Quotes of All Topics . Occasions . Authors
What man is there that does not laboriously, though all unconsciously, himself fashion the sorrow that is to be the pivot of his life.
There is something inexpressibly charming in falling in love and, surely, the whole pleasure lies in the fact that love isn't lasting.
I never cared who scored the goal, or which side won the silver cup. I never learned to bat or bowl; but I heard the curtain going up.
How bitter it is to reap a harvest of evil for good that you have done! [Lat., Ut acerbum est, pro benefactis quom mali messem metas!]
I know, as an actor, you have to negotiate, but I can't handle the whole idea that art and commerce are synonymous. It drives me nuts.
I haven't really written my plays and books - I've heard them. The stories are there already, singing in your genes and in your blood.
To each individual the world will take on a different connotation of meaning-the important lies in the desire to search for an answer.
To country people Cows are mild, And flee from any stick they throw; But I’m a timid town bred child, And all the cattle seem to know.
Personal lyricism is the outcry of prisoner to prisoner from the cell in solitary where each is confined for the duration of his life.
I don't write at the library, because I smoke when I work or would like the possibility of a smoke. Also, I need to be at my own desk.
It isn't easy, it doesn't count if it's easy, it's the hardest thing. Forgiveness. Which is maybe where love and justice finally meet.
Writers are encouraged to "keep 'em laughing" and complain "with good humor" in order to "win" allies. The joke is always on ourselves.
I never had a lot of ideas. I always have exactly one that is the next project; the idea of a project beyond that project is ludicrous.
The checks and balances is a way to prevent government from either devolving into an autocratic tyranny or an autocratic mob mentality.
I like L.A., but I think what's changed is that the kinds of films I do, the mid-range dramatic film, has become an endangered species.
Stationery gets me excited because it has an individual character, unlike computers, which may be convenient but are generic and bland.
The surprise is half the battle. Many things are half the battle, losing is half the battle. Let's think about what's the whole battle.
I'm not suggesting that the play is without fault; all of my plays are imperfect, I'm rather happy to say-it leaves me something to do.
There are a lot of women screenwriters, but they are obviously outnumbered by men. And it still is a very much male-dominated industry.
As a rule, people are afraid of truth. Each truth we discover in nature or social life, destroys the crutches on which we need to lean.
I think one of the problems with the capitalist mainstream is this: no matter what you create to respond or resist it they will buy it.
Why don't we bring everyone up to be caring and compassionate, to believe that we are connected with everyone and everything around us?
When I speak of The Case for Equality I mean human equality; and that, of course, can only mean one thing: it means equality of income.
There may be some doubt as to who are the best people to have charge of children, but there can be no doubt that parents are the worst.
There are some experiences in life which should not be demanded twice from any man, and one of them is listening to the Brahms Requiem.
Without music we shall surely perish of drink, morphia, and all sorts of artificial exaggerations of the cruder delights of the senses.
That is the whole secret of successful fighting. Get your enemy at a disadvantage; and never, on any account, fight him on equal terms.
The truth sticks in our throats with all the sauces it is served with: it will never go down until we take it without any sauce at all.
I made a deliberate choice to write something people would enjoy, not knock people out with 'Boy, he can really put a clause together!'
I love novels, but I'm not a novelist. I'm just a dramatist, which means I write lines for actors. That's all I have ever wanted to do.
I'm a very private person, a very bookish person. The social world of Hollywood I know nothing about because I choose not to take part.
I do a lot of improvising when I'm writing, and I work very hard on the scripts... they are written very much in an actor-friendly way.
Growing up in New York City, I'd flirted with the idea of driving, but between the subway and the sidewalks, I'd never needed to learn.
I don't write all the time. But if I'm writing something, I'll just bang into it every day until it's finished. I write pretty quickly.
I loved 'The Master' a lot. I'm not going to get to work with Daniel Day-Lewis, but Joaquin Phoenix is one of the best around, I think.
It's very hard not to be a scoundrel nowadays. Everywhere there are pressures that work towards our personal and collective debasement.
Madame Bovary is the sexiest book imaginable. The woman's virtually a nyphomaniac but you won't find a vulgar word in the entire thing.
We've established the most enormous medical entity ever conceived... and people are sicker than ever. We cure nothing! We heal nothing!
Courage is what preserves our liberty, safety, life, and our homes and parents, our country and children. Courage comprises all things.
Out of many evils the evil which is least is the least of evils. [Lat., E malis multis, malum, quod minimum est, id minimum est malum.]
Here I am and there is my body dancing on glass In accident time where there are no accidents You have no choice the choice comes after
Dreadful is the mysterious power of fate; there is no deliverance from it by wealth or by war, by walled city or dark, seabeaten ships.
I learned that if we embrace what's happening, we are also embracing what is possible - and a road opens up for God to meet us halfway.
At the still point of the turning world. Neither flesh nor fleshless; Neither from nor towards; at the still point, there the dance is.
We have lingered in the chambers of the sea By sea-girls wreathed with seaweed red and brown Till human voices wake us... and we drown.
With a poem you can say 'I got my feeling into words for myself. I now have the equivalent in words for that much of what I have felt.'
A play should give you something to think about. When I see a play and understand it the first time, then I know it can't be much good.
I am moved by fancies that are curled, around these images and cling, the notion of some infinitely gentle, infinitely suffering thing.
Only some radical change can divert the downward course of my spirit, some startling new place or people to arrest the drift, the drag.
In all these years, you never believed I loved you. And I did. I did so much. I did love you. I even loved your hate and your hardness.