James Richardson Quotes

Only half of writing is saying what you mean. The other half is preventing people from reading what they expected you to mean.

James Richardson

Reading, Writing, Mean

"Vectors: Aphorisms & Ten-Second Essays". Book by James Richardson, 2001.

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Nothing important comes with instructions.

James Richardson

Important, Instruction

James Richardson (2010). “By the Numbers”, p.33, Copper Canyon Press

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The best way to know your faults is to notice which ones you accuse others of.

James Richardson

Way, Faults, Best Way

"Vectors: Aphorisms and Ten Second Essays", No. 195, Book by James Richardson, 2001.

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Bitterness is a greater failure than failure.

James Richardson

Bitterness, Greater

"Vectors: Aphorisms & Ten-Second Essays". Book by James Richardson, 2001.

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Say too soon what you think and you will say what everyone else thinks.

James Richardson

Thinking

"Vectors: Aphorisms and Ten Second Essays". Book by James Richardson, 2001.

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What is more yours than what always holds you back?

James Richardson

James Richardson (2016). “By the Numbers”, p.64, Copper Canyon Press

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When I am trying to write I turn on music so I can hear what is keeping me from hearing.

James Richardson

Writing, Trying, Hearing

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Metaphor isn't just a fancy turn of speech. It shapes our thoughts and feelings, reaches out to grasp new experience, and even binds our five disparate senses. James Geary's fascinating and utterly readable I is an Other brings the news on metaphor from literature and economics, from neuroscience and politics, illuminating topics from consumer behavior to autism spectrum disorders to the evolution of language. As a writer, as a teacher, and as someone just plain fascinated by how our minds work, I've been waiting years for exactly this book.

James Richardson

Teacher, Book, New Experiences

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All work is the avoidance of harder work.

James Richardson

Harder, Avoidance

"2016 Poetry Month: An Interview With James Richardson". Interview with Jonathan Hobratsch, www.huffingtonpost.com. April 1, 2016.

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If it can be used again, it is not wisdom but theory.

James Richardson

Used, Theory, Ifs

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The happy and the suffering probably understand life equally well, but the sufferers may see a little more clearly how little it is that they understand.

James Richardson

Philosophical, Suffering, May

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Any virtue systematically applied becomes a vice. Morality is attention, not system.

James Richardson

Vices, Attention, Morality

"Vectors: Aphorisms & Ten-Second Essays". Book by James Richardson, 2001.

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I'm a kid checking mail, a kid on his cell with his questions:
are we in love, Life, are we exclusive, are we forever?

James Richardson

Love Life, Kids, Cells

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Writing is like washing windows in the sun. With every attempt to perfect clarity, you make a new smear.

James Richardson

Writing, Perfect, Sun

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They say productivity is the key to confidence, and confidence ... to productivity. And they're happy walking back and forth between these two rooms, each the excuse for the other.

James Richardson

Keys, Two, Rooms

"Vectors: Aphorisms and Ten Second Essays". Book by James Richardson, 2001.

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Who breaks the thread, the one who pulls, the one who holds on?

James Richardson

Break, Thread

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I don't know what's meant by Know thyself, which seems to ask a window to look at a window.

James Richardson

Looks, Window, Know Thyself

"Vectors: Aphorisms & Ten-second Essays". Book by James Richardson, 2001.

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Sophistication is upscale conformity.

James Richardson

Conformity, Sophistication

James Richardson (2016). “By the Numbers”, p.45, Copper Canyon Press

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How sure we are that everyone's watching. How sure we are that no one sees.

James Richardson

Perception

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If you do more than your share you'd better want to: otherwise, you're paying yourself in a currency recognized nowhere else.

James Richardson

Want, Currency, Share

James Richardson (2016). “By the Numbers”, p.44, Copper Canyon Press

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I would never accuse Willie Brown of slowing down, because he never does.

James Richardson

Doe, Slow Down, Brown

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There are silences harder to take back than words.

James Richardson

Silence, Harder

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It is the empty seats that listen most raptly.

James Richardson

Empty, Empty Seats, Seats

James Richardson (2016). “By the Numbers”, p.63, Copper Canyon Press

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It is by now proverbial that every proverb has its opposite. For every Time is money there is a Stop and smell the roses. When someone says You never stand in the same river twice someone else has already replied There is nothing new under the sun. In the mind's arithmetic, 1 plus -1 equals 2. Truths are not quantities but scripts: Become for a moment the mind in which this is true.

James Richardson

Opposites, Rivers, Smell

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Anger has been ready to be angry.

James Richardson

Ready, Has Beens, Angry

"Vectors: Aphorisms & Ten-Second Essays". Book by James Richardson, 2001.

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Born: September 21, 1966
Occupation: Television presenter
Cite this Page: Citation

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