Quotes About Biographies

I research the role, and if it's a literary character, I read the book, and if it's an historical figure, I research documents and biographies. If it's a fictional character, I work off the script.

Serious biographies need to have a historical base in facts.

I am a huge fan of biographies. What I'm always looking for is a story. I want a story I have never heard from anyone else.

I am a total sucker for an actor's autobiography/biography. I have probably read most of them.

Acts is theological history, while the Gospels are theological biographies, i.e., biographies written with a theological agenda.

he periodically set aside an entire week to unplug for reading and reflection, a Think Week. He also developed a penchant for reading biographies; at one point he told Brent Schlender of Fortune, "It's amazing how some people develop during their lives

I greatly enjoy reading the biographies of scientists, and when doing so I always hope to learn the secrets of their success. Alas, those secrets generally remain elusive.

The biographies of the great rarely report much about the nanny, but for many, she will have played a crucial role in their formative years.

I like contemporary American literature and I like biographies and I like jazz and I like baseball and I like writers who write about the human condition and sci-fi is just something that I happened into.

I read everything that Tolkien wrote, and also read biographies of him. I was fascinated by his experiences in World War I, which includes the loss of life of some of his very, very close friends. I think he writes about that a lot in 'The Hobbit' and 'The Lord of the Rings.'

For me writing biographies is impossible, unless they are brief and concise, and these are, I feel, the most eloquent.

Once you touch the biographies of human beings, the notion that political beliefs are logically determined collapses like a pricked balloon.

I very rarely read any fiction. I love biographies; I read about all kinds of people. I love theology and some philosophy.

Kirsten Gillibrand and I are very similar in our biographies. We're both mothers, we're both lawyers. But we couldn't be more different in our beliefs, in our principles, in our politics.

Women inspire me... so I enjoy women's stories and biographies. I am interested in all women.

Biographies are, in their nature, far more difficult to make into films than novels, because novels come with plots constructed and dialogue written, whereas I don't invent dialogue for my subjects or plot their lives for them.

Biographies, as generally written, are not only misleading but false... In most instances, they commemorate a lie and cheat posterity out of the truth.

The Gospels were written to present the life and teachings of Jesus in ways that would be appropriate to different readerships, and for that reason are not all the same. They were not intended to be biographies of Jesus, but selective accounts that would demonstrate his significance for different cultures.

Jean Toomer is a phantom of the Harlem Renaissance. Pick up any general study of the literature written by Afro-Americans, and there is the name of Jean Toomer. In biographies and memoirs of Harlem Renaissance figures, his name is invoked as if he had been one of the sights along Lenox Avenue.

Biographies are no longer written to explain or explore the greatness of the great. They redress balances, explore secret weaknesses, demolish legends.

I seldom read anything that is not of a factual nature because I want to invest my time wisely in the things that will improve my life. Don't misunderstand; there is nothing wrong with reading purely for the joy of it. Novels have their place, but biographies of famous men and women contain information that can change lives.

Carlyle uttered a pregnant truth when he said that the history of any country is in the biographies of the men who made it.

Hyperbolic myths of origin have from the earliest times served to lend a paradoxical plausibility to the biographies of heroes.

No one reaches the Oval Office without a great deal of admiration for the institution - and himself - so it's unsurprising that sitting presidents favor the biographies of former presidents.