Sarah Vowell Quotes - Page 2

Quotes about:

• There are people who look forward to spending their sunset years in the sunshine; it is my own retirement dream to await my death indoors, dragging strangers up dusty staircases while coughing up one of the most thrilling phrases in the English language: 'It was on this spot…' My fantasy is to one day become a docent.

  Sarah Vowell

  Dream, Retirement, Sunset

  FaceBook post by Sarah Vowell from May 06, 2010

  9 Copy quote

• History is one war after another with a bunch of murders and natural disasters in between.

  Sarah Vowell

  War, Murder, Natural

  Sarah Vowell (2005). “Assassination Vacation”, p.208, Simon and Schuster

  15 Copy quote

• In these fast and fickle times, it’s nice to know that there are some things you can always count on: the enduring brilliance of the last page of The Great Gatsby; the near-religious harmonies of the Beach Boys’ “California Girls”; and the lifelong friendship of Matt Damon and Ben Affleck.

  Sarah Vowell

  Girl, Beach, Religious

  Sarah Vowell (2003). “The Partly Cloudy Patriot”, p.174, Simon and Schuster

  9 Copy quote

• When I think about my relationship with America, I feel like a battered wife: Yeah, he knocks me around a lot, but boy, he sure can dance.

  Sarah Vowell

  Boys, Thinking, America

  Sarah Vowell (2013). “Take the Cannoli: Stories From the New World”, p.152, Simon and Schuster

  5 Copy quote

• You know you've reached a new plateau of group mediocrity when even a Canadian is alarmed by your lack of individuality.

  Sarah Vowell

  Individuality, Groups, Mediocrity

  Sarah Vowell (2005). “Assassination Vacation”, p.144, Simon and Schuster

  8 Copy quote

• The only people who know about me are people who would know about me.

  Sarah Vowell

  People, Knows

  12 Copy quote

• The true American patriot is by definition skeptical of the government.

  Sarah Vowell

  Government, Definitions, Patriot

  Sarah Vowell (2003). “The Partly Cloudy Patriot”, p.158, Simon and Schuster

  8 Copy quote

• Owen is the most Hitchcockian preschooler I ever met. He's three. He knows maybe ninety word and one of them is 'crypt'?

  Sarah Vowell

  Three, Ninety, Mets

  Sarah Vowell (2005). “Assassination Vacation”, p.190, Simon and Schuster

  5 Copy quote

• Being a nerd, which is to say going to far and caring too much about a subject, is the best way to make friends I know. For me, the spark that turns an acquaintance into a friend has usually been kindled by some shared enthusiasm like detective novels or Ulysses S. Grant.

  Sarah Vowell

  Caring, Nerd, Ulysses's Grant

  Sarah Vowell (2003). “The Partly Cloudy Patriot”, p.91, Simon and Schuster

  5 Copy quote

• Robert Todd Lincoln, a.k.a. Jinxy McDeath.

  Sarah Vowell

  Sarah Vowell (2005). “Assassination Vacation”, p.236, Simon and Schuster

  7 Copy quote

• Oh my dear, idealists are the cruelest monsters of them all.

  Sarah Vowell

  Monsters, Idealist, Dear

  Sarah Vowell (2005). “Assassination Vacation”, p.219, Simon and Schuster

  10 Copy quote

• The modern mocha is a bittersweet concoction of imperialism, genocide, invention, and consumerism served with whipped cream on top

  Sarah Vowell

  Aztec, Cacao, Cafes

  Sarah Vowell (2003). “The Partly Cloudy Patriot”, p.42, Simon and Schuster

  23 Copy quote

• Presidents and presidential assassins are like Las Vegas and Salt Lake City. Even though one city is all about sin and the other is all about salvation, they are identical, one-dimensional company towns built up by the sheer will of true believers.

  Sarah Vowell

  Cities, Lakes, Vegas

  Sarah Vowell (2005). “Assassination Vacation”, p.7, Simon and Schuster

  8 Copy quote

• The whole point of Louis Armstrong is that no one can really figure him out. There was a while where I thought you could try.

  Sarah Vowell

  Trying, Figures, Armstrong

  20 Copy quote

• I'm always disappointed when I see the word 'Puritan' tossed around as shorthand for a bunch of generic, boring, stupid, judgmental killjoys. Because to me, they are very specific, fascinating, sometimes brilliant, judgmental killjoys who rarely agreed on anything except that Catholics are going to Hell.

  Sarah Vowell

  Stupid, Catholic, Brilliant

  Sarah Vowell (2008). “The Wordy Shipmates”, p.22, Penguin

  7 Copy quote

• But I have never had the privilege of unhappiness in Happy Valley. California is about the good life. So a bad life there seems so much worse than a bad life anywhere else. Quality is an obsession there—good food, good wine, good movies, music, weather, cars. Those sound like the right things to shoot for, but the never-ending quality quest is a lot of pressure when you’re uncertain and disorganized and, not least, broker than broke. Some afternoons a person just wants to rent Die Hard, close the curtains, and have Cheerios for lunch.

  Sarah Vowell

  Good Life, Wine, Lunch

  7 Copy quote

• A couple of times he called the second he'd finished reading a novel and just had to tell me about it, and I know it sounds hokey and librarianish to say so, but I just swooned when he did that.

  Sarah Vowell

  Couple, Reading, Sound

  Sarah Vowell (2001). “Take the Cannoli: Stories From the New World”, p.168, Simon and Schuster

  9 Copy quote

• The people who visit the [Lincoln] memorial always look like an advertisement for democracy, so bizarrely, suspiciously diverse that one time I actually saw a man in a cowboy hat standing there reading the Gettysburg Address next to a Hasidic Jew. I wouldn’t have been surprised if they had linked arms with a woman in a burka and a Masai warrior, to belt out ‘It’s a Small World After All,’ flanked by a chorus line of nuns and field-tripping, rainbow-skinned schoolchildren

  Sarah Vowell

  Reading, Warrior, Men

  9 Copy quote

• That's what I like to call him, "the current president." I find it difficult to say or type his name, George W. Bush. I like to call him "the current president" because it's a hopeful phrase, implying that his administration is only temporary.

  Sarah Vowell

  Names, Hopeful, Political

  4 Copy quote

• I hated the lost colony; in second grade, we were doing American History, and they said, We don't know what happened to them. That drove me nuts. That lost colony drove me crazy.

  Sarah Vowell

  Crazy, Nuts, Madness

  7 Copy quote

• There are freaky talking mannequins in the Salem Witch Museum that recite the Lord's Prayer and while they do resemble shrunken apples they nevertheless help the visitor understand how hard it must have been for the condemned to say the line about forgiving those who trespass against us.

  Sarah Vowell

  Prayer, Museums, Talking

  Sarah Vowell (2003). “The Partly Cloudy Patriot”, p.35, Simon and Schuster

  4 Copy quote

• If I looked in the mirror someday and saw no dark circles under my eyes, I would probably look better. I just wouldn't look like me.

  Sarah Vowell

  Eye, Dark, Circles

  Sarah Vowell (2013). “Take the Cannoli: Stories From the New World”, p.209, Simon and Schuster

  4 Copy quote

• Listening to the radio every day for an entire year was a prison sentence. It was the most depressing, annoying, debilitating project I have ever undertaken, and I have a master's degree in art history.

  Sarah Vowell

  Depressing, Art, Years

  7 Copy quote

• Even writers need relief from words.

  Sarah Vowell

  Writing, Relief, Needs

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• I'm a big fan of editing and keeping only the interesting bits in.

  Sarah Vowell

  Editing, Interesting, Fans

  9 Copy quote

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