
“I think like a genius, I write like a distinguished author, I speak like a child.”
"Foreword", p. 3.
Strong Opinions (1973)
Source: Epigrams, p. 356
“I think like a genius, I write like a distinguished author, I speak like a child.”
"Foreword", p. 3.
Strong Opinions (1973)
“Find out what people want to do, then tell them to do it. They'll think you're a genius.”
Source: The Bridal Season
“The best way to teach somebody something is to have them think they're learning something else.”
The Last Lecture (2007)
Context: The best way to teach somebody something is to have them think they're learning something else. I’ve done it my whole career. And the head fake here is that they’re learning to program but they just think they’re making movies and video games.
Attributed to Orwell by John H. Bunzel, president of San Jose State University, as reported in Phyllis Schlafly, The Power of the Positive Woman (1977), p. 151; but not found in Orwell's works or in reports contemporaneous with his life. Possibly a paraphrase of Orwell's description of the rationale behind Newspeak in 1984.
Disputed
“Fame usually comes to those who are thinking about something else.”
"The Risk Taker" http://books.guardian.co.uk/departments/politicsphilosophyandsociety/story/0,,635799,00.html, profile/interview by Gary Younge, The Guardian (19 January 2002)
Context: I guess I think I'm writing for people who are smarter than I am, because then I'll be doing something that's worth their time. I'd be very afraid to write from a position where I consciously thought I was smarter than most of my readers.