Billy Collins Quotes
If you write a letter of resignation or something with an agenda, you're simply using a pen to record what you have thought out. In a poem, the pen is more like a flashlight, a Geiger counter, or one of those metal detectors that people walk around beaches with.
Quotes to Explore
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Age is just a number. Unless, that is, you live in Hollywood, where there's this notion that if you haven't hit it big by your 20s, you may as well hit the road.
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If you look at the scientists who really make a difference, they think boldly. They're not afraid to question what they see.
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A great work is made out of a combination of obedience and liberty.
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Now, performing is second nature and I love every second of it. It is a very emotional thing when I can't play a song; maybe I'm hitting on something that I don't want to deal with. All of it is so personal. It is like therapy.
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Comedy, we may say, is society protecting itself - with a smile.
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Self-preservation is the first law of nature.
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I know what I look like - a weird, sad clown puppet. I'm fine with that.
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We fear to know the fearsome and unsavory aspects of ourselves, but we fear even more to know the godlike in ourselves.
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I don't have a great instrument. I don't have the kind of ungodly control over my voice and body that great actors have. And I've worked with enough great actors to know that I'm not one.
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And when did mere preaching do any good? Put something in the place of these things. Fill the vacuum of the mind.
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Judge Sotomayor is a liberal judicial activist of the first order who thinks her own personal political agenda is more important that the law as written.
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I have this first album that sells more than 100,000 copies in its first week, debuts at number two, goes gold, the single goes platinum, we're doing Madison Square Garden.
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Without children, men have more liberty to earn less - that is, they are free to pursue more fulfilling and less lucrative careers, like writing or art or teaching social studies.
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My message is: You don't have to give up being popular, fun, or fashionable in order to be smart; they can go hand and hand. Doing math is a great way to exercise your brain; being smart is going to make you more powerful in life.
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Mumbai is like Manhattan. There's a certain pace, a social life and the thrill of a professional life.
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I go out and speak to women's groups all the time, and I say, 'Guys, you gotta laugh and find the humor in things. You gotta pass it on.'
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One knows less about one's own destiny than about anything else on earth.
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I need to have proper equipment when I work out, and the Nike Frees are light, comfortable, and great for training. I also usually bring a short-sleeve or long-sleeve compression shirt and a pair of shorts.
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Sympathy is a shallow stream in the souls of those who have not suffered.
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Writing and Painting are the same for me.
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There's great power in deference. You ask somebody 'what' or 'how' questions. People love to be asked how to do something. They feel powerful, and from a deferential position, you've actually granted that power, and you're the one that now actually has the upper hand in the conversation.
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The real need is not for more hospital beds. It's for more primary care and keeping people out of hospital beds and emergency rooms.
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The purpose of the minority is to become the majority.
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If you write a letter of resignation or something with an agenda, you're simply using a pen to record what you have thought out. In a poem, the pen is more like a flashlight, a Geiger counter, or one of those metal detectors that people walk around beaches with.
