Douglas Kennedy Quotes

• The only time you truly become an adult is when you finally forgive your parents for being just as flawed as everyone else.

  Douglas Kennedy

  Parent, Forgiving, Adults

  Douglas Kennedy (2010). “The Pursuit of Happiness: A Novel”, p.78, Simon and Schuster

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• Because there is no meaning to be found in the arbitrary nature of things., It's all random. Just as space is blue. And birds fly through it.

  Douglas Kennedy

  Blue, Space, Bird

  Douglas Kennedy (2010). “Leaving the World: A Novel”, p.18, Simon and Schuster

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• There is much to be said for solitude.

  Douglas Kennedy

  Solitude, Said

  Douglas Kennedy (2013). “The Douglas Kennedy Collection #2: Temptation, The Woman in the Fifth, and Leaving the World”, p.444, Simon and Schuster

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• But what we can never do is change the story that has made us what we are. It's a story completely dictated by the accumulation of life's manifold complexities—its capacity for astonishment and horror, for sanguinity and hopelessness, for pellucid light and the most profound darkness. We are what has happened to us.

  Douglas Kennedy

  Light, Profound, Darkness

  "The Moment: A Novel".

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• We all talk about how much we hate lies. Yet we prefer, so often, to be lied to....because it allows us to dodge all those painful truths we'd rather not hear.

  Douglas Kennedy

  Hate, Lying, Dodge

  Douglas Kennedy (2013). “The Douglas Kennedy Collection #2: Temptation, The Woman in the Fifth, and Leaving the World”, p.689, Simon and Schuster

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• Success is a very fragile veneer. I get wary of people who embrace celebrity. It ruins people.

  Douglas Kennedy

  People, Ruins, Embrace

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• I want to be a popular novelist who's also serious, or a serious novelist who's also very accessible.

  Douglas Kennedy

  Novelists, Want, Serious

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• Tragedy is one of the larger prices we pay for being alive. No one ever sidesteps tragedy. It is always there, shadowing us.

  Douglas Kennedy

  Tragedy, Alive, Pay

  Douglas Kennedy (2010). “The Pursuit of Happiness: A Novel”, p.582, Simon and Schuster

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• All our stories are simultaneously unique and desperately similar, aren't they?

  Douglas Kennedy

  Unique, Stories

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• If there is an abiding theme in 'The Pursuit of Happiness,' it is the idea that you come into the world already shaped by other people's past histories.

  Douglas Kennedy

  Pursuit Of Happiness, Past, Ideas

  Douglas Kennedy (2010). “The Pursuit of Happiness: A Novel”, p.583, Simon and Schuster

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• I've been known to write on the Underground in London and on the subway in New York. I have two or three cafes in Paris that I go into. I find a corner with a little shade, and I can work.

  Douglas Kennedy

  New York, Writing, Two

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• From Graham Greene, I learnt how to be an accessible writer who grapples with our doubts as sentient individuals.

  Douglas Kennedy

  Doubt, Individual

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• With a novel, no matter where I am in it, I'm fretting about it. Every time I write a book, it starts with great forward momentum. Then there seems to be a period where it slows down a bit, and other things intervene. Then I gain momentum.

  Douglas Kennedy

  Book, Writing, Matter

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• There were moments when I felt seriously unhinged; when I was convinced that I would never, ever recover from what had happened, when it was absolutely clear to me that life from this point on would be constant agony.

  Douglas Kennedy

  Agony, Would Be, Moments

  Douglas Kennedy (2009). “Leaving the World”, p.355, Random House

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• Words matter, words have import.

  Douglas Kennedy

  Matter, Words Matter, Imports

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• We don't like admitting this, but it is a key component of human existence: the fact that life has the potential for things both wondrous and horrific.

  Douglas Kennedy

  Keys, Admitting, Facts

  Douglas Kennedy (2010). “The Pursuit of Happiness: A Novel”, p.582, Simon and Schuster

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• We all want to fix things. Just as we all believe that so much in life can be rectified. Mend fences, build bridges, reach out, engage in mutual healing.

  Douglas Kennedy

  Believe, Healing, Bridges

  Douglas Kennedy (2013). “The Douglas Kennedy Collection #2: Temptation, The Woman in the Fifth, and Leaving the World”, p.850, Simon and Schuster

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• We can rarely tell others what we really think about them--not just because it would so wound them, but also because it would so wound ourselves.

  Douglas Kennedy

  Thinking, Wounds

  Douglas Kennedy (2013). “The Douglas Kennedy Collection #2: Temptation, The Woman in the Fifth, and Leaving the World”, p.1150, Simon and Schuster

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• The decision to write full time was made when I was twenty-eight years old and had just had two small plays accepted for BBC Radio.

  Douglas Kennedy

  Writing, Eight, Years

  Douglas Kennedy (2010). “The Pursuit of Happiness: A Novel”, p.580, Simon and Schuster

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