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Elif Batuman Quotes


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Quotes by Elif Batuman

Showing 31-40 of 86 Quotes by Elif Batuman

Tolstoy didn't know about steampunk or cyborgs, but he did know about the nightmarishness of steam power, unruly machines, and the creepy half-human status of the Russian peasant classes. In 'Anna Karenina,' nineteenth-century life itself is a relentless, relentlessly modern machine, flattening those who oppose it.

~Elif Batuman

Topics: About Anna Classes Creepy Did He Itself Know Life Machine Machines Modern Oppose Peasant Power Relentless Relentlessly Russian Status Steam Those Tolstoy Who

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I enjoy a good meal as much as anyone, but I get so confused by nutritional, budgetary, ecological, ethical, aesthetic, and time-management concerns that I often subsist for weeks on instant oatmeal and multivitamins.

~Elif Batuman

Topics: Aesthetic Anyone Concerns Confused Ecological Enjoy Ethical Get Good Good Meal Instant Meal Much Oatmeal Often Weeks

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Soccer is taken extremely seriously in Turkey.

~Elif Batuman

Topics: Extremely Seriously Soccer Taken Turkey

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'Constructed Worlds' comes from a novel draft that I wrote in my early twenties and reread/revised only in my late thirties.

~Elif Batuman

Topics: Constructed Draft Early Late Novel Only Thirties Twenties Worlds Wrote

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There's a lot to be said for an American-style liberal-arts education, which prevents young people from professionalizing right away.

~Elif Batuman

Topics: Away Education Lot People Prevents Right Right Away Said Which Young Young People

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My parents were educated in the Turkish system and went straight from high school to medical school; my mom, who had skipped a grade, was dissecting corpses at age seventeen. Growing up in America, I think I envied my parents' education. By comparison, everything I did in school seemed so sort of low-stakes and infantilizing.

~Elif Batuman

Topics: Age America Comparison Corpses Did Educated Education Envied Everything Grade Growing Growing Up Had High High School Medical Medical School Mom Parents School Seemed Seventeen Sort Straight System Think Turkish Up Were Who I Think

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I like a novel to have a certain amount of dead time and filler - unremarkable scenery, descriptions of getting from point A to point B, dialogue in which not much is said - in between the parts that are electric. With a long work that you don't read in one sitting, I think that makes for the best reading experience.

~Elif Batuman

Topics: Amount Best Between Certain Dead Descriptions Dialogue Electric Experience Getting Like Long Makes Much Novel Parts Point Read Reading Said Scenery Sitting Think Time Which Work You I Think

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I had wanted to write 'The Possessed' as fiction, but everyone told me that no one would read a novel about graduate students. It seems almost uncivilized to tell someone writing a novel, 'No, you have to call this a memoir.'

~Elif Batuman

Topics: About Almost Call Everyone Fiction Graduate Had Me Memoir Novel Possessed Read Seems Someone Students Tell Wanted Would Write Writing You

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One of the stories that really impressed me was 'Anna Karenina.' As a novel, that made an impression on me, showing me what the novel can do.

~Elif Batuman

Topics: Anna Impressed Impression Made Me Novel Really Showing Stories

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I love the novelist's freedom of going into different people's subjectivity and being able to work with them as characters.

~Elif Batuman

Topics: Able Being Characters Different Freedom Going Love Novelist People Subjectivity Them Work I Love

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Biography

Nationality: American

Type: Author

Born: Unknown

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Find Elif Batuman on Amazon

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