I know as a critic I’m required to have a well-armored heart. I must be a cynical wise guy to show my great sophistication. No pushover, me.
I am one of those people that’s never been really cynical about life, you know.
Because I was from the Midwest and untrained, I was completely open and ready to try anything. Many of my classmates were cynical and jaded; some already had conservatory training, and they were there simply to get that Yale stamp of approval, which they saw as a career stepping-stone.
If there’s one thing that makes me cynical, it’s optimists. They are just far too cynical about cynicism. If only they could see that cynics can be happy, constructive, even fun to hang out with, they might learn a thing or two.
Saying you have a political solution is like saying you can write a pop song that’s going to stay at the top of the list forever. I don’t have many illusions about this, but I’m not cynical about it.
I don’t think humanity is the highest form of life that will ever exist in the universe. Maybe that’s a bit cynical. But most of the people I know are loving, kind, doing their best.
I wake up every day trying to hold on to my innocence. That is not a thing that has to do with age. That has to do with the life that you want to have and the perspective that you want to have on life. I do not want to become jaded or cynical.
I think, generally, British people are more culturally cynical about the things that involve our own country. Especially the royals.
I’m not cynical at all.
The more cynical commentators on our careers would say that the northern accent has been the basis of our success. There’s a certain authenticity to the voice – which isn’t to my credit; I was just born there.
I’m quite jealous of my Scottish relations, in whose culture everyone, in a Jane Austen kind of way, got married very young, when you’re too young to be cynical or jaded and just started having children.
Bush promised a foreign policy of humility and a domestic policy of compassion. He has given us a foreign policy of arrogance and a domestic policy that is cynical, myopic and cruel.
It’s really important to differentiate between being sceptical and cynical.
I think of myself as writing realist American fiction. ‘Cynical but hopeful’ wouldn’t be the worst thing I’ve ever been called.
England’s just very cynical. Like I am. Like we all are.
A cynical young person is almost the saddest sight to see, because it means that he or she has gone from knowing nothing to believing nothing.
What I’m asking for is hard. It’s easier to be cynical; to accept that change isn’t possible, and politics is hopeless, and to believe that our voices and actions don’t matter. But if we give up now, then we forsake a better future.
Men of integrity, by their very existence, rekindle the belief that as a people we can live above the level of moral squalor. We need that belief; a cynical community is a corrupt community.
Some people get very successful for something they’re very cynical about – like Alec Guinness in ‘Star Wars.’ He thought it was ridiculous. Whereas for me, I’m so proud of ‘Stranger Things.’ I’m so proud of everyone’s work in it. And it’s become so successful. So for those two to meet is incredible.
I think there are good men and women in all decades. We’ve grown cynical. And look at what we do to all our heroes: Churchill, FDR, Kennedy, they all had affairs. But heroic things happen every day.
