Quote

I never did very well in math - I could never seem to persuade the teacher that I hadn't meant my answers literally.

Calvin Trillin

Change background

T
T
T

Change font

TAGS & TOPICS

Calvin Trillin
Age: 89
Born: 1935
Born: December 5
Journalist
Novelist
Poet
Kansas City
Missouri
Calvin Marshall Trillin
Seems
Mathematical
Wells
Math
Well
Meant
Never
Teaching
Seem
Teacher
Persuade
Answers
Hadn
School
Literally

More quotes by Calvin Trillin

Image
Being on a book tour is a lot easier than reporting.
Calvin Trillin
Image
It happens to be a matter of record that I was first in print with the discovery that the tastelessness of the food offered in American clubs varies in direct proportion to the exclusiveness of the club.
Calvin Trillin
Image
There's always a source for humor.
Calvin Trillin
Image
If bumblebee leavings and stump paste are so good for you, why can't any of those guys (in the health stores) grow full beards?
Calvin Trillin
Image
Taking pleasure in the dark side may be some sort of occupational hazard for reporters.
Calvin Trillin
Image
One advantage of a monarchy is that a monarchy does not suffer the effects of having great clots of white Christians moping around simply because they aren't the king or queen.
Calvin Trillin
Image
It has long been acknowledged that the single best restaurant in the world is Arthur Bryant's Barbecue at Eighteenth and Booklyn in Kansas city.
Calvin Trillin
Image
I suppose that there are endeavors in which self-confidence is even more important than it is in writing -- tightrope walking comes immediately to mind -- but it's difficult for me to think of anybody producing much writing if his confidence is completely shot.
Calvin Trillin
Image
What interests me is what you might call vernacular writing, writing that connects you to a place.
Calvin Trillin
Image
Everything was blamed on Castro. Mudslides in California. The fact that you can't buy a decent tomato anymore. Was there an exceptionally high pollen count in Massapequa, Long Island, one day? It was Castro, exporting sneezes.
Calvin Trillin
Image
Did you know that five out of three people have trouble with fractions.
Calvin Trillin
Image
I've written three books you could think of as memoirs.
Calvin Trillin
Image
As part of my research for An Anthology of Authors' Atrocity Stories About Publishers, I conducted a study (employing my usual controls) that showed the average shelf life of a trade book to be somewhere between milk and yoghurt.
Calvin Trillin
Image
There's always a source for humor [in politics]. If it's inappropriate to write about, if there's nothing funny about it, then it's not funny. So it sort of selects itself. It has to. And plus, often something that wouldn't be funny at the time is okay to make jokes about later.
Calvin Trillin
Image
I like chili, but not enough to discuss it with someone from Texas.
Calvin Trillin
Image
If General Haig is so smart, why did he finish 214th (out of 310) in his graduating class at West Point? Does that mean there are 213 generals his age who are smarter than he is?
Calvin Trillin
Image
Anybody who doesn't think that the best hamburger place in teh world is in his home town is a sissy.
Calvin Trillin
Image
If law school is so hard to get through... how come there are so many lawyers?
Calvin Trillin
Image
A new regulation for the publishing industry: The advance for a book must be larger than the check for the lunch at which it was discussed.
Calvin Trillin
Image
If Lincoln freed the slaves and preserved the Union, how come 'Lincolnesque' just means tall?
Calvin Trillin