Biographies Quotes

I read so ravenously that I would read through whole categories. I was crazy about reading biographies. [...] I think biographies are very urgent to children.

John looked ruddy and plump, with a pair of cheeks like a trumpeter.

I don't write [screenplay character] biographies beforehand. I usually go in knowing some sequences: this is where I want to start, this is where I want to end.

The biography I've written about Wendy Wasserstein will almost invariably be different than the one anyone else would write.

Women are defined by their biography, and men are sacrosanct from their biography.

I am a total sucker for an actor's autobiography/biography. I have probably read most of them.

On the whole, most biographies about literary women tend to diagnose them.

The biographies of the great men see their excesses as signs of their greatness.

I would love to do an unauthorized biography about Congress. It's like a secret society up there.

I have believed in the biographies I have written. I truly can tell you that they have influenced our society politically, culturally, socially.

biography cannot be separated from autobiography: that is, the life written about is inextricably entangled with the life of the biographer.

[Referring to Fourier's mathematical theory of the conduction of heat] ... Fourier's great mathematical poem.

When I read biographies, I'm only interested in the first few chapters. I'm not interested in when people become successful. I'm interested in what made them successful.

Inthehistorian'sview biography isa kindoffrogspawn it takes ten thousand biographies to make one small history.

When I read biographies, I skip the first thirty pages about the childhood because it doesn't seem interesting to me.

Biographies of British pop celebrities are terrible.

Two Drink Mike enjoys dancing and knows a magic trick. Whereas, No Drink Mike enjoys biographies, and has serious opinions on wildlife. And Five Drink Mike... dances with wildlife.

I always use primary sources, in addition to reading biographies and other materials.

I read every biography [of Jackie Kennedy] I could get my hands on.

The facts of a person's life will, like murder, come out.

I think biography can be more personal than fiction, and certainly can be more expressive.

biographies are a little like marriages: You only have room in your life for one or two.

We're all story-telling creatures, and also I think that's the point about biography because the life is exemplary.

For me the fascination with biography is the life of the individual in the context of history.

A biography is never a biography of one person, of course, but the individual life of your protagonist will never conform. It will always bang up against history.

All history is biography.

There is no history; only biography.

History - a biography of a few stout and earnest persons

I'm writing my biography. It's my business. This is what happened in my life, and I'm writing about it.

I've been a lifelong horror fan, but at the same time, I would say 90 percent of my reading is biographies and nonfiction history.

I've always enjoyed reading history, particularly presidential biographies.

A musician's biography is written wherever he performs; everybody hears what he is playing.

And if Henry Higgins is not the most reprehensible character ever written for the stage, that's only because somewhere, somehow, someone is composing a musical biography of Ronald Reagan

When I hear a politician speak biographically, I never know what's part of the campaign biography narrative that's been carefully crafted.

Bob Hope was an entertainment colossus, shrewd and influential well beyond show business. Richard Zoglin's biography captures it all--the public and private Hope.

Your biography is not your destiny, your decisions are.

I've always had an abundance of material about the subjects of my biographies.

I read a lot of biographies and books with an African background.

Every novel is a biography. Well, then, this is a novel [The Paper Men] which is a biography that is pretending to be an autobiography. That's what you could say about it.

I am tired of the position of the dried-up critic and doubter. The believer is the true full man. (from a biography of James by Robert D. Richardson)

Somebody approached me about writing a biography on me, I told them they were too late.

The writer has to die to give birth to the intellectual in the service of the wretched of the earth.

There is a certain enthusiasm in liberty, that makes human nature rise above itself, in acts of bravery and heroism

When we create, we become stronger. When we create, we feel better. When we create, we can use our own two hands to create a new world. And this new world will be as we want it to be.

Each second of every time has its own story and history to be filed.

Anyone who has lived a full life has something fascinating to share with the world.

Biographies are best when written chronologically. Boring people don't make for good biographies.

Tell them what you do, and if they want to know more, they’ll ask.