"The perfect life, the perfect lie, I realised……" — Geoff Dyer
"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, say, or written unpublishable poetry) but which, in fact, you have no wish to do. People need to feel that they have been thwarted by circumstances from pursuing the life which, had they led it, they would not have wanted; whereas the life they really want is precisely a compound of all those thwarting circumstances."
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Geoff Dyer
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20 Quotes by Geoff Dyer
Geoff Dyer has 20 quotes on this site.
A few more worth reading:
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Beware of clichés. Not just the clichés that Martin Amis is at war with. There are clichés of response as…
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Birds in flight, claims the architect Vincenzo Volentieri, are not between places - they carry their places with them. We…
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He [Thelonious Monk] played each note as though astonished by the previous one, as though every touch of his fingers…
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People say it's not what happens in your life that matters, it's what you think happened. But this qualification, obviously,…
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Have more than one idea on the go at any one time. If it's a choice between writing a book…
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When you are lonely, writing can keep you company. It is also a form of self-compensation, a way of making…
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Quite often, ambition operates on a level of irritation. Not even jealousy, just irritation.
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All the best essays are epistemological journeys from ignorance or curiosity to knowledge.
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I’m so revolted by writers taking themselves seriously that, as a kind of protest, I’ve deprioritized the role of writing…
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The ideal is to feel at home anywhere, everywhere.
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Never ride a bike with the brakes on. If something is proving too difficult, give up and do something else.…
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Nine times out of 10, the most charming thing to say in any given situation will be the exact opposite…
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More All Quotes
This quote is filed under All Quotes,
one of 128,558 quotes in that category. Here are a few more:
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Total loyalty is possible only when fidelity is emptied of all concrete content, from which changes of mind might naturally…
— Hannah Arendt
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No cause is left but the most ancient of all, the one, in fact, that from the beginning of our…
— Hannah Arendt
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The ultimate end of human acts is eudaimonia, happiness in the sense of living well, which all men desire; all…
— Hannah Arendt
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The new always happens against the overwhelming odds of statistical laws and their probability, which for all practical, everyday purposes…
— Hannah Arendt
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Where all are guilty, no one is; confessions of collective guilt are the best possible safeguard against the discovery of…
— Hannah Arendt
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We have almost succeeded in leveling all human activities to the common denominator of securing the necessities of life and…
— Hannah Arendt
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I keep my friends as misers do their treasure, because, of all the things granted us by wisdom, none is…
— Pietro Aretino
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We must all make peace so that we can all live in peace.
— Jean-Bertrand Aristide
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The spirit of Ubuntu, that once led Haiti to emerge as the first independent black nation in 1804, helped Venezuela,…
— Jean-Bertrand Aristide
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As we all know, many people remain buried under tons of rubble and debris, waiting to be rescued. When we…
— Jean-Bertrand Aristide
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Wise people, even though all laws were abolished, would still lead the same life.
— Aristophanes
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A friend to all is a friend to none.
— Aristotle
See all 128,558 All Quotes »