Billy Collins Quotes

My poems tend to have rhetorical structures; what I mean by that is they tend to have a beginning, a middle, and an end. There tends to be an opening, as if you were reading the opening chapter of a novel. They sound like I'm initiating something, or I'm making a move.

Billy Collins

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Quotes to Explore

• Mordovian prisoners are afraid of their own shadows. They are completely terrified.

  

  Nadezhda Tolokonnikova
  • Afraid
  • Own
  • Shadows

• I was raised Catholic in Rockford, Illinois. But I'm not a practicing Catholic anymore. Oh God, no.

  

  Natasha Leggero
  • God
  • Catholic
  • Anymore

• I am really curious about life, about why we are all here. I notice my skin is ageing, things are changing, I've seen people dying, so that's the train we are all on.

  

  Damien Rice
  • People
  • Life
  • Train

• 'Giving 2.0' frames giving as a learning experience and encourages everyone to make giving a part of your year-round life.

  

  Laura Arrillaga-Andreessen
  • Life
  • Experience
  • Giving

• It's quite rare that you find models taken care of backstage.

  

  Abbey Lee Kershaw
  • You
  • Taken
  • Care

• I see Turkey's future as being in Europe, as one of many prosperous, tolerant, democratic countries.

  

  Orhan Pamuk
  • Future
  • See
  • Turkey

• There is always the fear of failure, and if you struggle, you become nervous, and that's when the underdogs have an opportunity to create a surprise.

  

  Ottmar Hitzfeld
  • Opportunity
  • Fear
  • Struggle

• I am also a drummer of sorts. I've got an electronic set sitting in my bedroom.

  

  Gary Cole
  • Drummer
  • Set
  • Bedroom

• Of all work-schools, a good farm is probably the best for motor development.

  

  G. Stanley Hall
  • Good
  • Work
  • Best

• At some point, you're going to have to be willing to take a punch for your team. If your employees or your teammates will see that you're willing to do that, they are more likely to be loyal to you, and your team is more likely to function better.

  

  Dana Perino
  • Team
  • Employees
  • Teammates

• The hardest thing about being an unpublished writer is that there's always that voice in your head that asks if you're really being a fool. You might just really stink and not know it. You have to have a lot of blind faith in the process. You have to like it so much that you're going to do it anyway.

  

  Watt Key
  • Faith
  • Voice
  • Fool

• You could say that we are living in an internally globalized country.

  

  Ulrich Beck
  • Country
  • You
  • Living

• I think, especially living in L.A., it's very easy to get wrapped up in weekend announcements and the trades and the whole social life of the city, and to get divorced from what actually matters.

  

  Damien Chazelle
  • Life
  • Up
  • City

• I don't harp on the negative because if you do, then there's no progression. There's no forward movement. You got to always look on the bright side of things, and we are in control. Like, you have control over the choices you make.

  

  Taraji P. Henson
  • Control
  • Choices
  • Negative

• My father is an Algerian, proud of who he is and I am proud that my father is Algerian.

  

  Zinedine Zidane
  • Father
  • Proud
  • Algerian

• A person doesn't die when he should but when he can.

  

  Gabriel Garcia Marquez
  • Die
  • Person
  • Should

• Someone once said that you can make the choice between getting old and getting creepy, and I think getting old is the way to go.

  

  Kate Beckinsale
  • Think
  • Choice
  • Old

• If you live in New York or L.A., and you're liberal, and you're playing to a liberal crowd, it's almost like a rally... it's not edgy.

  

  Dana Carvey
  • Live
  • New York
  • Edgy

• I haven't directed a film since 'Appaloosa,' and I've been looking for something because I love the directing thing.

  

  Ed Harris
  • Film
  • Thing
  • Directing

• No sensible decision can be made any longer without taking into account not only the world as it is, but the world as it will be.

  

  Isaac Asimov
  • World
  • Decision
  • Without

• MAC Cosmetics is incredible for lips; I always wear it.

  

  Kat Graham
  • Always
  • Lips
  • Cosmetics

• The publishers, as I remember at the very beginning of my career, wrote letters with their fountain pens. A letter is different from a phone call or fax. It's a different kind of intimacy. That pervaded the entire business of writing and publishing.

  

  James Salter
  • Different
  • Writing
  • Business

• I spend much too much time on the Web with e-mail and surfing and reading my key sites, and a whole day can go by, and you wonder, 'What did I do today?'

  

  George Packer
  • Time
  • Today
  • Reading

• My poems tend to have rhetorical structures; what I mean by that is they tend to have a beginning, a middle, and an end. There tends to be an opening, as if you were reading the opening chapter of a novel. They sound like I'm initiating something, or I'm making a move.

  

  Billy Collins
  • Reading
  • Beginning