Quote of the Day: Hayes

From the first lady of American Theater, Helen Hayes:

From your parents you learn love and laughter and how to put one foot before the other. But when books are opened you discover that you have wings.

Quote of the Day: Wrapped in Quotations

I ran across this quote today at Quote Puzzler, and it seemed worth sharing.

Rudyard Kipling
He wrapped himself in quotations -- as a beggar would enfold himself in the purple of Emperors.

Quote of the Day: Valentines

I've gotten out of the habit of daily Quote-of-the-Day posts, but it seems worth doing on occasion. I missed Lincoln's birthday, but may catch up for Presidents' Day. Meanwhile, it seems shameful to miss the easy opportunity of some good love quotes today.

Happy Valentines Day!

Amy Bloom
Love at first sight is easy to understand; it's when two people have been looking at each other for a lifetime that it becomes a miracle.

Albert Einstein
How on earth are you ever going to explain in terms of chemistry and physics so important a biological phenomenon as first love?

Blaise Pascal
The heart has its reasons which reason knows not of.

C. S. Lewis
Why love if losing hurts so much? We love to know we are not alone.

Henry David Thoreau
There is no remedy for love but to love more.

Song of Solomon
This is my beloved and this is my friend.

Quote of the Day, 2/03/07: Using Language Well

Wandering from link to link... to link to link to link... I come across so many things worth mentioning that I'm often too overwhelmed to mention them. Especially when faced with the daunting task of crediting all the right people with pointing me the way to whatever gem I found.

So for this, never mind how I got there, but consider this fabulous quote I found over at Poynter Online. The quote is from David Foster Wallace's Consider the Lobster, which I now have to go check out on my next book run.

The reality I care about most is that some people still want to use the language well. They want to write effectively; they want to speak effectively. They want their language to be graceful at times and powerful at times. They want to understand how to use words well, how to manipulate sentences, and how to move about in the language without seeming to flail. They want good grammar, but they want more: they want rhetoric in the traditional sense. That is, they want to use the language deftly so that it's fit for their purposes.

I think that's (a) wonderful if it's true and (b) beautifully written.

Quote of the Day, 1/28/07: Barrie

A few quotes tonight from J. M. Barrie, my long-distant cousin.

The best of our fiction is by novelists who allow that it is as good as they can give, and the worst by novelists who maintain that they could do much better if only the public would let them.
...

Love is not blind; it is an extra eye, which shows us what is most worthy of regard.
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Nothing is really work unless you would rather be doing something else.
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We never understand how little we need in this world until we know the loss of it.
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All children, except one, grow up. They soon know that they will grow up, and the way Wendy knew was this. One day when she was two years old she was playing in a garden, and she plucked another flower and ran with it to her mother. I suppose she must have looked rather delightful, for Mrs. Darling put her hand to her heart and cried, "Oh, why can't you remain like this for ever!" This was all that passed between them on the subject, but henceforth Wendy knew that she must grow up. You always know after you are two. Two is the beginning of the end.

Quote of the Day, 1/26/07: Yeats

To go along with the poem I posted for Poetry Friday, here are some more words from William Butler Yeats.

I think it better that at times like these [war]
A poet's mouth be silent, for in truth
We have no gift to set a statesman right.
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We make out of the quarrel with others, rhetoric, but out of the quarrel with ourselves, poetry.
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Even when the poet seems most himself…he is never the bundle of accident and incoherence that sits down to breakfast; he has been reborn as an idea, something intended, complete.
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We…are no petty people. We are one of the great stocks of Europe. We are the people of Burke; we are the people of Swift, the people of Emmet, the people of Parnell. We have created most of the modern literature of this country. We have created the best of its political intelligence.
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Think like a wise man but express yourself like the common people.
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It's not a writer's business to hold opinions.

Quote of the Day, 1/22/07: Hammett

As soon as I sat down to get my quotes today, the name Dashiell Hammett popped into my head. No idea why, but I'm going with it.

Who shot him? I asked.
.
The grey man scratched the back of his neck and said: Somebody with a gun.
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The truth is you don't like the theater except the times when you're in a room by yourself putting the play on paper.
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After a fraction of a year in high school- Baltimore Polytechnic Institute—I became the unsatisfactory and unsatisfied employee of various railroads, stock brokers, machine manufacturers, canners, and the like. Usually I was fired.
.
An enigmatic want-ad took me into the employ of Pinkerton's National Detective Agency, and I stuck at that until early 1922, when I chucked it to see what I could do with fiction writing.
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Samuel Spade's jaw was long and bony, his chin a jutting v under the more flexible v of his mouth. His nostrils curved back to make another, smaller v. His yellow-grey eyes were horizontal. The v motif was picked up again by his thickish brows rising outward from twin creases above a hooked nose, and his pale brown hair grew down -- from high flat temples -- in a point on his forehead. He looked rather pleasantly like a blond satan.
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Dorothy patted the dog's head and left us.
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We found a table. Nora said: "She's pretty."
.
"If you like them like that."
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She grinned at me. "You got types?"
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"Only you, darling -- lanky brunettes with wicked jaws."
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"And how about the red-head you wandered off with at the Quinns' last night?"
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"That's silly," I said. "She just wanted to show me some French etchings."

Quote of the Day, 1/21/07: Chaplin

From Wikipedia: Sir Charles Spencer Chaplin, Jr. KBE (16 April 1889 – 25 December 1977), better known as Charlie Chaplin, was an English comedy actor, becoming one of the most famous performers in the early to mid Hollywood cinema era, and also a notable director. He is considered to be one of the finest mimes and clowns caught on film and his influence on performers in these fields is great.

From Charlie Chaplin:

A day without laughter is a day wasted.
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A tramp, a gentleman, a poet, a dreamer, a lonely fellow, always hopeful of romance and adventure.
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Failure is unimportant. It takes courage to make a fool of yourself.
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I do not have much patience with a thing of beauty that must be explained to be understood. If it does need additional interpretation by someone other than the creator, then I question whether it has fulfilled its purpose.
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Life is a tragedy when seen in close-up, but a comedy in long-shot.
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That is why, no matter how desperate the predicament is, I am always very much in earnest about clutching my cane, straightening my derby hat and fixing my tie, even though I have just landed on my head.

Quote of the Day, 1/19/07: Poe

Happy Birthday Edgar Allen Poe!

Beauty of whatever kind, in its supreme development, invariably excites the sensitive soul to tears.
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I have no faith in human perfectability. I think that human exertion will have no appreciable effect upon humanity. Man is now only more active - not more happy - nor more wise, than he was 6000 years ago.
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Those who dream by day are cognizant of many things which escape those who dream only by night.
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Depend upon it, after all, Thomas, Literature is the most noble of professions. In fact, it is about the only one fit for a man. For my own part, there is no seducing me from the path.
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There are certain themes of which the interest is all-absorbing, but which are too entirely horrible for the purposes of legitimate fiction.

Quote of the Day, 1/18/07: Buchwald

American journalist and humorist Art Buchwald has died at the age of 81. Today's quotes are from him, just to give you a sense of his style.

Whether it's the best of times or the worst of times, it's the only time we've got.
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We seem to be going through a period of nostalgia, and everyone seems to think yesterday was better than today. I don't think it was, and I would advise you not to wait ten years before admitting today was great. If you're hung up on nostalgia, pretend today is yesterday and just go out and have one hell of a time.
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I worship the quicksand he walks in.
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So far things are going my way. I am known in the hospice as The Man Who Wouldn't Die. I don't know if this is true or not, but I think some people, not many, are starting to wonder why I'm still around.
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Dying is easy. Parking is impossible.

Quote of the Day, 1/17/07: King

On Martin Luther King day -- January 17 -- 1994, I was in Los Angeles for their last big earthquake. It struck at around 4AM and was one of the most terrifying events I've experienced.

Since then, I have always considered January 17 to be Martin Luther King's birthday. Tonight I learned from Wikipedia that King's birthday is January 15, which coincidentally was the same as MLK Day this year. So, I missed it. Hopefully you'll overlook the small error, and still appreciate today's quotes, from Martin Luther King, Jr.

I believe that unarmed truth and unconditional love will have the final word in reality. That is why right, temporarily defeated, is stronger than evil triumphant.
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I submit that an individual who breaks a law that conscience tells him is unjust, and who willingly accepts the penalty of imprisonment in order to arouse the conscience of the community over its injustice, is in reality expressing the highest respect for the law.
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It may be true that the law cannot make a man love me, but it can stop him from lynching me, and I think that's pretty important.
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The ultimate measure of a man is not where he stands in moments of comfort and convenience, but where he stands at times of challenge and controversy.
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Faith is taking the first step even when you don't see the whole staircase.

Quote of the Day, 1/16/07: Deborah Kerr

Yesterday Cary Grant, today his counterpart in one of the best all-time sappy movies (An Affair to Remember) -- Deborah Kerr. I like these quotes from Kerr. She seems spunky, which is how I always think of her.

I suppose the part nearest me is Laura Reynolds in Tea and Sympathy. Of course playwrite Bob Anderson didn't know that, but he wrote Laura Reynolds and Laura Reynolds happened to be me. It was the coming together of a part and an actress - the same attitude to life, a certain shyness in life, a deep compassion for people who are being persecuted for anything.
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Personally, I think if a women hasn't met the right man by the time she's 24, she may be lucky.
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I adore not being me. I'm not very good at being me. That's why I adore acting so much.
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Years from now, when you talk about this, and you will, be kind.
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I respect anyone who has to fight and howl for his decency.

Quote of the Day, 1/15/07: Cary Grant

Okay, back on the quote bus now. Today's quotes are from the man himself. Mr. Cary Grant.

I suddenly found my articulate self in a dazzling land of smiling, jostling people wearing and not wearing all sorts of costumes and doing all sorts of clever things. And that's when I knew! What other life could there be but that of an actor?
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Do your job and demand your compensation -- but in that order.
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Everyone wants to be Cary Grant. Even I want to be Cary Grant.
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I pretended to be somebody I wanted to be until finally I became that person. Or he became me.

Quote of the Day, 1/14/07: Stephen King on 24

The new season of 24 starts tonight, in just under an hour.

First, a line from Chloe, which I think was from last season.

OK, when the alert level goes down, and the terrorists have been caught, we can have some chamomile tea and I'll tell you all my secrets.

Stephen King, whose opinion on suspense and thrillers I may trust above all others, had this to say about his sneak peak of this season:

Day 6 ... is like a book you can't put down...even though there are times when you may want to.
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There's ... a queasily gleeful subtext to 24 that suggests, ''If things are this bad, why, I guess we can torture anybody we want! In fact, we have an obligation to torture in order to protect the country! Hooray!'' Yet Jack Bauer's face — increasingly lined, increasingly haggard — suggests that extreme measures eventually catch up with the human soul.
...

24 also remains fresh, I think, because it is regularly watered by the blood of supporting characters — the sort who used to be considered eternal.
(Note, King goes on to reference Jack's wife and Edgar Stiles, and eventually to threaten the producers with the kind of vengeance only Stephen King can promise if they go after Chloe.)
...

This time the threat — and no, I'm not going to tell you what it is — seems too plausible. When I got to the shocker that ends episode 4, I could understand Jack Bauer's expression of disbelief; it's a perfectly human reaction to what has just happened. And yet at the same time I'm sitting in my office chair and thinking, This could really happen. And at some point, it probably will.... Really, no one does the old ''We're surrounded by enemies!'' bit better than Fox. Bill O'Reilly's going to love this baby.

Quote of the Day, 1/06/07: Headaches

Oof! My head cold has led to a nasty little headache. So I'll throw a few quick quotes out on the subject, and then curl up to sleep. Based on the last quote here, I guess that Emerson would not approve of this post.

Eleanor Roosevelt
I could never say in the morning, "I have a headache and cannot do thus and so." Headache or no headache, thus and so had to be done.

Samuel Butler
If the headache would only precede the intoxication, alcoholism would be a virtue.

Lewis Carroll
I'm very brave generally, he went on in a low voice: only today I happen to have a headache.

Ralph Waldo Emerson
There is one topic peremptorily forbidden to all well-bred, to all rational mortals, namely, their distempers. If you have not slept, or if you have slept, or if you have headache, or sciatica, or leprosy, or thunder-stroke, I beseech you, by all angels, to hold your peace, and not pollute the morning.

Quote of the Day, 1/05/07: Plath on Poetry

Thanks to Kelly Fineman for posting this quote several weeks ago. I've been waiting for another Poetry Friday to share it again.

Here is how Silvia Plath described the small moments of poetry, and the contrast to the expansive time of novels.

How I envy the novelist!

I imagine him - better say her, for it is the women I look to for a parallel - I imagine her, the novelist, pruning a rosebush with a large pair of shears, adjusting her spectacles, shuffling about among the teacups, humming, arranging ashtrays or babies, absorbing a slant of light, a fresh edge to the weather and piercing, with a kind of modest, beautiful X-ray vision, the psychic interiors of her neighbors - her neighbors on trains, in the dentist's waiting room, in the corner teashop. To her, this fortunate one, what is there that isn't relevant! Old shoes can be used, doorknobs, airletters, flannel nightgowns, cathedrals, nail varnish, jet planes, rose arbors and budgerigars; little mannerisms - the sucking at a tooth, the tugging at a hemline - any weird or warty or fine or despicable thing. Not to mention emotions, motivations - those rumbling, thunderous shapes. Her business is Time, the way it shoots forward, shunts back, blooms, decays and double exposes itself. Her business is people in Time. And she, it seems to me, has all the time in the world. She can take a century if she likes, a generation, a whole summer.

I can take about a minute.

I'm not talking about epic poems. We all know how long they can take. I'm talking about the smallish, unofficial garden-variety poem. How shall I describe it? - a door opens, a door shuts. In between you have a glimpse: a garden, a person, a rainstorm, a dragonfly, a heart, a city. I think of those round Victorian paperweights which I remember, yet can never find - a far cry from the plastic mass-productions which stud the toy counters in Woolworths. This sort of paperweight is a clear globe, self-complete, very pure, with a forest or village or family group within it. You turn it upside down, then back. It snows. Everything is changed in a minute. It will never be the same in there - not the fir trees, nor the gables, nor the faces.

So a poem takes place.

Quote of the Day, 1/04/07: Ford

Gerald Ford, our 38th president, died this past week. I thought it appropriate to offer a few quotes from Ford today.

A government big enough to give you everything you want is a government big enough to take from you everything you have.
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It can go on and on, or someone must write "The End" to it. I have concluded that only I can do that. And if I can, I must.
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I am acutely aware that you have not elected me as your President by your ballots, so I ask you to confirm me with your prayers.
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In all my public and private acts as your president, I expect to follow my instincts of openness and candor with full confidence that honesty is always the best policy in the end.
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It's the quality of the ordinary, the straight, the square, that accounts for the great stability and success of our nation. It's a quality to be proud of. But it's a quality that many people seem to have neglected.

Quote of the Day, 1/03/07: More Brains

I enjoyed my brains quotes yesterday, so will add a few more today.

Robert McNamara
Brains are like hearts - they go where they are appreciated.

Charles Kettering
Inventing is a combination of brains and materials. The more brains you use, the less material you need.

Thomas Edison
It is astonishing what an effort it seems to be for many people to put their brains definitely and systematically to work.

Quote of the Day, 1/02/07: Brains

I especially like the last quote below, about borrowing brains. I made myself a framed picture of that quote several years ago, and kept it in my office as a reminder.

Fyodor Dostoyevsky
It is not the brains that matter most, but that which guides them—the character, the heart, generous qualities, progressive ideas.

Robert Frost
The brain is a wonderful organ. It starts working the moment you get up in the morning and does not stop until you get into the office.

Woodrow Wilson
I not only use all the brains that I have, but all that I can borrow.

Quote of the Day, 1/01/07: History

My Lives in Letters post earlier got me thinking about history, which seemed a good enough theme as any while we turn the corner of a new year.

Benjamin Disraeli
Read no history: nothing but biography, for that is life without theory.

David Ben Gurion
Anyone who believes you can't change history has never tried to write his memoirs.

E. L. Doctorow
History is the present. That's why every generation writes it anew. But what most people think of as history is its end product, myth.

Henry Steele Commager
History, we can confidently assert, is useful in the sense that art and music, poetry and flowers, religion and philosophy are useful. Without it -- as with these -- life would be poorer and meaner; without it we should be denied some of those intellectual and moral experiences which give meaning and richness to life. Surely it is no accident that the study of history has been the solace of many of the noblest minds of every generation.