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Writing is probably one-fifth coming up with the stuff, and four-fifths self-editing again and again and again.

David Mitchell

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David Mitchell
Age: 55
Born: 1969
Born: January 12
Actor
Composer
Linguist
Novelist
Science Fiction Writer
Screenwriter
Text Writer
Translator
Writer
Clarkfield
Minnesota
David Stephen Mitchell
David Henry Mitchell
Editing
Coming
Probably
Four
Stuff
Self
Writing
Fifths
Fifth

More quotes by David Mitchell

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As long as you can Houdini your way out of the Sisyphean constraints then originality happens.
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Faith, the least exclusive club on Earth, has the craftiest doorman.
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Love's pure free joy when it works, but when it goes bad you pay for the good hours at loan-shark prices.
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Act', implores the Ghost of Future Regret. 'I shan't give you another chance'. [and so Jacob does] 'Damned fool,' groans the Demon of Present Regret. 'What have you done?
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Oh, diplomacy ... it mops up war's spillages legitimizes its outcomes gives the strong state the means to impose its will on a weaker one, while saving its fleets and battalions for weightier opponents.
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In an individual, selfishness uglifies the soul for the human species, selfishness is extinction.
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Probably is a word with an emergency ejector seat.
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Right, my phone. When these things first appeared, they were so cool. Only when it was too late did people realize they are as cool as electronic tags on remand prisoners.
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Creation never ceased on the sixth evening, it occurs to the young man. Creation unfolds around us, despite us and through us at the speed of days and nights. And we call it love.
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Yay, Old'uns' Smart mastered sicks, miles, seeds an' made miracles ord'nary, but it din't master one thing, nay, a hunger in the hearts o' humans, yay, a hunger for more.
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I believe there is another world waiting for us. A better world. And I'll be waiting for you there.
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Men invented money Women invented mutual aid
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...now I'm a spent firework but at least I've been a firework.
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Your turn has come to sift through the dreck of humanity for rare specks of originality
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over 85% of all statistics are made up on the spot.
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As long as our civilisation keeps trundling along generally forwards, then there is the possibility of a future where ethnicity is merely an interesting badge, not a uniform you can't take off.
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Our lives are not our own. We are bound to others, past and present, and by each crime and every kindness, we birth our future.
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Any society's upper-crust is riddled with immorality, how else d'you think they keep their power? Reputation is king of the public sphere, not private. It is dethroned by public acts.
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We are both busy people, so let's cut the small talk.
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I wonder if you encountered this dictum first spoken by a twentieth-century statesman: An abyss cannot be crossed in two steps.
David Mitchell