Sarah Vowell quotes - page 2

One night last summer, all the killers in my head assembled on a stage in Massachusetts to sing show tunes. (Sarah Vowell)
While I gave up God a long time ago, I never shook the habit of wanting to believe in something. So I replaced my creed of everlasting life with life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness. View quote
Sarah Vowell
I talk about going to his Inauguration and crying when he took the oath, 'cause I was so afraid he was going to "wreck the economy and muck up the drinking water"... the failure of my pessimistic imagination at that moment boggles my mind now. View quote
Sarah Vowell
I'm a big fan of editing and keeping only the interesting bits in. View quote
Sarah Vowell
I didn't come from any kind of academic background, but I lived in a college town and I knew people who weren't without pretense. There was this idea in the town that if something was European it would be good. View quote
Sarah Vowell
I hated the lost colony; in second grade, we were doing American History, and they said, We don't know what happened to them. That drove me nuts. That lost colony drove me crazy. View quote
Sarah Vowell
Even writers need relief from words. View quote
Sarah Vowell
The only thing more dangerous than an idea is a belief. And by dangerous I don't mean thought-provoking. I mean: might get people killed. View quote
Sarah Vowell
I understand why other people would want to stay in B&Bs. They're pretty. They're personal. They're "quaint,” a polite way of saying "no TV.” They are "romantic,” i. e., every object large enough for a flower to be printed on it is going to have a flower printed on it. They're "cozy,” meaning that a guest has to keep her belongings on the floor because every conceivable flat surface is covered in knickknacks, except for the one knickknack she longs for, a remote control. View quote
Sarah Vowell
[Martin Luther King, Jr. ] concluded the learned discourse that came to be known as the 'loving your enemies' sermon this way: "So this morning, as I look into your eyes and into the eyes of all my brothers in Alabama and all over America and over the world, I say to you,'I love you. I would rather die than hate you.'" Go ahead and reread that. That is hands down the most beautiful, strange, impossible, but most of all radical thing a human being can say. And it comes from reading the most beautiful, strange, impossible, but most of all radical civics lesson ever taught, when Jesus of Nazareth went to a hill in Galilee and told his disciples, "Love your enemies, bless them that curse you, do good to them that hate you." View quote
Sarah Vowell
...the huge Jackson Pollock canvas that is the U. S. A.: vast, murky, splotched and slapped together by a drunk. (Sarah Vowell)
In these fast and fickle times, it's nice to know that there are some things you can always count on: the enduring brilliance of the last page of The Great Gatsby; the near-religious harmonies of the Beach Boys' "California Girls”; and the lifelong friendship of Matt Damon and Ben Affleck. View quote
Sarah Vowell
Nowadays, ever since the attack on the Pentagon in 2001, the capital has been clamped down. How is this manifested? Giant planters blocking government buildings, giant planters barricading every other street. Theoretically, the concrete flowerpots are solid enough to fend off a truck bomb. And yet the effect is ridiculous, as if we believe we can protect ourselves from suicide bombers by hiding behind blooming pots of marigolds, flowers whose main defensive property is repelling rabbits. View quote
Sarah Vowell
I fear that the consumer who buys a Confederate flag coffee cup, which she will then put on her American flag place mat, is the sort of sophisticated thinker who is open-minded enough that she is capable of hating blacks and Arabs at the same time. View quote
Sarah Vowell
We are flawed creatures, all of us. Some of us think that means we should fix our flaws. But get rid of my flaws and there would be no one left. View quote
Sarah Vowell
I no longer drink nearly as much as I used to but, still, my motto is Sine coffea nihil sum. Without coffee, I'm nothing. View quote
Sarah Vowell
The only thing more dangerous than an idea is a belief. View quote
Sarah Vowell
There are two kinds of people in the world: the kind who alphabetize their record collections, and the kind who don't. View quote
Sarah Vowell
When I think about my relationship with America, I feel like a battered wife: Yeah, he knocks me around a lot, but boy, he sure can dance. View quote
Sarah Vowell
Behind every bad law, a deep fear. View quote
Sarah Vowell
American history is a quagmire, and the more one knows, the quaggier the mire gets. (Sarah Vowell)
That's what I like to call him, "the current president." I find it difficult to say or type his name, George W. Bush. I like to call him "the current president" because it's a hopeful phrase, implying that his administration is only temporary. View quote
Sarah Vowell
Oh my dear, idealists are the cruelest monsters of them all. View quote
Sarah Vowell
If I looked in the mirror someday and saw no dark circles under my eyes, I would probably look better. I just wouldn't look like me. View quote
Sarah Vowell
Along with voting, jury duty, and paying taxes, goofing off is one of the central obligations of American citizenship. View quote
Sarah Vowell