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Twenties Quotes

Browse 2625 quotes about Twenties.

Twenties Quotes

“The cars of the migrant people crawled out of the side roads onto the great cross-country highway, and they took the migrant way to the West.... And because they were lonely and perplexed, because they had all come from a place of sadness and worry and defeat, and because they were all going to a mysterious new place, ... a strange thing happened: the twenty families became one family, the children were the children of all. The loss of home became one loss, and the golden time in the West was one dream.”

“You'll find that marriage is a good short cut to the truth. No, not quite that. A way of doubling back to the truth. Another thing you'll find is that the years of illusion aren't those of adolescense, as the grown-ups try to tell us; they're the ones immediately after it, say the middle twenties, the false maturity if you like, when you first get thoroughly embroiled in things and lose your head. Your age, by the way, Jim. That's when you first realize that sex is important to other people besides yourself. A discovery like that can't help knocking you off balance for a time.”

People Ifs Way Trying Years Firsts Important Helping Age Sex Realizing Loses Cutting Middle Balance Illusion Discovery Twenties Maturity Knocking Short Cuts

Author:Kingsley Amis

“When I look back, if I'd played something differently, it might not have gone the way it did. So I don't feel like going back to my twenties and changing anything.”

Ifs Way Feels Looks Might Gone Twenties

Author:Clive Owen

“My twenties were carefree in the worst ways. There's a nice balance now of work ethic and healthy lifestyle and carefree attitude, which is pretty nice. You get to a point where you don't care so much what people think of you and you care more about yourself.”

People Thinking Way Care Attitude Nice Worst Balance Healthy Ethics Twenties Don't Care Lifestyle About Yourself Work Ethic Healthy Lifestyle Think Of You Carefree

Author:Norman Reedus

“When I was twenty I was in love with words, a wordsmith. I didn't know enough to know when people were letting words get in their way. Now I like the words to disappear, like a transparent curtain.”

People Knows Way Enough Twenties Disappear Curtains Transparent

Author:Wallace Stegner

“To a large extent: it's about economy of space. You have so little real estate when you're writing a half hour show. It's really twenty minutes. So you have to with a pilot introduce all your characters, set up the premise in a way that shows the potential for a series and make it funny and do it all in about thirty-five or forty pages. It's very hard.”

Way Writing Littles Real Hard Character Shows Hours Space Half Economy Five Minutes Pages Twenties Series Thirty Forty Pilots Introducing Estates Premises Half Hours

Author:Jonathan M. Goldstein

“One of my great surprises when I was in America was about twenty-five years ago in Harvard, hearing Randall Jarrell deliver a bitter attack on the way poets were neglected. Yet there were about two thousand people present, and he was being paid five hundred dollars for delivering this attack.”

People Way Years Two America Five Poet Thousand Hundred Years Ago Paid Twenties Dollars Surprise Hearing Bitter Five Years Neglected Harvard Twenty Five Delivering

Author:Stephen Spender

“I think in my twenties I tended to think of all people as sort of more or less alike. In now think that people are really different in all these subtle ways that are very important.”

People Thinking Way Important Different Twenties Subtle

Author:Peter Thiel

“Every writer, by the way he uses the language, reveals something of his spirit, his habits, his capacities, his bias....Avoid the elaborate, the pretentious, the coy, and the cute. Do not be tempted by a twenty-dollar word when there is a ten-center handy, ready and able.”

Way Use Able Spirit Language Ready Habit Ten Capacity Twenties Dollars Cute Bias Tempted Pretentious Handy

Author:William Strunk, Jr.

“I got it made the rest of my life, financially and in every other way. There's nobody in the world like me. I'm getting out just in time. If I was twenty seven, I could still kick ass. I don't have to beat Holmes. Why? I raised him, he worked three years as a sparring partner for me.”

Ifs World Way Years Made Stills Three Beats Twenties Raised Seven Partners Like Me Ass Kicks Three Years Holmes Kick Ass Sparring Sparring Partner

Author:Muhammad Ali

“That abominable and sensual act called reading the newspaper, thanks to which all the misfortunes and cataclysms in the universe over the last twenty-four hours, the battles which cost the lives of fifty-thousand men, the murders, the strikes, the bankruptcies, the fires, the poisonings, the suicides, the divorces, the cruel emotions of statesmen and actors, are transformed for us, who don't even care, into a morning treat, blending in wonderfully, in a particularly exciting and tonic way, with the recommended ingestion of a few sips of cafe au lait.”

“When a woman reaches twenty-six in America, she's on the slide. It's downhill all the way from then on. It doesn't give you a tremendous feeling of confidence and well-being.”

Way Giving Wells Feelings America Six Twenties Well Being Slides

Author:Lauren Bacall

“Suddenly this camera, this thing, allowed me to move around the world in a certain kind of way, with a certain kind of purpose. (On receiving a camera for her twenty-first birthday)”

World Way Firsts Kind Moving Purpose Certain Twenties Cameras Around The World Receiving First Birthday

Author:Carrie Mae Weems

“Nothing is ever going to describe in words what your mother looked like at twenty when the moonlight just fell on her face in such a way. Only a picture can show you that.”

Way Shows Faces Mother Twenties Moonlight

Author:Maggie Steber

“I'm for gay elopement, not for gay weddings. I've been with my boyfriend for twenty years. I don't feel like that would validate our relationship in any way. But I would really fight for someone else to have the right. Just elope, though, please.”

Way Feels Years Fighting Please Gay Twenties Our Relationship My Boyfriend

Author:David Sedaris

“People who grew up before the blogosphere, I just think that your brain is wired differently. I feel like in some ways my sensibility is aligned with people twenty years older than me than somebody six years younger. Because there was a sort of cutoff.”

People Thinking Way Feels Years Brain Grew Six Grew Up Twenties Sensibility

Author:Meghan Daum

“I've always been a late bloomer in some ways, and extremely precocious in other ways. When I was twenty I was living in New York and working a job and could barely bother to be a college student and had my own apartment, but I couldn't possibly get married before I was thirty-nine.”

Way Jobs My Own New York Students College Late Married Twenties Nine Bother Thirty Apartment College Students Precocious

Author:Meghan Daum

“When you're sixteen and struggling to forge an identity out of a morass of hormones and daydreams, remarks like that cut a deep groove in the brain. I trace the ongoing, victorious-feeling semi-starvation of my twenties directly back to adolescence - as a way of showing those assholes that I could control my appetites... Which is so sad, in retrospect, because of course no one cared.”

Way Feelings Courses Brain Struggle Cutting Identity Twenties Appetite Adolescence Ongoing Remarks Starvation Daydreaming Sixteen Hormones Retrospect Groove So Sad No One Cares

Author:Kate Christensen

“Amphibians are dying out like crazy, and frogs and salamanders may be largely extinct by the end of the twenty-first century. Imagine an animal that begins its life in the water, but ends it on land - already, that's pretty weird. But, also, a lot of them are incredibly tiny and look wildly improbable. They have funny little toes, they stretch their throats into weird bubble shapes when they croak, and some of them are poisonous to the touch. I think kids from the twenty-second century might mythologize amphibians the way kids today mythologize dinosaurs.”

“Along the way, I've worked as a waitress, I've done phone surveys, and worked as a receptionist, and for the last twenty years I've taught. When I was an actor, the key was to find a job that kept your days free to audition.”

Way Years Done Jobs Lasts Actors Taught Keys Twenties Phones Auditions Surveys Waitress Receptionists

Author:Debra Dean

“I don't think in the religious way that most people associate that word with, but Hern is a committed guy. He's doing the hardest job with the late-term thing. I don't think that's easy on a person, especially under the kind of terrorism that doctors of his kind have seen over the past twenty years. He's a tough guy.”

People Thinking Way Years Kind Persons Jobs Past Guy Easy Term Religious Late Tough Doctors Twenties Committed Terrorism Hardest Associates Over The Past Tough Guy Hardest Job

Author:John H Richardson

“The Time that Remains is a way of interpreting a certain ambience or emotion. These are the stories that my father told me over the course of fifteen or twenty years. I used to listen to him. From the cowardly part of my character, I'm always in fear of not telling the right story. I'm not interested in making epics.”

Way Years Character Stories Used Certain Courses Father Emotion Twenties Remains Not Interested Fifteen Epic Cowardly Interpreting Ambience

Author:Elia Suleiman

“I'm not the type to generalise about an entire generation. I think the most general thing I can say, is that things are way more dispersed, and way more de-centralised than they were twenty years ago. I don't really feel like people talk about my generation the way people would talk about Generation X in their early 90's when Nirvana blew up. I feel like there was an easier, more coherent narrative to find, than you can now.”

People Thinking Way Feels Years I Can Generations Type Easier Years Ago Twenties Narrative My Generation Generation X

Author:Chris Baio

“When you're in your twenties you always think that 30 is a long ways off, and maybe you'll have things in line when you hit that number - maybe own a house or be married.”

Thinking Way Long House Lines Numbers Married Twenties Long Way Being Married

Author:Hamilton Leithauser

“I was in my early thirties writing about my early twenties, so there was this way of seeing my younger self from enough of a distance to have perspective but also not to feel that I had to protect myself. My dreams for myself then would have undersold myself in a way.”

Way Feels Writing Self Enough Dream Seeing Perspective Protect Twenties Distance Younger Self

Author:Dani Shapiro

“The idea for Anthem the play began over twenty years ago. I was assisting in the production of another Ayn Rand work, Ideal. I moved to New York and began working on producing the play with my partners. And as a way to raise money to cover some venture debt, we decided to stage Anthem for a limited run at the Lex Theatre in Hollywood.”

Way Years Ideas Play Running Stage New York Ideals Years Ago Decided Hollywood Twenties Raises Moved Productions Debt Theatre Partners Venture Anthem Assisting

Author:Jeff Britting

“I believe that you go through your past and you learn what you learn for whatever reason. I'm just glad I'm not making fifteen-year-old mistakes at twenty-six - I got that out of the way.”

Way Years Believe Reason Past I Believe Mistake Six Twenties Glad Fifteen Our Past Your Past Fifteen Years Fifteen Years Old

Author:Wiz Khalifa

“Ask people who are close to the natural world: farmers, people who work the land or in some way use the land for their livelihoods. They will tell you what they are seeing isn't so good. They will tell you the changes they have seen in the past twenty years are remarkable in one way or another and unlike anything they had seen before that.”

People World Way Years Use Past Asks Natural Seeing Land Twenties One Way Remarkable Farmers Natural World Livelihood

Author:Mark Ruffalo

“I wasn't altered by the things that come with success but as you go about it those things play a part. You have twenty million people in your ear and they all trying to tell you which way to go. Then you have BDS, videos, and all this stuff calling you that you start to analyze because you're constantly around it and everybody is looking at these numbers.”

People Way Trying Play Stuff Numbers Millions Calling Ears Twenties Video Altered Which Way To Go

Author:Mic Geronimo

“I never thought Greek philosophy could make a damn bit of sense to me. And most of it didn't, but those words just seemed right. 'Love is composed of a single soul, inhabiting two bodies.'" He took her by the shoulders drawing her close. "It rang true for me, in a way nothing else did. Whatever soul I had, Katie, I think I placed it in your keeping twenty years ago. And now, it's as if...every time we kiss, you give a little piece of it back.”

Ifs Thinking Way Giving Years Littles Two Soul Philosophy Body Bits Love Is Pieces Love You Kissing Years Ago Twenties Drawing Shoulders Greek Damn I Love You Katie Greek Philosophy

Author:Tessa Dare

“I spent my twenties not really participating in the work force in any real way. I acted a tiny bit, but that was just because it was the only way I knew how to make money, and I sublet my apartment and lived in the woods and just tried to figure out who I was and what I wanted, what my real desire was and not just what I was used to doing, and it was a really confusing and painful, but really rich and amazing time.”

Way Real Wanted Used Desire Force Bits Rich Figures Twenties Painful Woods Tiny Making Money Apartment Confusing Participating

Author:Gaby Hoffmann

“When I turned twenty-five, I did a six-week trip around Europe by myself. I'd never really done a European trip before and I'd definitely never traveled alone like that. I just had such a great time meeting people. I had such a great time seeing new cultures and different ways that people think and different ways that they live and different ways that they see the world.”

People Thinking World Way Different Done Culture Five Seeing Week Six Europe Twenties Meetings Different Ways Traveled Great Times Twenty Five New Cultures

Author:Tyler Hoechlin

“One day in 1965 Rajiv wrote me from London, where he was studying, and informed me, 'You're always asking me about girls, whether I have a special girl, and so forth. Well, I've met a special girl.' And when Rajiv returned to India, I asked him, 'Do you still think about her in the same way?' And he said yes. But she couldn't get married until she was twenty-one, and until she was sure she'd like to live in India. Sonia is almost completely an Indian by now, even though she doesn't always wear saris.”

Thinking Way Wells Said Stills Girl Study Special Mets One Day Married India Twenties Asking London Indian Twenty One Sari

Author:Indira Gandhi

“The Reformed tradition at the beginning of the twenty-first century is different as a consequence of this - and different in nontrivial ways. Some may scoff at this, saying that such "developments" don't represent Reformed thought. But by what standard? Perhaps by the Westminster Confession. But this is only one Reformed confession, and it was only ever a subordinate standard.”

Way Firsts May Different Century Development Standards Consequence Tradition Twenties Confession Subordinates Westminster

Author:Oliver D. Crisp

“It is the system itself that, that is incapable of producing freedom for the twenty-two million Afro-Americans. Just like a chicken can't lay a duck egg, a chicken can't lay a duck egg, because the system of the chicken isn't constructed in the way to produce a duck egg. And just as that chicken system can't produce, is not capable to, of producing a duck egg, the political and economic system of this country is absolutely incapable of producing freedom and justice and equality and human dignity for the twenty-two million Afro-Americans.”

“I always think about myself as a writer; that comes out of being a reader first, and I don't think I kind of got to really playing with language in any formal way probably until I was in my mid-twenties.”

Thinking Way Firsts Kind Language Reader Twenties Formal

Author:Junot Diaz

“Once I chanted the Hare Krishna mantra all the way from France to Portugal, nonstop. I drove for about twenty-three hours and chanted all the way. It gets you feeling a bit invincible. The funny thing was that I didn't even know where I was going. I mean I had bought a map, and I knew basically which way I was aiming, but I couldn't speak French, Spanish, or Portuguese. But none of that seemed to matter. You know, once you get chanting, then things start to happen transcendentally.”

Knows Way Mean Matter Feelings Happens Three Speak Bits Hours Twenties France Maps Funny Things Invincible Krishna Mantras Hares Chanting Portugal Portuguese Speaks French Hare Krishna

Author:George Harrison

“Twenty-nine years ago, I came to faith in Christ after a gentleman from the Gideon's International gave me a free copy of the New Testament Bible. I started in Matthew and read all the way to Ephesians 2 when it finally clicked for me. After reading about salvation by grace through faith, I cried out to Jesus for his forgiveness and surrendered my whole life to Him. At that moment, I became a new person.”

“These [conservative] people, if they're Americans, look back on the last 35 years of our ecclesial experience and take heart from that. The dramatic reform of seminaries continues. The priests and bishops who take their pastoral model from John Paul II will continue to do so, perhaps learning a lesson or two from Francis along the way - and they'll be the overwhelming majority of the Church's ordained ministers ten, twenty, thirty years from now.”

“Actually what is happening in the twenty-first century, this is the great century of migration, so we have people from all around the globe going all over the place, and they have to integrate into a society, that society that exists has to integrate with them. Both sides have to work at it. It's not a one-way thing.”

People Way Firsts Sides Century Happenings Twenties One Way Globes Both Sides Integrating Migration

Author:Roma Tearne

“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.”

People Way Needs Writing Firsts Ends Courses Winning Forget Interesting Novel Century Majors Twenties Novelists Latter Prize Judged New Ways Very Interesting Nineteenth Century Assessing

Author:Pankaj Mishra

“I used to lift very heavy weights in my mid-twenties - I used to bench press over 300lb. The most I ever lifted was 330lb; I couldn't do that today, no way.”

Way Today Used Weight Twenties Presses Heavy Lifts Benches Heavy Weights

Author:Eric Bana

“What we should celebrate more than diversity is what we do with it. How do we bring everyone in the tent and create something together? In a twenty-first century way that activates our true potential, we all need to become sworn-again.”

Way Needs Should Firsts Together Century Diversity Twenties Celebrate Tents Activate True Potential

Author:Eric Liu

“Okay, so, when I was a kid, definitely the drawings and the illustration. Then I stopped in sixth grade or so. And then I started again when I was in my twenties. I really didn't progress since then, so the way I draw is the way I drew in sixth grade.”

Way Kids Progress Draws Okay Twenties Drawing Grades Illustration Sixth Grade

Author:Demetri Martin

“Thanks to my mother, not a single cardboard box has found its way back into society. We receive gifts in boxes from stores that went out of business twenty years ago.”

Way Years Mother Found Environment Mom Years Ago Twenties Boxes Stores Thanks Being A Mom Recycling Cardboard Boxes Small Gifts

Author:Erma Bombeck

“There is only one way to read, which is to browse in libraries and bookshops, picking up books that attract you, reading only those, dropping them when they bore you, skipping the parts that drag-and never, never reading anything because you feel you ought, or because it is part of a trend or a movement. Remember that the book which bores you when you are twenty or thirty will open doors for you when you are forty or fifty-and vise versa. Don’t read a book out of its right time for you.”

Way Feels Book Remember Reading Doors Movement Ought Twenties Library One Way Thirty Fifty Forty Trends Drag Bores Right Time Dropping Bookshops Bores You

Book:The Golden Notebook

Source: The Golden Notebook

“Mr. Bennet, how can you abuse your own children in such a way? You take delight in vexing me. You have no compassion for my poor nerves." "You mistake me, my dear. I have a high respect for your nerves. They are my old friends. I have heard you mention them with consideration these last twenty years at least.”

Way Years Children Lasts Poor Mistake Compassion Heard Abuse Twenties Dear Delight Consideration Nerves Old Friends No Compassion Mrs Bennet

Book:The Complete Works of Jane Austen: Sense and Sensibility, Pride and Prejudice, Mansfield Park, Emma, Northanger Abby, Persuasion, The Watsons, Sanditon, Lady Susan, Love and Freindship, The History of England, Lesley Castle

Source: The Complete Works of Jane Austen: Sense and Sensibility, Pride and Prejudice, Mansfield Park, Emma, Northanger Abby, Persuasion, The Watsons, Sanditon, Lady Susan, Love and Freindship, The History of England, Lesley Castle

“It goes a long way back, some twenty years. All my life I had been looking for something, and everywhere I turned someone tried to tell me what it was. I accepted their answers too, though they were often in contradiction and even self-contradictory. I was naive. I was looking for myself and asking everyone except myself questions which I, and only I, could answer. It took me a long time and much painful boomeranging of my expectations to achieve a realization everyone else appears to have been born with: That I am nobody but myself. But first I had to discover that I am an invisible man!”

Source: Invisible Man

“...ultimately it come down to, are you making or are you destroying? If you try very hard to create ways of living, create dreams of what is possible, then you win. If you don't, you may make a fortune in ten years, but you're not going to be read in twenty years, and that's that.”

Ifs Way Trying Years May Hard Dream Winning Ten Twenties Fortune Destroying

Book:Conversations with John Gardner

Source: Conversations with John Gardner

“I became what I am today at the age of twelve, on a frigid overcast day in the winter of 1975. I remember the precise moment, crouching behind a crumbling mud wall, peeking into the alley near the frozen creek. That was a long time ago, but it’s wrong what they say about the past, I’ve learned, about how you can bury it. Because the past claws its way out. Looking back now, I realize I have been peeking into that deserted alley for the last twenty-six years.”

Source: The Kite Runner