randomies
“To a poet, nothing is useless.” – Samuel Johnson
“A poet can survive everything but a misprint.” – Oscar Wilde
“Work is the curse of the drinking class.” – Wilde (Brilliant man, really)
“Contrariwise, if it was so it might be; and if it were so, it would be; but as it isn’t, it ain’t. That’s logic.” – Lewis Carroll (Through the Looking Glass)
“The more the marble wastes, the more the statue grows.” – Michelangelo
“What did his limbs, when gradually extended, encounter?” – James Joyce (Ulysses)
“I’m for anything that gets you through the night, be it prayer, tranquilizers, or a bottle of Jack Daniels.” – Sinatra
“Only when the last tree dies
and the last river is poisoned
and the last fish is caught,
will we realize we cannot eat money.”
-Bumper sticker in Olympia, Washington
”...my chief humour is for a tyrant.” – Shakespeare (A Midsummer Night’s Dream)
“Ink runs from the corners of my mouth.
There is no happiness like mine.
I have been eating poetry.”
-Mark Strand (Eating Poetry)
“Words were medicine; they were magic and invisible. They came from nothing into sound and meaning. They were beyond price; they could neither be bought nor sold.” – N. Scott Momaday
“A sound of cornered animal fear and hate and surrender and defiance…like the last sound the treed and shot and falling animal makes as the dogs get him, when he finally doesn’t care any more about anything but himself and his dying.” – Ken Kesey (One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest)
“I’ve known rivers:
I’ve known rivers ancient as the world and older
than the flow of human blood in human
veins.
My soul has grown deep like the river.”
-Langston Hughes (The Negro Speaks of Rivers)
“I would like to be the air
that inhabits you for a moment
only. I would like to be that unnoticed
and that necessary.”
-Margaret Atwood (Variation on the Word ‘Sleep’)
“This is not a story of incredible heroism or merely the narrative of a cynic; at least I do mean it to be. It is a glimpse of two lives that ran parallel for a time, with similar hopes and convergent dreams.” -Che Guevara (The Motorcycle Diaries)
“Show me someone not full of herself and I’ll show
you a hungry person.”
-Nikki Giovanni (Poem for a Lady Whose Voice I Like)
“Literature is the one place in any society where, within the secrecy of our own heads, we can voices talking about everything in every possible way.” – Salman Rushdie (Is Nothing Sacred?)
“In the time when Dendid created all things,
He created the sun
And the sun is born, and dies, and comes again
...
He created man,
And man is born, and dies, and does not come
again.”
-Verses from an old Dinka song
I thought today would be more fun, but Christmas is kind of boring, actually.
Merry Christmas anyway!
aaronschwartz
Thank you.
Luke Downes replied
any time. hope you and yours are well.
Lisa Jewell
Merry Christmas Luke,
I hope cheer finds you…..
A fantastic collection of quotes….
here is one of my fav’s
“Life is the art of drawing sufficient conclusions from insufficient premises.” Samuel Butler
Luke Downes replied
i ended up losing my phone. cheer avoided me altogether, i guess! ha! oh well…
Jessica Tremp
my Christmas was a bit ‘meh’ too…love quotes. how good is that dying animal one?
Luke Downes replied
isn’t it? the whole book is poetry, really
Paul Compton
What a tremendous collection of quotes. Cheered me up. Thank you sweet Luke.
Luke Downes replied
you’re welcome Paul…i hope they found you well…christmas is such a strange holiday to me
Yasemin Sumner
I love this kind of stuff. My Secret Santa got me a whole book on literary trivia and I’m obsessed… my favourite so far is that J. M Barrie used to order Brussel Sprouts for lunch but never eat them. He just loved saying the words.
Luke Downes replied
I love the word cabbage. But I guess I eat it.
I’d love to hear more strange literary trivia if you’re so inclined.
bellmusker
How I love the Mark Strand quote! ‘Ink’ always gets my instant attention.
Thy words are like a cloud of winged snakes;
And yet I pity those they torture not
PERCY BYSSHE SHELLEY
Now I’m off to google Mark Strand….thanks for these, Luke; we can never have enough quotes to inspire us.
Luke Downes replied
A quote about snakes, eh? Go figure! :)
xx
lianne
Merry Christmas Luke and I hope the New Year finds things better for you! Love these quotes – they do jog one’s “muse” into action occasionally! (P.S. I too found Christmas boring this year so you aren’t alone!) But now there is a whole new year to look forward to and to make something of – so… have a great one!
Luke Downes replied
ah, the new year…2009. when i was a kid, it tripped me up to think about the next year, how it would look on paper or how it would sound to say it, both full of possibility and endeavor…now it’s just words, because every day is full of those things, if only I would rise to it! Merry christmas, lianne…hope yours was well.
lianne
I have some experience with not being able to rise to that either Luke – it’s been a tough few months and some days don’t seem very full of possibility – lol. But I try to remain optimistic about “tomorrow” so I’m going to work on it full steam ahead for the New Year. You’re a young man Luke – might be rough times sometimes – but there are many many beautiful moments and wonderful blessings for you ahead, I just know! I wish you a happy, bright, joyful and prosperous New Year.
LittleHelen
Two of my favs….
All of us have a place in history. Mine is clouds.
It’s strange how the simple things in life go on while we become more difficult.
Both by Richard Brautigan :) I love quotes!
Luke Downes replied
I like that second one…so very true
thanks for sharing, Helen!
Yasemin Sumner
oh man, it’s so delicious….
Anais Nin dedicated Ladders of Fire to Gore Vidal, in appreciation that he got her published when she was still struggling for recognition although it was removed from later editions of the book.
Truman Capote kept as many as 500 pencils sharpened before he attacked the page. He wrote his first draft on yellow paper; his second, on white; and his third and final one, on yellow again.
I love ( and can’t say I’m that surprised) that Anthony Burgess wrote a good deal of Clockwork Orange while drunk.
And of course Mr. Wilde’s supposed last words, “Either that wallpaper goes or I do.”
And what’s up with writers, cats and alcohol? Seriously the lists just went on and on.
hehe..so could I, obviously.
;)
butchart
thanks for the brain food luke…. hope your holidays went well…........... peace and light…....... b
Holly Ringland
around my mouthful of Mark Strand’s quote that i loved so much i had to eat, i just wanted to thank you for these randomies. quotes are like chocolate mousse, you can never not fit more in. i hope 2009 has laid out a great spread for you already luke, although only a few days in.