A Quote by William Maxwell

In talking about the past, we lie with every breath we draw. — © William Maxwell
In talking about the past, we lie with every breath we draw.
What we, or at any rate what I, refer to confidently as memory--meaning a moment, a scene, a fact that has been subjected to a fixative and thereby rescued from oblivion--is really a form of storytelling that goes on continually in the mind and often changes with the telling. Too many conflicting emotional interests are involved for life ever to be wholly acceptable, and possibly it is the work of the storyteller to rearrange things so that they conform to this end. In any case, in talking about the past we lie with every breath we draw.
I think bad breath is... just hard to get past. Someone with just horrible breath, yeah. I'm not talking about just onion breath. I'm talking about you been brushing your teeth and using the mouthwash and it still smells like you've been tongue-kissing the toes of a gorilla - that's horrible.
I'm so suspicious of our own understanding of the past. I just think that your mind plays absolute tricks on you and fools you every minute of every day. And so when you're talking about the past, you're talking about something that never happened. At least it didn't happen the way you think it happened.
Nothing could add to the horror of hell, except the presence of its creator, God. While I have life, as long as I draw breath, I shall deny with all my strength, and hate with every drop of my blood, this infinite lie.
I find that I don't lie about the big things in life. The things that matter. And about me. While I'm talking about myself, I rarely lie: I know who I am, my level of talent, that I'm not the most versatile filmmaker, the person I am. I don't lie about myself because I don't lie to myself.
I don't see any harm with coming out and talking about your life and talking about problems and talking about things that happened when you're past certain situations.
Worrying about the past or the future isn't productive. When you start chastising yourself for past mistakes, or seeing disaster around every corner, stop and take a breath and ask yourself what you can do right now to succeed.
Every breath we draw is a gift of God's love; every moment of existence is a grace.
Hopkins is talking about fighting at Yankee Stadium but that's rubbish. If he fought at Yankee Stadium, even the ushers wouldn't want to watch him. Bernard Hopkins couldn't draw breath.
There are different ways to be confused about how someone's disappointed you. Some lie about the future because they wanted to forget the past. But some will lie about the past because they think it will give you both a future.
Life is too short not to create something with every breath we draw.
Early on I decided that I was going to lie to the press. The best approach to talking about my personal life was to lie.
For all the years I'd spent talking about pictures, the truth was that I had no idea how to draw or what it felt like to do it. I would mistrust a poetry critic who couldn't produce a rhyming couplet. Could one write about art without knowing how to draw?
Every day brings a chance for you to draw in a breath, kick off your shoes, and dance.
If I can't practice, I can't practice. It is as simple as that. I ain't about that at all. It's easy to sum it up if you're just talking about practice. We're sitting here, and I'm supposed to be the franchise player, and we're talking about practice. I mean listen, we're sitting here talking about practice, not a game, not a game, not a game, but we're talking about practice. Not the game that I go out there and die for and play every game like it's my last, but we're talking about practice man. How silly is that?
And if candor strikes to forcefully, step back, draw careful breath, and consider the angle your words must take before you open your mouth, let them leak out. Because once you tilt the truth, it becomes a lie.
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