Quotes About Influence

I should not yield to it, he told himself once again as he walked along carrying the briefcase. Compulsion-obsession-phobia. But he could not free himself. It in my grip, I in its, he thought.

Never walk over a writer, I said to myself, unless you're positive he can't rise up behind you. If you're going to burn him, make sure he's dead. Because if he's alive, he will talk: talk in written form, on the printed, permanent page.

Do you know what the true basis of political power is? Not guns or troops but the ability to get others to do what you want them to do. By whatever means are appropriate.

Amazing, the power of fiction, even cheap popular fiction, to evoke.

That McCarthy, he thought, is a damn good shop foreman. He has the knack of needling a man, getting him to put out his best efforts, to do his utmost in spite of himself. He's a natural leader; he almost inspired me, for a moment, there.

The end times were not the end times after all. The end times were always coming but never here, always nearby and influencing us but never realized.

Questi romanzieri conoscono un milione di trucchi. Prendete il dottor Goebbels; è così che ha cominciato, scrivendo narrativa.

Politics is the enemy of a sound economic entity, he mused. New laws, harsher tax rates, meddling . . . and now this.

Little kids are that way; they feel if their parents aren't watching what they do then what they do isn't real.

Apuesto a que te dijo que fue el destino el que te trajo aquí, ¿verdad? Creen que son peones en manos de seres superiores, cuando en realidad son peones en manos de sus propias subconscientes, que se han desbocado.

Der Geist eines Junkies ist wie die Musik, die du aus dem Radiowecker hörst - manchmal klingt sie ja ganz hübsch, aber sie ist nur dazu da, dich zu etwas Bestimmtem zu veranlassen. Die Musik aus dem Radiowecker soll dich aufwecken; die Musik des Junkies soll dich in ein Werkzeug zur Beschaffung von immer mehr Stoff verwandeln.

A country is no better than its leader.

You're a function of an impersonal cultural totality.

Oamenii îÈ›i zic de toate. De la faptul c? nu faci doi bani pân? la faptul c? eÈ™ti nepreÈ›uit?. Cele mai rele È™i cele mai bune lucruri. Întotdeauna atingi pe cineva aici - cioc?ni cu degetul solniÈ›a - È™i pe cineva acolo...

The basic tool for the manipulation of reality is the manipulation of words. If you can control the meaning of words, you can control the people who must use the words.

in Phyllis' world there was no room for the harmless.

They fuck you up, your mum and dad. They may not mean to, but they do. They fill you with the faults they had And add some extra, just for you. But they were fucked up in their turn By fools in old-style hats and coats, Who half the time were soppy-stern And half at one another's throats. Man hands on misery to man. It deepens like a coastal shelf. Get out as early as you can, And don't have any kids yourself.

They fuck you up, your mum and dad. They may not mean to, but they do.

If you wanted to divert a mighty river into a different course, and all you had was a single pebble, you could do it, as long as you put the pebble in the right place to send the first trickle of water that way instead of this.

That is what the Church does, and every church is the same: control, destroy, obliterate every good feeling.

She was learning that if she pretended to be weak and frightened, and dabbed at her eyes with a lacy handkerchief, she could turn aside all manner of pressing questions.

As soon as men who believe they're doing God's will get hold of power, whether it's in a household or a village or in Jerusalem or in Rome itself, the devil enters into them.

Maybe art itself was a kind of voodoo, possessing you, giving you supernatural power, letting you see in the dark.

The powers of this world are very strong. Men and women are moved by tides much fiercer than you can imagine, and they sweep us all up into the current.