #art #arts #conversely #discoveries

What is it precisely, that feeling of 'returning' from a poem? Something is lighter, softer, larger - then it fades, but never completely. ↗

— Ian Mcewan

#fades #feeling #larger #lighter #never

I tend to discourage people from calling me 'Sir Ian,' because I don't like being separated out from the rest of the population. Of course, it can be useful if you're writing an official letter, like trying to get a visa or something passed through Parliament. They're impressed by these things. ↗

— Ian Mckellen

#being #calling #course #discourage #get

Personally, coming out was one of the most important things I've ever done, lifting from my shoulders the millstone of lies that I hadn't even realized I was carrying. ↗

— Ian Mckellen

#coming #done #even #ever #hadn

Cynically but accurately put, Americans oppose public intervention or regulation if it helps others, but favor it if it helps them - take social security, disaster relief, public works projects, for example. ↗

— Jon Meacham

#cynically #disaster #example #favor #for example

Among the many problems with taking the Bible literally is it reduces the most mysterious and complex of realities to simple - even simplistic - terms. Yes, scripture speaks of fire and damnation and eternal bliss, but the Bible is the product of human hands and hearts, and much of the imagery is allegorical, not meteorological. ↗

— Jon Meacham

#among #bible #bliss #complex #damnation

It's very important with an artificial leg that all high heels are exactly the same height. ↗

— Heather Mills

#exactly #heels #height #high #high heels

I believe that my children, who are young, will look back on the early years of the 21st century in rather the same way I look back on the middle of the 20th: as a time when seemingly respectable people supported discrimination against Americans simply because those Americans were different from themselves. ↗

— Jon Meacham

#against #back #because #believe #century

It would be wonderful if the public sector were always great, or always terrible; or if the private sector were always great, or always terrible. Alas, reality is more complicated than comforting caricatures. Governments fail, and corporations fail. ↗

— Jon Meacham

#always #caricatures #comforting #complicated #corporations

It's possible that the 2012 general-election race will be the least overtly religious one since 1972, the last campaign before Roe v. Wade and the rise of Jimmy Carter brought evangelicalism into the political mainstream. That's because faith remains a complicated issue for Obama, who is still wrongly thought to be a Muslim in some quarters. ↗

— Jon Meacham

#before #brought #campaign #carter #complicated