Tracing Quotations
James Baldwin? Sol Stein? Claudia Roth Pierpont? Apocryphal? Question for Quote Investigator: There are powerful pressures to conform and follow the conventions of one’s society. But the renegade does not fit into a pre-existing slot. A prominent literary figure once said: The place in which I’ll fit will not exist until I make it. Essayist …
Continue reading “The Place in Which I’ll Fit Will Not Exist Until I Make It”
P. G. Wodehouse? George Bernard Shaw? Smallwood Bessemer? Bob Chieger? Anonymous? Question for Quote Investigator: A famous wit once offered the following piece of self-contradictory advice: Never take advice. Another prominent humorist offered a similar piece of oxymoronic guidance: Never give advice. Would you please help me to find these citations together with the correct …
Continue reading “I Always Advise People Never To Give Advice”
A. A. Milne? Piglet? Owl? Pooh? Benjamin Hoff? George Bernard Shaw? Apocryphal? Question for Quote Investigator: The following dialog has been ascribed to the famous English author A. A. Milne: Pooh: Lots of people talk to animals. Owl: Maybe, but . . . Not very many listen, though. Pooh: That’s the problem. I am skeptical …
Continue reading ““Lots of People Talk To Animals” “Not Very Many Listen, Though””
Emily M. Bender? Timnit Gebru? Angelina McMillan-Major? Margaret Mitchell? Apocryphal? Question for Quote Investigator: Artificial intelligence (AI) researchers have used vast amounts of text to train digital neural networks which capture the intricate statistical patterns of word sequences. The resultant systems are called large language models. One of the most famous is GPT-3 (Generative Pre-trained …
Ilya Sutskever? Blaise Agüera y Arcas? Yann LeCun? Blake Lemoine? Apocryphal? Question for Quote Investigator: Apparently, a top researcher in artificial intelligence (AI) controversially suggested in early 2022 that contemporary digital neural networks employed in AI systems might be “slightly conscious”. Would you please help me to find a citation? Reply from Quote Investigator: Ilya …
Continue reading “It May Be That Today’s Large Neural Networks Are Slightly Conscious”
George Bernard Shaw? Blanche Patch? Archibald Henderson? Bennett Cerf? Walter Winchell? Apocryphal? Question for Quote Investigator: A visitor to the home of a famous wit expected to find vases filled with beautiful cut flowers, but there were none. The wit explained the absence by making a comically grotesque comparison between cut flowers and decapitated people. …
Continue reading “Flowers: Don’t Cut Off Their Heads and Stick Them in Pots”
George Bernard Shaw? Walter Winchell? Apocryphal? Question for Quote Investigator: A person who was enamored with celebrities wanted George Bernard Shaw to attend a social gathering. Several attempts at interesting Shaw failed. So a formal invitation was sent. Shaw appended a short reply and sent the note back: “Lord X will be at home on …
Continue reading ““Lady X Will Be At Home Thursday Between 4 and 6” “Mr. Bernard Shaw Likewise””
Raymond Chandler? Philip Marlowe? Dorothy Gardiner? Kathrine Sorley Walker? Apocryphal? Question for Quote Investigator: A famous author of noir detective fiction was irritated that interviewers often thought that his veridical life should be similar to the life of his hardboiled fictional private eye. Apparently, some journalists wanted to know whether the author carried a Luger, …
Continue reading “My Favorite Weapon Is a Twenty Dollar Bill”
Peter De Vries? Laurence J. Peter? Apocryphal? Question for Quote Investigator: Do you know who is responsible for crafting the following vivid and humorous simile?: They made love as though they were an endangered species. Is this the correct phrasing? I do not know whether such lovemaking would be celebratory, frenetic, fatalistic, or hopeless. Reply …
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Gertrude Stein? Ernest Hemingway? Hotel Keeper? Automobile Repair Shop Owner? Anonymous? Question for Quote Investigator: Would you please explore the provenance of the following expression? Here are two versions: You are all a lost generation. You are all a génération perdue. The phrase “lost generation” has been applied to young people who experienced the repercussions …