Back Alleys Quotes

• The social sciences were for all those who had not yet decided what to do with their lives, and for all those whose premature frustrations led them into the sterile alleys of confrontation.

  Peter Ustinov

  Frustration, Social, Confrontation

  Nicholas Fraser, Kate Caffrey, Peter Ustinov, Carl Sagan, Eric Sevareid (1978). “Aristotle Onassis”

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• But I always liked side-paths, little dark back-alleys behind the main road- there one finds adventures and surprises, and precious metal in the dirt.

  Fyodor Dostoevsky

  Adventure, Dark, Littles

  Fyodor Dostoevsky (2011). “The Brothers Karamazov (卡拉馬助夫兄弟們)”, p.330, Hyweb Technology Co. Ltd.

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• We have a habit in writing articles published in scientific journals to make the work as finished as possible, to cover up all the tracks, to not worry about the blind alleys or describe how you had the wrong idea first, and so on. So there isn't any place to publish, in a dignified manner, what you actually did in order to get to do the work, although, there has been in these days, some interest in this kind of thing.

  Richard P. Feynman

  Funny, Work, Writing

  "The Development of the Space-Time View of Quantum Electrodynamics". Richard P. Feynman's Nobel lecture, www.nobelprize.org. December 11, 1965.

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• That moment - to this ... may be years in the way they measure, but it's only one sentence back in my mind - there are so many days when living stops and pulls up and sits and waits like a train on the rails. I pass the hotel at 8 and at 5; there are cats in the alleys and bottles and bums, and I look up at the window and think, I no longer know where you are, and I walk on and wonder where the living goes when it stops.

  Charles Bukowski

  Cat, Thinking, Years

  Charles Bukowski (2016). “On Love”, p.9, Canongate Books

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• It takes more courage to dig deep in the dark corners of your own soul and the back alleys of your society than it does for a soldier to fight on the battlefield.

  William Butler Yeats

  Fighting, Dark, Soul

  43 Copy quote

• I always wish the hotels were like they are in movies and TV shows, where if you're in Paris, right outside your window is the Eiffel Tower. In Egypt, the pyramids are right there. In the movies, every hotel has a monument right outside your window. My hotel rooms overlook the garbage dumpster in the back alley.

  Gilbert Gottfried

  Egypt, Tv Shows, Pyramids

  "Gilbert Gottfried: Travels of a miserable guy". Interview with Doug Miller, www.nbcnews.com. April 8, 2008.

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• My mother imparted her daily truths so she could help my older brothers and me rise above our circumstances. We lived in San Francisco's Chinatown. Like most of the other Chinese children who played in the back alleys of restaurants and curio shops, I didn't think we were poor. My bowl was always full, three five-course meals every day, beginning with a soup full of mysterious things I didn't want to know the names of.

  Amy Tan

  Family, Mother, Brother

  Amy Tan (2006). “The Joy Luck Club”, p.89, Penguin

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• It was like two drunks in a back alley throwing punches at each other.

  Eamon

  Two, Throwing Punches, Throwing

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• It means working harder to do the research but I don't really mind - I don't think I have what it takes to chase criminals through back alleys and wade through blood at crime scenes.

  Jeffery Deaver

  Mean, Thinking, Blood

  GownUps interview, www.grownups.co.nz.

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• Down in Texas, Rick Perry announced he will not run for reelection. He said 'I executed one last woman, that fertilizer plant exploded, I returned abortions to back alleys where it belongs, my work here is done.' I think that's what he said, he was chewing a crayon.

  Bill Maher

  Running, Thinking, Texas

  20 Copy quote

• Justin Halpern tosses lightning bolts of laughter out of his pocket like he is shooting dice in a back alley. In one sweep of a paragraph, he ranges from hysterical to disgusting to touching--and does it all seamlessly. Sh*t My Dad Says is a really, really funny book.

  Laurie Notaro

  Dad, Laughter, Book

  4 Copy quote

• For nearly a quarter of a century, I have been engaged in the investigation of the fundamentals of life, the material universe and human behavior. Such an adventure leads one down many highways, through many byroads, into many back alleys of uncertainty, through many strata of life...

  L. Ron Hubbard

  Adventure, Fundamentals, Behavior

  35 Copy quote

• Most of our platitudes notwithstanding, self-deception remains the most difficult deception. The tricks that work on others count for nothing in that very well-lit back alley where one keeps assignation with oneself: no winning smiles will do here, no prettily drawn lists of good intentions. One shuffles flashily but in vain through one's marked cards- the kindness done for the wrong reason, the apparent triumph which involved no real effort, the seemingly heroic act into which one had been shamed.

  Joan Didion

  Kindness, Real, Winning

  Joan Didion (1968). “Slouching towards Bethlehem”

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• As I see it, a successful story of any kind should be almost like hypnosis: You fascinate the reader with your first sentence, draw them in further with your second sentence and have them in a mild trance by the third. Then, being careful not to wake them, you carry them away up the back alley of your narrative and when they are hopelessly lost within the story, having surrendered themselves to it, you do them terrible violence with a softball bag and then lead them whimpering to the exit on the last page. Believe me, they'll thank you for it.

  Alan Moore

  Softball, Believe, Successful

  14 Copy quote

• Well, I had a wolverine. It was supposed to be a cat, but Jason (Patric) is allergic to cats. I can't remember where I got it. Some back alley taxidermy, maybe? But I think I got it at The Bay taxidermy department. Downtown Winnipeg. Next to the tumbleweeds.

  Guy Maddin

  Cat, Thinking, Taxidermy

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