“If you really want a prize, or if you really want applause, you should try to write as many books as humanly possible.” IfsWantShouldWritingTryingBookPrizeApplause Author:Junot Diaz
“I think we need to sort of broaden our definition of poetry, which maybe it's a good thing that they just gave this Nobel Prize to [Bob] Dylan because blurring the lines of song lyrics and also hip-hop for me is like some of the greatest uses - most innovative uses of language in my lifetime.” ThinkingNeedsUseSongLanguageLinesGood ThingsLifetimeDefinitionsHip HopHipsHopsPrizeBobInnovativeDylanNobelNobel PrizeUse Of Language Author:Jim Jarmusch
“I had a period when I read Nobel Prize winners. I figured they had to be good. I discovered some people I didn't know about, like the Icelandic writer Halldor Laxness, who wrote "Independent People." .” PeopleKnowsPeriodsIndependentBe GoodWinnerPrizeNobelNobel PrizeNobel Prize Winners Author:Stephen Dobyns
“I believe that prizes are useful things for the disciplines, whether we are talking about chemistry or we're talking... It motivates, it, you know, inspires, it encourages and it brings, in the case of literature, it brings literature, the arts out of the ghetto.” KnowsBelieveArtLiteratureI BelieveTalkingCasesInspireDisciplinePrizeChemistryGhettoUseful Things Author:Wole Soyinka
“Of course I've enjoyed having the Nobel Prize, the prestige that goes along with it, the money that came with it in particular. I was the typical, still am to some extent, impecunious writer, just struggling to make ends meet, so that, nobody's going to deny that at all. In fact, if they want to give it to me a second time, I'm standing by, ready to receive it, but it's a problem, it's a real problem and then expectations and then you have monsters like Sani Abacha who come up from time to time and who would have died a happy man if he'd succeeded in hanging a Nobel Laureate for literature.” IfsMenWantGivingStillsRealEndsFactsProblemCoursesLiteratureStruggleParticularReadyExpectationsStandingDiedCome UpDenyMonstersEnjoyedPrizeTypicalNobelPrestigeReal ProblemsNobel PrizeHappy Man Author:Wole Soyinka
“Imagine that Queen Elizabeth I, in her time, had the opportunity to give out a monopoly for playing cards within the kingdom. She knew she was going to give it to one of her courtiers. These courtiers would then all try to curry her favour. Meanwhile, they would not contribute anything to the product of the kingdom, in fact, they were wasting resources trying to secure a single prize. That, more or less, is rent seeking.” GivingTryingFactsOpportunityImagineProductsResourcesSeekingKingdomsCardsSecureQueensPrizeImagine ThatFavourMonopolyCurryPlaying CardsQueen ElizabethCourtiers Author:James M. Buchanan
“I think the WikiLeaks releases furnish us with an opportunity to observe the upper reaches of the American status hierarchy in all its righteousness and majesty. High-achieving colleagues attempting to get jobs for their high-achieving children. Foundation executives doing fine and noble things. Prizes, of course, and high academic achievement.” ThinkingChildrenJobsCoursesOpportunityAchieveFineAchievementFoundationNobleReleasePrizeExecutivesRighteousnessAcademicColleaguesHierarchyAttemptingMajestyWikileaksAcademic Achievement Author:Thomas Frank
“If you look at the recent Nobel Prize winners, one couldn't say that the work didn't matter and the political commitment did. Who had ever heard of the Egyptian writer Naguib Mahfouz? He is not politically involved. Octavio Paz is a great poet, also not politically involved. The Nobel Prize is for literature, for the quality of work over the years.” IfsYearsLooksMatterPoliticalLiteratureQualityHeardPoetInvolvedCommitmentWinnerPrizeNobelNobel PrizeEgyptianGreat PoetQuality WorkNobel Prize Winners Author:Nadine Gordimer
“The United States deserves nothing but love and adoration and gold medals left and right and peace prizes left and right, things we never get.” StatesLeftUnitedUnited StatesDeserveGoldRight ThingPrizeMedalAdorationGold MedalsLeft And Right Author:Rush Limbaugh
“I think that no matter whether you're Quentin Tarantino or any other kind of a rebel, or whatever, everyone who makes movies still wants to win an Academy Award, because it's like the Pulitzer Prize or the Congressional Medal Of Honor. It's the best endorsement you could get as a moviemaker.” ThinkingWantKindStillsMatterWinningHonorPrizeAwardsRebelMedalAcademyEndorsementsAcademy AwardsQuentinTarantinoMedal Of Honor Author:Robert Osborne
“I believe that teachers - whether in elementary schools, at the secondary level, or at colleges and universities - every teacher deserves the Nobel Peace Prize just for maintaining order in our schools!” BelieveSchoolOrderI BelieveLevelsTeacherCollegeDeserveUniversityPrizeMaintainingNobelElementary SchoolColleges And UniversitiesNobel Peace PrizeMaintaining Order Author:John Lewis
“I had the habit of not accepting prizes or honors, but always, not out of humility, but because I don't like them.” AcceptingHumilityHabitHonorPrize Author:Pope Francis
“Maybe it's a little crazy, but it's good to have it, but I just don't like [prizes or honors].” LittlesCrazyHonorPrize Author:Pope Francis
“In this case [the Charlemagne Prize], I don't say (I was) forced, but convinced by the holy and theological headstrongness of Cardinal [Walter] Kasper, because he was chosen, elected by Aachen to convince me. And I said yes, but in the Vatican. And I said I offer it for Europe, as a co-decoration for Europe, a prize so that Europe may do what I desired at Strasburg; that it may no longer be "grandmother Europe" but "mother Europe."” MaySaidMotherCasesHolyOffersEuropeConvincedChosenConvinceGrandmotherPrizeTheologicalCardinalsDecoration Author:Pope Francis
“If we offer a prize, so to speak, to anyone who manages to bring a country under his physical control - namely, that they can then sell the country's resources and borrow in its name - then it's not surprising that generals or guerrilla movements will want to compete for this prize. But that the prize is there is really not the fault of the insiders. It is the fault of the dominant states and of the system of international law they maintain.” IfsWantCountryStatesLawNamesSpeakMovementOffersResourcesSellsFaultsInternationalManagePrizeSurprisingDominantInternational LawInsidersGuerrillas Author:Thomas Pogge
“There is the case of Henry Kissinger who was a known scholar who later became the National Security Advisor to President Nixon and later on Secretary of State. He received the Nobel Peace Prize for his role in establishing relations between the U.S. and China. At the same time that he was doing that he was also encouraging all sorts of covert actions against Cuba including political assassinations. This contradiction is one that is hard to understand.” HardStatesActionPoliticalPresidentKnownRolesCasesSecurityRelationIncludingChinaContradictionPrizeScholarSecretaryNational SecurityCubaNobelAssassinationAdvisorsCovertNobel Peace PrizeKissingerHenry KissingerPresident Nixon Author:Alejandro Castro Espin
“When you are an historian, there's probably nothing that matters more than to be recognized by your colleagues in your own profession. I was lucky enough to win the Pulitzer Prize for History. I had to give a talk right after that to some young people. The most important thing to tell them, I think, is that you can't ever know that it's going to turn out that way.” PeopleThinkingKnowsWayGivingImportantMatterEnoughYoungTurnsWinningLuckyImportant ThingsProfessionPrizeHistorianColleagues Author:Doris Kearns Goodwin
“You can't start out at 20 in whatever your profession is and say, "I want to win an Olympic medal," or "I want to become president," or "I want to win the Pulitzer Prize." If you love what you're doing, it's sort of a nice thing that happens toward the end of your career, or in the middle of your career. It is not the reason you were doing it. The reason you were doing it is because every day you wake up in the morning and you can't wait to learn something new.” IfsWantEndsReasonHappensWinningWaitingPresidentCareersMorningNiceMiddleWake UpProfessionPrizeSomething NewMedalNice ThingsOlympic Medals Author:Doris Kearns Goodwin
“There are different reasons why people write: for themselves, or for other writers, or to get prizes, or keeping an audience in mind. In my case, it felt really nice that a certain type of readership read the book and liked it, even though my readership is not as wide as certain popular books.” PeopleWritingMindBookDifferentReasonCertainFeltCasesAudienceNiceTypeWideReason WhyPrizeReally NiceReadershipPopular Book Author:Sarnath Banerjee
“In the end, of course, all novelists will be judged by their novels, but let's not forget that we will also need new ways of assessing the latter. There are people who will continue to write nineteenth-century novels in the early twenty-first, and even win major prizes for them, but that's not very interesting, intellectually or emotionally.” PeopleWayNeedsWritingFirstsEndsCoursesWinningForgetInterestingNovelCenturyMajorsTwentiesNovelistsLatterPrizeJudgedNew WaysVery InterestingNineteenth CenturyAssessing Author:Pankaj Mishra
“Sorry, I didn't squat and grease myself and be naked next to Kim Lard-ashian. I mean, no matter what you do - excuse me - you can never compete with her. You can win the Nobel Peace Prize and you can't compete with Kim Lard-ashian's ass.” MeanMatterNextWinningNo Matter WhatSorryExcuseNakedAssPrizeNobelKimExcuse MeGreaseYou Can WinSquatNobel Peace PrizeLard Author:Judy Tenuta
“There's another totally fraudulent recipient of the Nobel Peace Prize. Al Gore hadn't done anything but make a movie that itself was filled with misrepresentations about the amount of ice the poor polar bears have to live on, doctored photos. He said in his acceptance speech in 2007, getting a Nobel Peace Prize, that the North Pole would be ice free by 2013. Today the truth is, there is a record amount of arctic ice for this time of year. He couldn't have been more wrong.” DoneTodayPoorAcceptanceTruth IsPrizeAcceptance Speech Author:Rush Limbaugh
“When you wake up in the middle of the night and you hear a scary sound, you're not picturing yourself getting the girl, you're not picturing yourself winning the prize and becoming a hero. What makes you scared is the fear that you're gonna die, or that something horrific is gonna happen. So while I'm not opposed to happy ending, or wherever the story is naturally supposed to go-I do end up finding that I like movies where you almost end up feel, at best, that the character survived it more than championed over it.” CharacterNightGirlWinningHeroWake UpScaredScaryPrizeOver ItHappy EndingsHorrific Author:Bryan Bertino
“As a Greek woman, the most important thing you can do in life is get married and have children. You could win the Nobel Prize, but if you don't have a husband and kids everyone feels bad for you because you're a failure.” ChildrenImportantKidsWinningHusbandMarriedGreekPrizeNobel Prize Author:Iris Smyles
“Thankfully, it is getting better for women composers. We now have five women Pulitzer Prize winners in music since 1983: Ellen Taaffe Zwilich, Shulamit Ran, Melinda Wagner, Jennifer Higdon, and Caroline Shaw. When Marin Alsop was asked what it felt like to conduct the Last Night of the Proms, she said, "I am exceedingly proud to be 'the first' but I am also a bit shocked that there can still be firsts for women in 2013!"” NightProudWinnerRanGet BetterPrizeComposerLast NightJenniferWagner Author:Barbara Harbach
“Alfred Nobel regretted that his invention, dynamite, was converted to degrading use, hence his creation of the Nobel Prize, as the humanist counter to the destructive power of his genius.” CreationGeniusInventionPrizeHumanistNobel PrizeDegradingDynamite Author:Wole Soyinka
“Nelson Mandela was a terrorist. And then he wins the world peace prize and becomes president of South Africa. That's how change happens. It's very important not to differentiate protest from the democratic process.” WorldImportantWinningPresidentDemocraticTerroristProtestPrizeSouth Africa Author:Tony Benn
“Because of the amount of press attention, people went to see this dirty bed, as if it was a freak show. But when they got there, they saw something else - the bed, stuff on the walls, whatever. For the Tate, it's the highest attendance they ever received for the Turner Prize show. There was a massive queue, and when you got into my bit, you couldn't move.” PeopleMovingAttentionWallDirtyPrizeFreak Author:Tracey Emin
“You come out of the gate, you've got something new, you're subversive, nobody's ever done it before. But by your fifth novel and your fourth literary prize and your house in the country, can you really claim to be subversive?” CountryDoneHouseNovelPrizeSomething NewGates Author:Daniel Mendelsohn
“I believe that even an airport can be an inspiring place for an artist. A Nobel Prize laureate once said something along the lines of, "The more one travels, the more intelligent one becomes," however, I think that you can still travel a lot and remain sheltered.” ThinkingBelieveArtistI BelieveIntelligentPrizeNobel Prize Author:Isa Genzken
“If you try to come to Australia by boat, even if we think you are the best person in the world, even if you are a Nobel Prize winning genius, we will not let you in.” ThinkingWorldTryingWinningGeniusBoatPrizeNobel Prize Author:Malcolm Turnbull
“I never had the idea of moving to Paris and becoming something. I liked the idea of living in Paris because it seemed to have so many parts of life I really enjoyed. The people there seemed to prize literature and art, food and drinking, a more hedonistic way of living. My ambition was to be cosmopolitan. I grew up in the suburbs. I went to college in Maine. I had a dream in my head that if you wanted to be the most urbane, living-life-to-the-fullest kind of person, Paris was the place to be.” PeopleKindArtDreamMovingLiteratureCollegeAmbitionDrinkingPrizeMy AmbitionI Had A Dream Author:Rosecrans Baldwin
“I'm not interested in awards. I never have been. I don't think they are important. Don't get me wrong, if somebody gives me a prize, I thank them as gratefully as I know how, because it's very nice to be given a prize. But I don't think that awards ought to be sought. It encourages our business to be competitive in absolutely the wrong way. We're not sportsmen; we're not trying to come in first.” ThinkingGivingTryingImportantNicePrizeNot InterestedVery Nice Author:John Hurt
“Iraq has the second largest oil reserves in the world, it is right in the midst of the major energy reserves in the world. Its been a primary goal of US policy since World War II to control what the State Department called "a stupendous source of strategic power" and one of the greatest material prizes in history.” WorldWarEnergyGoalPolicyWar Of The WorldsPrizeWorld War IiWorld War I Author:Noam Chomsky
“One of the realities for women writers is that sometimes you'll start strong, but as you see people go up the ladder, working in their literary lives, getting prizes and awards and the better teaching gigs, women tend to sort of drop away.” PeopleSometimesRealityStrongTeachingPrize Author:Erin Belieu
“Here's a history lesson: when men took power of their lands, all of a sudden, women became a prize. In order for us to be protected, we had to make sure that we had our partner on our side. We were put in a position where our vulnerability was a life and death scenario. And we were taken advantage of, and we were put in a certain place that we had never been put in before.” MenTakenVulnerabilityLife And DeathPrize Author:Kate Hudson
“We need prizes as publishers... to focus attention on books, for people to know what to go look for. But often in my opinion and in probably everyone's opinion, the right books don't get chosen. Still we need books to be chosen even if they are not exactly the right ones, otherwise many people won't know what to read. As a publisher, I feel prizes are important for the publishing business. But as a writer, I think, writers shouldn't get too distracted by prizes because very often they don't go to the right person. You shouldn't take it too seriously if you haven't won a prize.” PeopleThinkingImportantBookAttentionOpinionFocusChosenPrizePublishingDistractedRight Person Author:Jonathan W. Galassi
“Two years ago I was on the train from Berlin to Frankfurt when I heard that the Nobel Peace Prize had been awarded to my close friend, the writer Liu Xiaobo, who is imprisoned in China. To me it was confirmation that universal values and a moral code do exist, and that the point of the Nobel Prize is to encourage writers to stand up for this moral code. Last Thursday I was once again on the train from Berlin to Frankfurt when I heard that the Nobel Prize for Literature had gone to Mo Yan. He is a state poet. I am utterly bewildered. Do these universal values not exist after all?” ValuesLiteratureMoralPoetTrainCodePrizeNobel PrizeClose FriendsConfirmation Author:Liao Yiwu
“Martin Luther King really was a safety valve for white people. Any time it appeared that the black community was on the verge of really doing what we ought to do based on having been attacked, they put Martin Luther King on television. He was always saying, "We must use nonviolence. We must overcome hate with love." White people loved that. That's why they gave him a Nobel Prize. But when Martin Luther King started condemning the Vietnam War, that's when white people turned against him.” PeopleWarHateBlackCommunityOvercomingSafetyPrizeNonviolenceLutherVietnam WarNobel Prize Author:Ernie Chambers
“Prizes aren't essential. What is essential is poetry itself, it's what is said, it is clarity, it's loyalty, those are the essential values, the literary values.” ValuesLoyaltyClarityPrize Author:Maria Teresa Horta
“I think, about the distinction between fiction and nonfiction. Fiction is not really about anything: it is what it is. But nonfiction - and you see this particularly with something like the BBC Samuel Johnson Prize for Non-Fiction - nonfiction we define in relation to what it's about. So, Stalingrad by Antony Beevor. It's "about" Stalingrad. Or, here's a book by Claire Tomalin: it's "about" Charles Dickens.” ThinkingBookRelationPrize Author:Geoff Dyer
“I'm ambivalent about the Orange Prize. I was really proud to be shortlisted alongside the other writers, whom I admire. That said, I don't know if it's best way of addressing gender inequality problems.” ProblemProudGenderAdmireInequalityPrize Author:Lauren Groff
“I think that the Pulitzer Prize is definitely a blessing, but it's also a curse. Because I think that it is a blessing because the work gets more exposure, especially that particular play and then other works of yours too. And then it's a curse because people anticipate that you will write something like you've already written. I think it's really wrong because, you know, I think, as a writer, I'm in a process and I'm somewhere in that process, and I need to continue to develop.” PeopleThinkingWritingLike YouBlessingCursePrize Author:Nilo Cruz
“I received the Media for Liberty Award from Swedish PEN, and the prize was awarded by the Swedish minister of culture, who also happens to be the minister of sport. When she handed me the award, I said, Thank you, it's wonderful to be recognized, but we journalists always want more. So madam minister, I have a personal favor to ask you: Do not go to Sochi. And she announced that she was going to Sochi, but she's not attending the ceremonies, for political reasons. It's a very pointed stance.” ReasonPoliticalCultureSportsLibertyWonderfulJournalistPrizePensCeremony Author:Masha Gessen
“I don't know anything about chemistry, but I know that there's a whole world of chemistry, of professional chemists. They have their prizes, they have their publications, they have their work. Just because I don't know about it, doesn't mean that it doesn't exist. A lot of people say, "Isn't poetry in trouble today?" Or: "Nobody really reads poetry anymore." And I say, "You're crazy." There's a huge world of poetry out there. You may not know about it, but it's there.” PeopleWorldMeanTodayTroubleCrazyPrizeChemistry Author:Barbara Hamby
“I talked about the summer of 1985, when I worked at an amusement park on Long Island, the kind of place where someone would pull a knife on you if they wanted a better prize than you were giving them. You found a lot of used needles beside the cotton-candy cart at the end of the night. It was a pretty white-trash, scary place. It was one in a series of terrible jobs I've had, coming from not much money and having no particularly resourceful skills. And at one point one of my friends, a writer on the show, Jenny Konner, said, "You should write about that."” GivingWritingKindLongNightTerribleSummerScaryPrizeResourceful Author:Greg Mottola
“One thing about winning a Pulitzer, it means you know what the first three words of your obituary will be: Pulitzer Prize-winner. After winning the Pulitzer, I couldn't help but notice how people suddenly looked at me with a newfound respect, and would say, "He's an expert." On the negative side, I developed a terrible case of writer's block for awhile, because I felt like readers would expect every one of my columns to be prize worthy.” PeopleMeanHelpingWinningTerribleNegativeWorthyBlockPrizeThree Words Author:Clarence Page
“The Nobel Peace Prize opened up a door in my heart.” HeartDoorsMy HeartPrizeNobelNobel Peace Prize Author:Aung San Suu Kyi
“Political satire became obsolete when they awarded Henry Kissinger the Nobel Peace Prize.” PoliticalSatirePrizeNobelObsoleteNobel Peace PrizePolitical SatireKissingerHenry KissingerBecoming Obsolete Author:Tom Lehrer