Jay Parini Quotes
Good and productive labor is valuable, and it doesn't mean you have to have a fancy job description. You don't have to become rich. You can be ordinary. Happiness lies there. Do good work, create good work for others.

Quotes to Explore
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More modern poetry is written than read.
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Art is inspiring. Walking into a gallery, or when the lights go up on a stage; that thrill of getting something that has nothing to do with acquisition.
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If there were a major earthquake in Los Angeles, with bridges and highways and railroads and airports all shut down and huge buildings collapsing, I don't care how much planning you do, the first 72 hours is going to be chaotic.
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It has been an incredible honour and privilege to serve Ontarians as their premier.
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I think Mr. Wilson will have to be the rest of the way alone.
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I do have the personnel that we use in the back of my head when I'm working, but I also don't want to limit myself.
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For me it's the high-water mark of American culture - not so much contemporary jazz, which has become kind of academic, but the jazz from the '20s on through the '70s.
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My work always presents problems in our society. Those problems may be anything from injustice to freedom, and everything related to humanity.
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Normally, young writers have all the time in the world and they don't always use it well.
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Wherever I am in the world, my perfect day begins with waking up and heading to the beach or the pool or somewhere I can be semi-comatose. I just wake up and go to the sun.
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I get so nervous before I go on stage that I can never eat very much, so I'm always completely starving afterwards and dying for a bowl of pasta.
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I think there's nothing that can drive you more than a huge dream or a huge challenge.
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I am not the kind of leader who pontificates about what should be done - I don't operate on scenarios, and I am not a prophet.
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Our country is in deep trouble. To talk and re-litigate in 1998, or even what Mitt Romney said or didn't say in 1994 or 2002, I don't think most people really care.
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You should have high expectations for yourself and others should come second.
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I had to give myself permission to act, then others agreed.
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I wanted this, I wanted to do this, but my work is me, and it has to be right.
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Usually Mexico, or always Mexico has defended itself and its territory.
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Antidepressants can have troubling side effects and are addictive for some people.
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The Turks would do anything with a captured screaming infidel body - make it chew its own penis, thrust the testicles up the anus, saw the noseless earless head off with slow delicacy.
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Our mind is the canvas on which the artists lay their colour; their pigments are our emotions; their chiaroscuro the light of joy, the shadow of sadness. The masterpiece is of ourselves, as we are of the masterpiece.
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Almost all our suffering is the product of our thoughts. We spend nearly every moment of our lives lost in thought, and hostage to the character of those thoughts. You can break this spell, but it takes training just like it takes training to defend yourself against a physical assault.
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I want to ski down Mount Cho Oyu in the Himalayas when I am 85, descending from a height of 8,201 meters.
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Good and productive labor is valuable, and it doesn't mean you have to have a fancy job description. You don't have to become rich. You can be ordinary. Happiness lies there. Do good work, create good work for others.