Billy Collins Quotes
For most Americans, poetry plays no role in their everyday lives. But also for most Americans, contemporary painting or jazz or sculpture play no role either. I'm not saying poetry is singled out as a special thing to ignore.
Quotes to Explore
-
I am enjoying my face changing, as well as realizing that at the same time, as you get older, the machine isn't as well-oiled as it was.
-
I clearly believe a lot more than some of my coalition colleagues - Tories - in redistribution and using the tax system for that purpose. I also believe in the government having an active role in the economy, which is having an industrial strategy. I'm not a believer in laissez-faire.
-
Being American and being an outsider at the same time, it's a perspective I often bring to a character.
-
I despise making the most of one's time. Half of the pleasures of life consist of the opportunities one has neglected.
-
I've always been extremely physical. I was a gymnast for 15 years, and then I was a dancer for nine, so I was kind of looking for these parts. But we have a tendency in Denmark not to do many action films.
-
When I learned that flour pound for pound has as many calories as sugar, and that when eating pasta you're basically eating cake, I was size 23, and my neck was restricting my breathing, and so I got on a microbiotic diet and got myself an exercise bike.
-
The choice that frees or imprisons us is the choice of love or fear. Love liberates. Fear imprisons.
-
I wasn't interested at all in doing a documentary. I was not a public figure.
-
When people laugh at Mickey Mouse, it's because he's so human; and that is the secret of his popularity.
-
Pete Seeger is a modest, unassuming, cheerful, and kind-natured man. He's a good folk singer, if you can stand folk singing. And he's such an excellent banjo player that you almost don't wish you had a pair of wire cutters.
-
There are actors who aren't on the cover of magazines but still decide what work they want and when they want it. I want a family one day. So I dream of really being able to decide when to work and when not to.
-
Americans have grown impatient with the relentless politicizing of every area of life.
-
I sang for my family. And I think probably the first time I sang and got paid for it, I was about 6 or 7.
-
As far as expectations go, you can never work for expectations. You have to work against them.
-
There are certain things that can be asked that get me excited. It's never a thing where I think I'm too good, I'm just the type of person who likes to be enlightened. I don't like to go through the motions.
-
I'm not being outspoken or pro or con abortion.
-
When ye are prepared for a thing, the opportunity to use it presents itself.
-
I went out of my way to try not to be an artist, because I thought I would end up leading a miserable, obscure life. I tried to escape it for as long as I could, until I had to admit at 25 that that was my path.
-
I love music. I've just been putting studios together, here and at my house in New Jersey and so I can always make music and express my ideas and work with people to fine tune them to where they need to be.
-
I use the PhotoReady Foundation almost every day, and their lip glosses are fantastic.
-
When I get my hands on painting materials I don't give a damn about other people's painting... every generation must start again afresh.
-
The people who founded America, who fought for its freedom, did not look to anyone else to get them out of their troubles. They took matters into their own hands and answered only to God and their peers. In today's world, sacrifice and hardship are not in the everyday language, and instant gratification is foremost.
-
I need to run every day. If I don't I feel cheated.
-
For most Americans, poetry plays no role in their everyday lives. But also for most Americans, contemporary painting or jazz or sculpture play no role either. I'm not saying poetry is singled out as a special thing to ignore.
