Background Noise Quotes

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  Don’t let the noise of others’ opinions drown out your own inner voice.

  Steve Jobs

  Love, Inspirational, Life

  Commencement Address at Stanford University, delivered 12 June 2005, Palo Alto, CA

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• Don't wait around for your life to happen to you. Find something that makes you happy, and do it. Because everything else is all just background noise.

  George Mason

  Waiting, Make You Happy, Backgrounds

  28 Copy quote

• Life's what happens when you're making other plans.

  John Lennon

  Parenthood, Busy, American Gods

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• In this media-drenched, data-rich, channel-surfing, computer-gaming age, we have lost the art of doing nothing, of shutting out the background noise and distractions, of slowing down and simply being alone with our thoughts.

  Carl Honore

  Art, Media, Data

  Carl Honoré (2004). “In praise of slow: how a worldwide movement is challenging the cult of speed”, A.A. Knopf Canada

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• I believe in a personal god who cares about me and worries and oversees everything I do. I believe in an impersonal god who set the universe in motion and went off to hang with her girlfriends and doesn't even know that I'm alive. I believe in an empty and godless universe of causal chaos, background noise, and sheer blind luck... I believe that life is a game, that life is a cruel joke, and that life is what happens when you're alive and that you might as well lie back and enjoy it.

  Neil Gaiman

  Girlfriend, Lying, Believe

  "American Gods". Book by Neil Gaiman. Chapter 13, 2001.

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• Missing someone has to be one of the worst human emotions. All the other feelings like anger and fear and horror get some much more airplay, as if their intensity gives them more value, but whereas those emotions come in violent bursts and are gone again, the gnawing ache of loss has to be simply endured. It's like background noise, it's always there, it never goes away. You just have to try to block it out, distract yourself, hope that tomorrow the hole they left behind has grown a little smaller.

  Alexandra Potter

  Missing Someone, Block, Loss

  7 Copy quote

• In my workshop, I like to have the TV on for background noise, but I only put on shows that you don't really need to watch in serial order; stuff you can glance up every once in a while and still know what's going on; for example, Cops reruns, Jeopardy!, and Forensic Files.

  William Gurstelle

  Order, Example, Watches

  4 Copy quote

• See beauty in those unexpected places. (she asked herself how people could let Bach be background noise.) See the opportunity in what looks like inconvenience. (she steered clear of the traffic jam and went to the bakery she's been meaning to stop at.) She embraces the undeclared possibility in what seems like just another ordinary day. (her friend is scheduled for cancer surgery and suddenly everything around her seems so very precious.)

  Mary Anne Radmacher

  Cancer, Opportunity, Ordinary Days

  8 Copy quote

• Journalism talk is part of the nonstop background noise of American life.

  Russell Baker

  Journalism, Backgrounds, American Life

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• I wanted to see if I could create something that is emotional between people. Existing games are about killing each other or killing something together. The idea of social emotion means people need to share feelings. At that moment, the players are in sync. The problem [with many games] is there's no chance to share emotion. Most of them are busy, [there are] explosions everywhere. So we got rid of all the background noise and we had to get rid of the guns.

  Jenova Chen

  Mean, Player, Emotional

  9 Copy quote

• Eventually the consumer will come to appreciate the editorial point of view of every different brand. User-generated content without editorial oversight will simply be background noise.

  Michael Eisner

  Views, Appreciate, Different

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• Very close by the CMS shops, hidden about a quarter mile away in the woods, was the prison's rifle range. Correctional officers could spend quality time with their firearms down there, and the hammering of multiple rounds was typical background noise during our workdays. There was something unsettling about toiling away for a prison while listening to your jailers practice shooting you.

  Piper Kerman

  Practice, Listening, Quality

  Piper Kerman (2010). “Orange Is the New Black: My Year in a Women's Prison”, p.166, Spiegel & Grau

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• Men didn't understand that you couldn't let yourself be consumed with passion when there were so many people needing your attention, when there was so much work to do. Men didn't understand that there was nothing big enough to exempt you from your obligations, which began as soon as the sun rose over the paper company and ended only after you'd finished the day's chores and fell exhausted into sleep against the background noise of I-94.

  Bonnie Jo Campbell

  Passion, Sleep, Men

  Bonnie Jo Campbell (2009). “American Salvage: Stories”, p.35, Wayne State University Press

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• Surfing?” he asked. She laughed, and the sound sent a shock wave through the water. The wailing faded to background noise. Annabeth wondered if anyone had ever laughed in Tartarus before—just a pure, simple laugh of pleasure. She doubted it.

  Rick Riordan

  Simple, Water, Laughing

  4 Copy quote

• WARNING: The following is a transcript of a digital recording. In certain places, the audio quality was poor, so some words and phrases represent the author's best guesses. Where possible, illustrations of important symbols mentioned in the recording have been added. Background noises such as scuffling, hitting, and cursing by the two speakers have not been transcribed The author makes no claims for the authenticity of the recording. It seems impossible that the two young narrators are telling the truth, but you, the reader, must decide for yourself.

  Rick Riordan

  Illustration, Two, Important

  Rick Riordan (2010). “The Kane Chronicles, The, Book One: Red Pyramid”, Hyperion

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• But maybe those things are like background noise if you’re from here. Maybe you have to experience this as a whole new place to appreciate it like I do.

  Susane Colasanti

  Appreciate, Backgrounds, Whole

  Susane Colasanti (2013). “So Much Closer”, p.103, Scholastic UK

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• Other memories stick, no matter how much you wish they wouldn’t. They’re like a song you hate but can’t ever get completely out of your head, and this song becomes the background noise of your entire life, snippets of lyrics and lines of music floating up and then receding, a crazy kind of tide that never stops.

  Sara Zarr

  Song, Memories, Hate

  4 Copy quote

• I am much less autistic now, compared to when I was young. I remember some behaviors like picking carpet fuzz and watching spinning plates for hours. I didn't want to be touched. I couldn't shut out background noise. I didn't talk until I was about 4 years old. I screamed. I hummed. But as I grew up, I improved.

  Temple Grandin

  Years, Spinning Plates, Want

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