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Quote by James Wolcott

“Telling writers to shut up is a sure way to keep them talking.”

Quote by James Wolcott

Author

James Wolcott is an American journalist known for his commentary on pop culture and politics. Born on December 10, 1952, he has been contributing to 'The New Yorker' magazine since the 1980s. more

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“High expectations weren't nurtured in my neck of nowhere back then - children weren't fawned over from an early age as 'gifted' and groomed for a prizewinning future; self-esteem was considered something you had to pick from the garden yourself.”

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“I understand that one of the purposes of bipartisanship is to cram something difficult and necessary down the American people's gullets for which neither party has the fortitude to assume full responsibility. It's a way of turning a possible gangplank into a teeter-totter.”

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“My high-school papers, my college-application essays, read like Norman Mailer packed in a crunchy-peanut-butter sandwich.”

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“A lost election can have the jolt of a drop through the gallows door, leading to a dark night of the soul in which the future presses down like a cloud that will never lift.”

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“A new political-entertainment class has moved into the noisy void once occupied by the sage pontiffs of yore, a class just as polarized as our partisan divide: one side holding up a fun-house mirror to folly, the other side reveling in its own warped reflection.”

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“At 'The Village Voice,' there were all these fevers inside the offices, that would break out into full-scale rumbles between writers.”

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“Book-jacket design may become a lost art, like album-cover design, without which late-20th-century iconography would have been pauperized.”

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“Even the most piddling life is of momentous consequence to its owner.”

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“It's one thing to fight for what you believe in, another thing to fight for what others believe in.”

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Book:Critical Mass: Four Decades of Essays, Reviews, Hand Grenades, and Hurrahs

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“People want to be special. I think ambition can take in a whole package of things, power or sexual excitement.”

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