Geoff Dyer Quotes

20 quotes in 414 categories

• Beware of clichés. Not just the ­clichés that Martin Amis is at war with. There are clichés of response as well as expression. There are…
• Birds in flight, claims the architect Vincenzo Volentieri, are not between places - they carry their places with them. We never wonder where they live:…
• He [Thelonious Monk] played each note as though astonished by the previous one, as though every touch of his fingers on the keyboard was correcting…
• People say it's not what happens in your life that matters, it's what you think happened. But this qualification, obviously, did not go far enough.…
• Have more than one idea on the go at any one time. If it's a choice between writing a book and doing nothing I will…
• When you are lonely, writing can keep you company. It is also a form of self-compensation, a way of making up for things—as opposed to…
• Quite often, ambition operates on a level of irritation. Not even jealousy, just irritation.
• All the best essays are epistemological journeys from ignorance or curiosity to knowledge.
• I’m so revolted by writers taking themselves seriously that, as a kind of protest, I’ve deprioritized the role of writing in my life. I do…
• The ideal is to feel at home anywhere, everywhere.
• Never ride a bike with the brakes on. If something is proving too difficult, give up and do something else. Try to live without resort…
• Nine times out of 10, the most charming thing to say in any given situation will be the exact opposite of what one really feels.
• I always like to be in the presence of people who are good at and love their jobs, Irrespective of their jobs.
• If you help them (the crew) create good memories, they'll forget all the bad stuff
• I want to stress, this is the experience-growing up in a working-class family-that defined me and continues to define me. It's the core of my…
• The perfect life, the perfect lie, I realised after Christmas, is one which prevents you from doing that which you would ideally have done (painted,…
• Have regrets. They are fuel. On the page they flare into desire.
• Life is bearable even when it's unbearable: that is what's so terrible, that is the unbearable thing about it.
• To be interested in something is to be involved in what is essentially a stressful relationship with that thing, to suffer anxiety on its behalf.
• If the regular length of a shot is increased, one becomes bored, but if you keep on making it longer, a new quality emerges, a…

Browse Geoff Dyer Quotes by Category