The New York Review of Books interview with the French writer Roger Errera (1978)
“The fact is simple. The Spitfire looked good. It was every bit as dashing as the young men who flew it, and in flight it was as graceful as any bird. Its progress through the sky seemed effortless, as though it was simply riding the breeze and its Merlin engine was only there to provide a suitable soundtrack. You had Mr. Churchill on the radio explaining that we'd never surrender, and above you had the Spitfire, and you couldn't help thinking: Yes, we can win this thing. Possibly, just possibly, the Spitfire is the greatest machine ever made.”
Spitfire, p. 276
I Know You Got Soul (2004)
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Jeremy Clarkson 60
English broadcaster, journalist and writer 1960Related quotes
Source: The Paris Review interview (1981), p. 13
... (een flits van inzicht) komt nooit vanzelf, in de zin dat je er geen moeite voor hoeft te doen. Je moet je er echt wel voor inspannen. Er is een mooi spreekwoord voor: “toeval schiet de voorbereide geest te hulp”.
Zo’n inzicht komt wel toevallig, maar je krijgt het alleen als je bent voorbereid. Het inzicht komt niet vanzelf.
In Interview with Professor Carlo Beenakker. Interviewers: Ramy El-Dardiry and Roderick Knuiman (February 1, 2006).
"The Stranger Song" (1966)
Songs of Leonard Cohen (1967)
The Syntax of Sorcery (2012)
Context: We humans have always defined ourselves by narration. What's happening today is that we're allowing multi-national corporations to tell our stories for us. The theme of corporate stories (and millions drink them in every day) seldom varies: to be happy you must consume, to be special you must conform. Absurd, obviously, yet our identities have become so fragile, so elusive, that we seem content to let advertisers provide us with their version of who we are, to let them recreate us in their image: a cookie-cutter image based on market research, shallow sociology, and insidious lies. Individualism is bad for business – though absolutely necessary for freedom, progressive knowledge, and any possible interface with the transcendent. And yes, it's entirely possible to function as a free-thinking individual without succumbing to narcissism..
Colonel Jean Gudin, p. 353
Sharpe (Novel Series), Sharpe's Tiger (1997)