“I've had many students over the years, sometimes even very sophisticated students, who will be writing and will hit a wall. Often I find it's because they're working out of sequence. Maybe some people can do that, but I don't think that's how fiction works. It's a discovery.” PeopleThinkingWritingYearsSometimesCan DoFictionStudentsWallDiscoveryWork OutWorking ItSophisticatedSequence Author:T.C. Boyle
“Especially students. I love to turn them on to a story. Some of them have to go see me as an assignment, like kids from the schools in New York will go to the Y. I want them to know why I love this and why they should too.” KnowsWantShouldStoriesKidsSchoolTurnsNew YorkStudentsAssignments Author:T.C. Boyle
“Right now, for instance, we resist giving people extra time on exams or for assignments, as though it's unfair to the faster students.” PeopleGivingStudentsRight NowInstanceFasterExtrasUnfairAssignmentsExamExtra Time Author:L. Todd Rose
“I talk about it a lot to my students. Musicality never came up in any of own writing education, and I can see why - we don't have the vocabulary for it. Phrasing is intuitive, and its difficult to articulate when it's on and when it's not.” WritingI CanDifficultStudentsVocabularyIntuitiveMusicality Author:Paul Lisicky
“I think it's okay that there's digital music out there, because that does mean more people have access. I mean, you're a student, and you're studying music, and you want to find a CD of a whole work, but there's one piece that intrigues you. It's easy to get that piece for a dollar for the most part. And it's so easy for people to carry around music digitally.” PeopleThinkingWantMeanDoeWholeEasyStudyPiecesStudentsOkayDollarsAccessDigitalIntrigueCdsEasy To GetOne PieceStudying MusicDigital Music Author:Gail Zappa
“My personal beliefs were shaped more by experience and by watching the news when I was young: images of angelic-looking college students in Mississippi crying like the world was ending because black people were being allowed on their campus; the slow mounting horror of Vietnam on the evening news every night; sitting with my parents in front of the TV and being appalled at the way the Chicago police were treating the protesters during the '68 Democratic convention. Being eyed with suspicion because of my age and the way I wore my hair.” PeopleWorldWayAgeYoungNightBeliefParentBlackFrontsCryStudentsCollegeTvsHairHorrorNewsSittingPoliceDemocraticEveningChicagoBlack PeopleVietnamConventionsEvery NightSuspicionMississippiCampusAngelicCollege StudentsPersonal Beliefs Author:James Vance
“My gut was always that if I taught students poetry, I would give too much of myself to them and have nothing left.” IfsGivingLeftToo MuchStudentsTaughtGuts Author:Victoria Chang
“I heard a story the other night about an editor who visited the Iowa Workshop and, when asked what sorts of books she published, replied, "Classic books." One of the students asked her, "You mean like Kafka?" Apparently she said, "Oh, I don't think I would publish Kafka."” ThinkingMeanSaidBookStoriesNightHeardStudentsClassicEditorsPublishWorkshopsIowaClassic Book Author:Matthew Specktor
“Barry Manilow was very special for me. We've had many collaborations since then and all have been equally rewarding and musical. I've learned so much from him. I like being a student around him; observing him in his environment.” Has BeensEnvironmentSpecialStudentsMusicalI've LearnedCollaborationObserving Author:Dave Koz
“I had to appreciate other things about music, like the writing and the cadence and dealing with producers. I became a student. I wanted to learn the actual idea of what this industry was before I could creatively speak a lot of the things that I wanted to speak.” WritingIdeasWantedSpeakStudentsIndustryAppreciateProducersCadence Author:Dawn Angelique
“Mark Zuckerberg recently announced that he will donate $45 billion of his wealth to philanthropy. Two years ago, my husband and I decided to endow $100 million to set up the SOHO China Scholars. This program will give financial aid to Chinese students so they can attend the best universities in the world.” WorldGivingYearsTwoWealthMillionsStudentsHusbandYears AgoProgramDecidedMarkUniversityFinancialChinaAidsBillionsChineseTwo YearsMy HusbandScholarPhilanthropyDonateTwo Years AgoZuckerbergSohoFinancial Aid Author:Zhang Xin
“It is worthwhile to engage in something that is close to one's heart. I had a scholarship. So if I donate money to give brilliant Chinese students an opportunity to study abroad, then this embodies everything I believe in: education, globalization, social mobility. I am an example of social mobility.” IfsGivingBelieveHeartOpportunityI BelieveSocialStudyExampleStudentsI Believe InBrilliantChineseWorthwhileGlobalizationScholarshipMobilityDonateStudy AbroadSocial Mobility Author:Zhang Xin
“The fact that my students could be in a little college in a little college town on the coast of Rhode Island, and be connecting in other countries with other people, did open them up and empower them and their sense of being. Whether it affected their writing, it's hard to tell.” PeopleWritingLittlesCountryHardFactsStudentsCollegeTownsIslandsEmpoweringAffectedOther CountriesCoastConnectingRhode Island Author:Adam Braver
“What really resonated with my students, I think, is that most of the writers we worked with were journalists, and when they saw journalists simply raising questions and being put in jail for that, it did freak them out a little bit.” ThinkingLittlesBitsSawsStudentsLittle BitJournalistJailFreak Author:Adam Braver
“One of my favorite tricks was taking a page and having the first student translate it from English into whatever language he or she was working on, and the next one would translate it back into English and then into the foreign language, and we'd go around the room and compare the two English versions at the end, and it would be amazing how much survived.” FirstsTwoEndsWould BeNextLanguageRoomsStudentsPagesMy FavoriteTricksVersionsCompareTranslateSurvivedThe Next OneForeign Language Author:Gregory Rabassa
“I couldn't have articulated this process at the time; I just sort of did it instinctually. But now when I talk about this with my students all the time, it's one of the first things I address in memoir classes - that you have to put it all in because you're writing your way into the ending of your own story. Even if you think you know what the story is, you don't until you write it. If you start leaving things out you could leave out vital organs and not know it.” IfsThinkingKnowsWayWritingFirstsStoriesProcessClassStudentsLeavingMemoirAddressesOrgansYou Think You Know Author:Melissa Febos
“I tell my students all the time is, for better or worse, no publisher is going to come wrench your story out of your hands before you're ready to let it go. You will have time to take stuff out. You don't have to show it to anybody. That's what I did.” StoriesShowsHandsStuffStudentsReadyPublishersLet It GoWrenches Author:Melissa Febos
“When I watch students make particular decisions about language, structure, and form, it sharpens my own thinking and my own development as a writer.” ThinkingFormLanguageMy OwnDecisionWatchesStudentsParticularDevelopmentStructure Author:Leni Zumas
“Another obligation that I have as a teacher is to make available to students a range of options and devices and approaches, rather than saying "well here's one way to do it and that's the only way that's good."” WayWellsTeacherStudentsApproachAvailableObligationOne WayRangeDevices Author:Leni Zumas
“I regret that there aren't more short stories in other magazines. But in a certain way, I think the disappearance of the short-story template from everyone's head can be freeing. Partly because there's no mass market for stories, the form is up for grabs. It can be many, many things. So the anthology is very much intended for students, but I think we're all in the position of writing students now. Very few people are going around with a day-to-day engagement with the short story.” PeopleThinkingWayWritingStoriesFormCertainPositionStudentsRegretMassMagazinesShort StoryEngagementDay To DayI RegretAnthologyDisappearance Author:Lorin Stein
“I didn't write poems for a number of years after graduate school because the criticisms of other students in the workshops wouldn't quiet down in my mind when I tried to work.” WritingYearsMindSchoolNumbersStudentsQuietCriticismGraduatesWorkshopsGraduate SchoolCriticism Of Others Author:Kevin Keck
“For the most part, people use "empathy" to mean everything good. For instance, many medical schools have courses in empathy. But if you look at what they mean, they just want medical students to be nicer to their patients, to listen to them, to respect them, to understand them. What's not to like? If they were really teaching empathy, then I'd say there is a world of problems there.” PeopleIfsWorldWantLooksMeanUseProblemSchoolCoursesTeachingStudentsEmpathyPatientMedicalInstanceWant MeMedical School Author:Paul Bloom
“My life has had a lot of fits and starts: before I studied literature at all I was a musician, and began undergrad as a conservatory student. I started studying literature in my third year of college, when I took a poetry course with James Longenbach that was pretty extraordinary. It changed my life.” YearsCoursesLiteratureStudyChangedStudentsCollegeFitMusicianThirdsExtraordinaryChanged My LifeConservatoryStudying Literature Author:Garth Greenwell
“I was worried that, as a college teacher, if I wrote too much about intergenerational sex my students would be creeped out.” IfsWould BeSexToo MuchTeacherStudentsCollegeWorried Author:Dan Chaon
“You can recognize in your own reading habits what writers are doing that works and what doesn't. I'm becoming much more aware of that after reading a decade of student stories.” StoriesReadingStudentsBecomingHabitDecadesReading Habits Author:Dan Chaon
“I always tell my students to go back after a hundred pages and rewrite from the beginning. It's really harder if you've already finished four hundred pages and realize the first hundred aren't working.” IfsFirstsRealizingFourStudentsPagesHundredHarderFinished Author:Yiyun Li
“In DC, policymakers think that if we can only have high enough standards, tough enough tests, and hold people accountable, we can close the achievement gap. And it hasn't happened. Yet the new law, the Every Student Succeeds Act, is based on the same test-based and market-driven framework and ideology, except it lets the states do it.” PeopleIfsThinkingStatesEnoughLawHappenedStudentsSucceedAchievementStandardsToughTestsDrivenIdeologyGapsOld PeopleFrameworkAchievement Gap Author:Diane Ravitch
“Organizer is kind of a grand term for what I was doing. I answered an ad that the Presbyterian Church of Chicago put up on college campuses. I was at the University of Kansas, and it's somewhat relevant to my life and work that I'm a Jew. But they weren't doing a religious litmus test. They wanted energetic, civil-rights-committed college students to come help them run some summer programs.” KindHelpingRunningWantedTermChurchReligiousRightsStudentsCollegeSummerProgramTestsUniversityCommittedJewCivil RightsChicagoRelevantAdsEnergeticCampusKansasOrganizerCollege StudentsPresbyteriansCollege Campus Author:Sara Paretsky
“Who are these evil ones? In 1984, the evil one was called Goldstein. Orwell was writing a grim parody. But these people running the United States mean what they say. If I were a teacher, I would recommend that all my students very hurriedly read most of Orwell's books, especially 1984 and Animal Farm, because then they'd begin to understand the world we live in.” PeopleIfsWorldWritingMeanBookStatesRunningEvilAnimalUnitedUnited StatesTeacherStudentsFarmsGrimParody Author:John Pilger
“I started a nonprofit called The Pegasus Fund, and we take top-performing students from underserved communities, and we commit to sending them for three summers to a nonacademic, holistic summer camp as a means to help them acclimate socially, geographically, spiritually to pilot secondary schools that they hope to attend.” MeanHelpingSchoolThreeCommunityStudentsSummerCommitPerformingFundCampsPilotsHolisticNonprofitsSummer CampSecondary SchoolPegasus Author:Jonathan Tucker
“As I told the students every time I visited a campus, you are the director of your own movie, and if you aren't enjoying what you are doing, change it.” IfsEnjoyStudentsDirectorsCampus Author:Gary Johnson
“I started acting when I was 13, but it really wasn't my plan. The actual decision to become an actor was when I was 17, after I didn't act for half a year because I came to an exchange student program in the US, and I realized how much I missed it.” YearsActorsDecisionActingHalfPlansStudentsProgramI RealizedHalf A Year Author:Meital Dohan
“The Chipko activists have always been close to my parents, since my father was among the few forestry officials who supported them within the bureaucracy. And I was involved with the Chipko movement in my student days.” FatherParentMovementStudentsInvolvedOfficialsActivistBureaucracy Author:Vandana Shiva
“The [Burmese] government appears to be more interested in stamping out political activity than drug addiction. Very few university students on the campus could get away with engaging in political activities, but they seem to be able to get away with taking drugs. We have heard that it is very easy to obtain drugs on the university campuses.” SeemsGovernmentAblePoliticalEasyHeardStudentsDrugActivityAddictionUniversityGet AwayEngagingCampusDrug AddictionDrug AddictUniversity Students Author:Aung San Suu Kyi
“Eleanor Roosevelt's very helpful to a lot of children who cannot speak French, who do not write well. And Marie Souvestre is fierce. She tears up students' papers that are not, you know, perfect. And Eleanor Roosevelt goes around, again, being incredibly helpful to children in need, children in trouble. And her best friends are the naughtiest girls who are in trouble. And she is a leader. And she is encouraged to be a leader. And everybody falls in love with her. She's a star.” KnowsNeedsWritingWellsChildrenFallGirlSpeakStarsPerfectLeaderTroubleStudentsTearsPaperFalling In LoveHelpfulFiercePapersEleanorMarieSpeaks French Author:Blanche Wiesen Cook
“There were the events of 1968 when young people began to ask their parents, what did you do in the war? And since the middle- or late-'70s, the French have been absolutely obsessed with the Vichy regime. They have an institute of contemporary history that turns out first-rate scholarly work. Their textbooks are accurate. Whether the students actually read them is another matter.” PeopleFirstsHas BeensWarMatterYoungTurnsAsksParentMiddleEventsStudentsLateRateContemporaryObsessedRegimesAccurateInstituteTextbooksScholarly Author:Robert O. Paxton
“I'm always telling my students, don't - don't worry so much third person, first person. It doesn't make that much difference.” FirstsPersonsDifferencesWorryStudentsThirdsFirst PersonThird Person Author:Alice McDermott
“As a student at the time, I kind of felt like my only options as a nonfiction writer were to either jump on the personal essay bus or linger back at the station, hoping that some other heretofore unknown mode of transportation was going to magically show up to take me where I wanted to go.” KindShowsWantedFeltStudentsStationsTake MeBusNonfictionEssaysTransportationPersonal Essays Author:John D'Agata
“I felt a little lost as a student. At Iowa, I felt as if I had gotten into this program that was going to save me, and so I moved myself across the country for grad school and yet still didn't have a home. It was upsetting. And I know that's a common feeling.” IfsKnowsLittlesStillsCountryFeelingsHomeSchoolLostFeltCommonStudentsProgramMovedUpsetSave MeIowaGradGrad School Author:John D'Agata
“I get emails from students at programs all over the country who want to transfer to Iowa, and in most cases their frustrations have absolutely nothing to do with the programs they're attending. They have to do with the growing pains that they're undergoing as writers and with the growing pains that our own genre is constantly undergoing.” WantCountryPainCasesGrowingStudentsProgramGenreFrustrationEmailTransfersAbsolutely NothingAttendingIowaGrowing PainsGenre Is Author:John D'Agata
“When I'm teaching, I'm not really doing my job if the student who's always comfortable doing wacko stuff all over the page keeps getting gold stars from me for doing wacko stuff all over the page. A riskier assignment for that student, who might be used to hiding behind a lot of formal armor, would be to try to do something straightforward, traditionally, in which they are much more directly laid bare for the reader.” IfsTryingMightWould BeJobsUsedStarsStuffBehindsTeachingStudentsReaderComfortablePagesGoldHidingFormalStraightforwardArmorAssignments Author:John D'Agata
“I do believe that we should substantially lower student debt in this country, which is crushing millions of people. We pay for it, in my view, by a tax on Wall Street speculation. The middle class bailed out Wall Street in their time of need. Now, it is Wall Street's time to help the middle class.” PeopleNeedsShouldBelieveCountryHelpingViewsPayClassMillionsStreetsMiddleStudentsWallTaxesDebtCrushMiddle ClassSpeculationTime Of Need Author:Bernie Sanders
“You can use the [Barack] Obama administration as a recent example. For seven years they've been unopposed. The Republican Party's not trying to stop 'em on a single thing. Much of Obama's agenda has been a success. He has been able to attack various traditions, institutions, and taken over the health care system in this country. They've taken over the student loan, they've taken over the education system, and everybody in it is miserable and unhappy.” TryingYearsHas BeensCountryUseCareAblePartyTakenExampleStudentsRepublicanTraditionInstitutionsSevenVariousUnhappyMiserableAdministrationBarackHealth CareEmsAgendasRepublican PartyLoanSeven YearsEducation SystemHealth Care SystemStudent Loan Author:Rush Limbaugh
“Government's running the student loan program; what in the world could be wrong with it? If the government's running it, if Obama's taken it over, and he's got a lot of compassion, a big heart, loves people, what could possibly be wrong with it? And then the subject of tuition came up, and how come tuition never gets cut? Why does tuition always go up? Guarantee, folks, when you subsidize something, if you run a university and the government's gonna subsidize parts of your operation, why in the world should you cut anything?” PeopleIfsWorldShouldHeartDoeBigsGovernmentRunningCompassionTakenCuttingSubjectsStudentsProgramUniversityFolksOperationsGuaranteesLoanHeart LoveTuitionStudent LoanBig Heart Author:Rush Limbaugh
“The student-athlete should control everything that happens. From figuring out what kind of a degree they want to what type of a program they want to play for, they should control it all.” WantShouldKindPlayHappensStudentsTypeDegreesProgramAthleteStudent Athlete Author:Billy Kennedy
“By taking a business-like approach, the student-athletes and their parents will be in control of the outcome and that's how it should be.” ShouldParentStudentsApproachAthleteOutcomesStudent Athlete Author:Billy Kennedy
“Actually there's a very bad trend in some cults about how Guru's are supposed to be mean to their students, and there are some who revel in this and are abusive.” MeanStudentsSupposed To BeTrendsCultGuruAbusive Author:Robert Thurman
“Presenting Aschenbach as a composer - based on Mahler - leads to some dreadful scenes (especially those in which Aschenbach is berated by his student), and it surely distorts the character Mann created. Yet, we know that Mann's novella was based on a holiday in Venice he took with his wife and brother, and that while he was there he followed the reports in the German newspapers, describing the dying Mahler's progress as he returned from New York to Vienna.” KnowsCharacterWifeProgressDyingNew YorkStudentsBrotherSceneNewspapersReportsHolidayComposerDescribingVenicePresentingViennaMahler Author:Philip Kitcher
“In a personal way, to do with family and the father-son relationship, in a kind of artistic way with regard to him being an art student. I also studied the visual arts at Lancaster University. I then decided to become an actor as he was becoming a musician. And then as an actor/performer, we have similar sort of interests - music hall and that whole world. So, there's a lot that I felt connected with.” WorldWayKindArtWholeActorsFatherFeltInterestStudentsSonBecomingMusicianDecidedRegardUniversityConnectedWhole WorldArtisticVisualsHallsPerformersFather SonVisual ArtArt StudentsLancasterFather Son RelationshipMusic Hall Author:Andy Serkis
“Nigeria was a blank on the map - there weren't even any maps. The US State Department, everyone said don't go there. It was courageous of Harvard University: the notion was that we would match Harvard students with Nigerian students, so that every student would have a guide, creating a guarantee of intimacy with the city.” SaidStatesCitiesStudentsCreatingNotionUniversityGuidesIntimacyGuaranteesDepartmentMapsCourageousBlankHarvardNigeriaHarvard University Author:Rem Koolhaas