Tom Perrotta quote: "After all, what was adult life but one moment of weakness piled on top of another? Most people just fell in line like obedient little children, doing exactly what society expected of them at any given moment, all the while pretending that they’d actually made some sort of choice."

Maybe that's what we look for in the people we love, the spark of unhappiness we think we know how t...
TOM PERROTTA

There was no dignified way to answer a question about your underwear.
TOM PERROTTA

Some subjects mixed well with weed, but Chemistry wasn’t one of them.
TOM PERROTTA

These days he was like a zombie, all grim business, just another jerk with an erection.
TOM PERROTTA

When I was writing 'The Abstinence Teacher,' I really tried to immerse myself in contemporar...
TOM PERROTTA

I read 'The Great Gatsby' in high school and was hypnotized by the beauty of the sentences a...
TOM PERROTTA

Nothing beats novel writing because it's complete expression of you. You just control everything...
TOM PERROTTA

I did a lot of reading of the Bible and became fascinated with the idea of the Rapture. It's pre...
TOM PERROTTA

Eve still marveled on a daily basis at the speed with which her own life had changed. A year ago, sh...
TOM PERROTTA

I’ve matured. I have a much higher tolerance for boredom.
TOM PERROTTA

Stan and Rudy are grown men. It's too late to shape their minds, to teach them values and a sense of...
TOM PERROTTA

Diane used to joke that I was getting in touch with my own inner asshole, but all I was really doing...
TOM PERROTTA

What about Clinton?" I asked. "He's pretty interesting."

"Ugh." Dad looked disgusted. "That gu...
TOM PERROTTA

No one knows what love is," he told me. "If someone says they do, they're full of shit.
TOM PERROTTA

As far as I could tell, he earned his hundred thousand a year by wandering the hallway with a Styrof...
TOM PERROTTA

It's a bad dream: my English teacher is standing naked at the foot of this slightly lumpy bed, clutc...
TOM PERROTTA

If we'd been on speaking terms, I might've told her that I'd come to think of sex as this long dark ...
TOM PERROTTA

I'm not sure that it's possible to write a novel about people who don't transgress or st...
TOM PERROTTA

I find that even small changes sometimes jog you out of a mental rut.
TOM PERROTTA

It just took some people a little longer than others to realize how few words they needed to get by,...
TOM PERROTTA

He'd never had to make the adjustments and compromises other people accepted early in their romantic...
TOM PERROTTA

That’s why we get involved with other people, right? Not just for their bodies, but for everything...
TOM PERROTTA

Both destiny and free will exist simultaneously. You are destined to be given some opportunities but...
TOM TOM

During times of hardship people find happiness in simplest pleasures
TOM TOM

Am I good enough?
Trust.
TOM

The demons you have are what motivate you to make your art. This is what drives the detective, this ...
TOM REISS

Really, coaching is simplicity. It's getting players to play better than they think that they ca...
TOM LANDRY

There's this misconception that the Navy is this cruise ship, and you get to go out and sail aro...
TOM HANKS

Talk is over-rated as a means of settling disputes.
TOM CRUISE

Nothing ends nicely, that's why it ends.
TOM CRUISE

Have you ever gotten the feeling that you aren't completely embarassed yet, but you glimpse tomo...
TOM CRUISE

When I first started out all the attention could be a bit unnerving, especially when people stared. ...
TOM CRUISE

I've spent many birthdays on a movie set, all great days.
TOM CRUISE

I've always had the same values. Family for me has always been important. When I shoot, everybod...
TOM CRUISE

When I'm promoting a film, I'm not going to get caught up in anything else, and that include...
TOM CRUISE

Whether it's making a film or raising my children, personally I'm striving to do the right t...
TOM CRUISE

I like to work with people that I like hanging out with, that I admire, that are really smart and ta...
TOM CRUISE

If I don't talk about my religion, if I say I'm not discussing it or different humanitarian ...
TOM CRUISE

Saddam has committed many crimes against humanity and against his own people.
TOM CRUISE

What I find sometimes that is tricky is if actors are using too much of their own life in a picture,...
TOM CRUISE

I'm always around my mother and sisters. I always wanted to be a father, a husband.
TOM CRUISE

As a young actor, people were trying to define who I was before I really knew that for myself. But I...
TOM CRUISE

The thing about film-making is I give it everything, that's why I work so hard. I always tell yo...
TOM CRUISE

The exciting part of acting, I don't know how else to explain it, are those moments when you sur...
TOM CRUISE

I've never made a film that I didn't believe in, you know? However the picture turns out, I&...
TOM CRUISE

I didn't become an actor to have power, but it just happens that I have it and so I have a lot o...
TOM CRUISE

I've never done work for money ever. If your choices are based on grosses and the film doesn'...
TOM CRUISE

Do I make mistakes? Yeah.
TOM CRUISE

I've learned to relax more. Everybody feels pressure in what they do, maybe mine is just a littl...
TOM CRUISE

I go without sleep, I just go hard.
TOM CRUISE

When you have to cope with a lot of problems, you're either going to sink or you're going to...
TOM CRUISE

Football is unconditional love.
TOM BRADY

My favorite meal has always been fried chicken.
TOM WATSON

The dream is to keep surprising yourself, never mind the audience.
TOM HIDDLESTON

Eighteenth-century doctors prescribed sugar pills for nearly everything: heart problems, headache, c...
TOM REISS

Treat everyone with respect and kindness. Period. No exceptions.
KIANA TOM

Good things, when short, are twice as good.
TOM STOPPARD

Time is short, life is short, there's a lot to know. So I skip the entertainers in the newspaper...
TOM STOPPARD

The thing that happens remarkably often is that the people who are writing a dissertation believe th...
TOM STOPPARD

I'm offended by things and take pathetic little stands against them.
TOM STOPPARD

My whole life is waiting for the questions to which I have prepared answers.
TOM STOPPARD

The text loses its virginity simply by being staged: it's no longer the abstract ideal version; ...
TOM STOPPARD

I don't think writers are sacred, but words are. They deserve respect. If you get the right ones...
TOM STOPPARD

Any revival in which I am involved is liable to change.
TOM STOPPARD

Hotel rooms inhabit a separate moral universe.
TOM STOPPARD

All your life, you live so close to truth, it becomes a permanent blur in the corner of your eye. An...
TOM STOPPARD

Theatre is a series of insurmountable obstacles on the road to imminent disaster.
TOM STOPPARD

The whole philosophy of modern times is to dissolve distinctions between individuals and deal with t...
TOM STOPPARD

For me, human rights simply endorse a view of life and a set of moral values that are perfectly clea...
TOM STOPPARD

Every exit is an entry somewhere else.
TOM STOPPARD

Procrastination is probably my worst habit out of many. Especially when it comes to paperwork.
TOM CONTI

I love what I do. I take great pride in what I do. And I can't do something halfway, three-quart...
TOM CRUISE

Mentally, the only players who survive in the pros are the ones able to manage all their responsibil...
TOM BRADY

Sometimes, getting up in the morning and brushing your teeth is the hardest part of the day - it all...
TOM BRADY

Every man should know, if you're comfortable and you like it, you should do it. Everyone always ...
TOM BRADY

The only thing I ever wanted to be was a professional football player.
TOM BRADY

I'm never going to be fast, and nobody will ever mistake me for being fast.
TOM BRADY

So many guys are so conservative with their hair, and I always joke with all my buddies when they me...
TOM BRADY

If I have something to say, I want it to be meaningful.
TOM BRADY

My job is to play quarterback, and I'm going to do that the best way I know how, because I owe t...
TOM BRADY

There's not much time to unwind, but you know what, it's because I love what I do. I look fo...
TOM BRADY

I think the great part about what I do is that there's a scoreboard. At the end of every week, y...
TOM BRADY

I don't think any country is perfect. It's our responsibility to do the best we can do to ch...
TOM BRADY

You have to believe in your process. You have to believe in the things that you are doing to help th...
TOM BRADY

The true competitors, though, are the ones who always play to win.
TOM BRADY

When you're one of the leaders of the team, there are no days off.
TOM BRADY

I was the kid that was the 199th pick that never had the body for it. People didn't think I'...
TOM BRADY

Geometric shapes hold an energy pattern, and scientists did some experiments which say certain geome...
TOM DELONGE

I just love working hard. I love being part of a team; I love working toward a common goal.
TOM BRADY

What the United States needs to do at this point is reaffirm our commitment that Assad must go and t...
TOM COTTON

So rather than face the bitter truth, China has placed severe restrictions on the Internet and enlis...
TOM LANTOS

I think these movies are definitely comedies. It's quite difficult to take a superhero movie ser...
TOM HOLLAND

Every chef has his treats. By that, I mean bits and pieces from things you're working on - crust...
TOM DOUGLAS

I've gotten very good at scheduling my life, scheduling the scene and preparing myself for knowi...
TOM CRUISE

I grew up watching 'Superman.' As a child, when I first learned to dive into a swimming pool...
TOM HIDDLESTON

Songs really are like a form of time travel because they really have moved forward in a bubble. Ever...
TOM WAITS

Catfish has a nice firm texture and mild flavor.
TOM DOUGLAS

You have to enable and empower people to make decisions independent of you. As I've learned, eac...
TOM RIDGE

America's health care system is in crisis precisely because we systematically neglect wellness a...
TOM HARKIN

My wife and I decided to try and kick start our kitchens to a $15 minimum wage for cooks. I've p...
TOM DOUGLAS

I think we're very uptight in America. You have to remember that we're descended from Purita...
TOM FORD

Everybody has something that chews them up and, for me, that thing was always loneliness. The cinema...
TOM HANKS

I have a weakness for watches. I have to stop myself buying more.
TOM JONES

We are set to make very bad history.
TOM WILSON

These days an income is something you can't live without - or within.
TOM WILSON

If I had a nickel for every time I said 'Why me?' I'd have probably said 'Why me?...
TOM WILSON

What this country needs is a credit card for charging things to experience.
TOM WILSON

The waist is a terrible thing to mind.
TOM WILSON

Wisdom doesn't necessarily come with age. Sometimes age just shows up all by itself.
TOM WILSON

If you spend all of your time racing ahead to the future, you're liable to discover you've l...
TOM WILSON

Many of us are more capable than some of us... but none of us is as capable as all of us!
TOM WILSON

Happiness doesn't depend on how much you have to enjoy, but how much you enjoy what you have.
TOM WILSON

There's no future in spending our present worrying about our past.
TOM WILSON

Nobody got where they are today by living for tomorrow.
TOM WILSON

About the only time losing is more fun than winning is when you're fighting temptation.
TOM WILSON

If I ever had an out-of-body experience - I'd try to come back to a different one.
TOM WILSON

I wouldn't mind the rat race - if the rats would lose once in a while.
TOM WILSON

Mondays are the potholes in the road of life.
TOM WILSON

A smile is a facelift that's in everyone's price range!
TOM WILSON

Love is the ultimate expression of the will to live.
TOM WOLFE

It's not the voting that's democracy; it's the counting.
TOM STOPPARD

Miami is a melting pot in which none of the stones melt. They rattle around.
TOM WOLFE

Stem cell research holds out the promise of finding cures and treatments for a wide range of disease...
TOM ALLEN

Some people are cowards... I think by and large a third of people are villains, a third are cowards,...
TOM HANKS

Obviously, you would give your life for your children, or give them the last biscuit on the plate. B...
TOM STOPPARD

Everybody who is anyone wanted to meet a real life gangster, and here's Joey Gallo hitting the s...
TOM FOLSOM

The secret to winning is constant, consistent management.
TOM LANDRY

From as long as, literally as far back as I can remember I've liked puns, word jokes, I can lite...
TOM STOPPARD

No other game combines the wonder of nature with the discipline of sport in such carefully planned w...
TOM WATSON

Golf is a game of ego, but it is also a game of integrity: the most important thing is you do what i...
TOM WATSON

Music is probably the only real magic I have encountered in my life. There's not some trick invo...
TOM PETTY

I still believe that if your aim is to change the world, journalism is a more immediate short-term w...
TOM STOPPARD

Be prepared, and be careful not to do your good deeds when there's no one watching you.
TOM LEHRER

I understand the concept of optimism. But I think with me what you get is a lack of cynicism.
TOM HANKS

Don't you know there ain't no devil, it's just god when he's drunk.
TOM WAITS

A great production of a black comedy is better than a mediocre production of a comedy of errors.
TOM STOPPARD

I have spoken to Donald Trump about this. He understands the dramatic budget cuts our military has f...
TOM COTTON

When I was 20, in 1957, and maybe you would say I was old enough to know better, but nevertheless, I...
TOM STOPPARD

We give advice by the bucket, but take it by the grain.
TOM STOPPARD

The notion that the 'leader' has the right to ask huge sacrifices of your generation for a n...
TOM STOPPARD

The dominant male is history. Could you see a male Lady Gaga? The closest we've got is Justin Bi...
TOM ODELL

After the first day of practice, there's not one guy who's playing at 100 percent or who fee...
TOM BRADY

There were no mail-order catalogues in 1492. Marco Polo's journal was the wish book of Renaissance E...
TOM ROBBINS

I was bullied every day at school because I carried a briefcase. I could have left it at home. But I...
TOM FORD

When I was a reporter in Bristol, which I was between the years 1954 and 1960, the newspaper would g...
TOM STOPPARD

In January 1962, when I was the author of one and a half unperformed plays, I attended a student pro...
TOM STOPPARD

In his first year in office, President Obama pulled us back from the brink of the greatest economic ...
TOM VILSACK

My mother is looking forward to it even more than me! I'll be showing her the bright lights of N...
TOM FELTON

Tom Snyder was born to broadcast. He loved television and it loved him back. In that, he was a membe...
TOM SHALES

The most satisfying accomplishment for me was winning the British Open in 1996. But the most rewardi...
TOM LEHMAN

Life is a gamble at terrible odds, if it were a bet, you would not take it.
TOM STOPPARD

It's easy to make a buck. It's a lot tougher to make a difference.
TOM BROKAW

If you have kids, it is the most important thing to create good times.
TOM CRUISE

I'm an all-or-nothing kind of person, and when I become interested in something, I give it my al...
TOM CRUISE

I love kids. I was a kid myself, once.
TOM CRUISE

I look at the Samurai because they were the artists of their time. What I think struck me when I rea...
TOM CRUISE

Awards are wonderful. I've been nominated many times and I've won many awards. But my journe...
TOM CRUISE

Here's how I've lived my life: I've never been late to a set. I make films I believe in....
TOM CRUISE

I want a world without war, a world without insanity. I want to see people do well. I don't even...
TOM CRUISE

I always look for a challenge and something that's different.
TOM CRUISE

I disagree with people who think you learn more from getting beat up than you do from winning.
TOM CRUISE

I'm passionate about learning. I'm passionate about life.
TOM CRUISE

I'm a romantic.
TOM CRUISE

When you become successful in any type of life, there are people who are not contributing to the mot...
TOM CRUISE

Every single time I start to do a picture, without fail, I feel as if I don't know what I'm ...
TOM CRUISE

I would live with all of my sisters if I could. We've always been very close, my sisters and me.
TOM CRUISE

I don't care who you are, life has challenges.
TOM CRUISE

I've been... chased by paparazzi, and they run lights, and they chase you and harass you the who...
TOM CRUISE

Individuals have to decide what is true and real for them.
TOM CRUISE

It's well known I'm a Scientologist, and that has helped me to find that inner peace in my l...
TOM CRUISE

'Larry Crowne' is about as bummed out a human being as one can be when he loses his job. Wha...
TOM HANKS

When people don't like themselves very much, they have to make up for it. The classic bully was ...
TOM HIDDLESTON

I don't have the insight with the Longhorns that I do with the two teams that I own, but as a fa...
TOM HICKS

There was times when I was bullied about dancing and stuff. But you couldn't hit me hard enough ...
TOM HOLLAND

Imagine if these computer geeks who are running baseball now were allowed to run a war? They'd b...
TOM SEAVER

We found that the most exciting environments, that treated people very well, are also tough as nails...
TOM PETERS

The calendar and the clock are all set by football season and the offseason.
TOM COUGHLIN

You are right that I don't have a lot of spare time because I love to stay busy and keep my cale...
KIANA TOM

Who doesn't love digging into a plate of crab cakes or going after a chilled cracked crab with c...
TOM DOUGLAS

Since my education, I've done quite untraditional things. There are very few Etonians who went t...
TOM HIDDLESTON

We need real campaign finance reform to loosen the grip of special interests on politics.
TOM DASCHLE

Oh, I got a beautiful 1959 Cadillac Coupe DeVille four-door. No one will ride in it with me.
TOM WAITS

There is so much to sailing a ship. There's about a thousand different lines on a brig ship, and...
TOM HOLLAND

I went from adolescence to senility, trying to bypass maturity.
TOM LEHRER

Tobacco marketing often reaches children and youth and entices them to start using tobacco while the...
TOM FRIEDEN

Nobody paid any attention career-wise to me in America until 'Bronson.' It gave me a calling...
TOM HARDY

When I was a kid and my mom made tomato soup, she would cut buttered toast into squares and float th...
TOM DOUGLAS

I think I'd take a human butler over a robot one.
TOM FELTON

My family was in Singapore when the Japanese War started. We were in Singapore at the time of Pearl ...
TOM STOPPARD

My mentor in the transition from the old Gabriel Heatter and John Cameron Swayze way of doing things...
TOM BROKAW

Joanna points her camera at a section of society unused to having cameras pointed at it. But I don&#...
TOM HIDDLESTON

There aren't many strong or charismatic candidates today, because many people can't withstan...
TOM FORD

Welfare reform happened with reconciliation; half the Democrats voted for it. The Bush tax cuts happ...
TOM COBURN

There was a time I could have been mistaken for Burt Reynolds. I had a moustache and so did he. But ...
TOM SELLECK

I used to blame my problems on other people. But my moment of clarity, if you want to call it that, ...
TOM SIZEMORE

They say Einstein died while he was still trying to figure out gravity. I think I'm going to die...
TOM DELONGE

We can never completely fulfill the promise of this treasured republic if we are blinded by color.
TOM BROKAW

Mostly, I straddle reality and the imagination. My reality needs imagination like a bulb needs a soc...
TOM WAITS

My reality needs imagination like a bulb needs a socket. My imagination needs reality like a blind m...
TOM WAITS

Perhaps unscripted reality shows and written fiction have already blurred together into some new ama...
TOM SHALES

After all, what was adult life but one moment of weakness piled on top of another? Most people just fell in line like obedient little children, doing exactly what society expected of them at any given moment, all the while pretending that they’d actually made some sort of choice.

Tom Perrotta

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