John Ashbery Quotes
Quotes to Explore
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Awards don't really mean much.
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I refuse to accept other people's ideas of happiness for me. As if there's a 'one size fits all' standard for happiness.
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At one level, an award is an endorsement, a confirmation, but I always find myself looking askance at awards and good reviews, as though another Garry Disher had earned them.
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Money is our madness, our vast collective madness.
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If I can help and influence girls who are going through body-image issues then I think that's amazing.
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My father is a silent cinema freak, so he took me to 1925 silent films that took forever, like 5-hour movies, but I've seen a lot of that stuff since I was young. And then I saw the film 'Annie,' and I just wanted to be Annie; I just wanted to be that orphan kid and wanted to sing and dance.
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I have felt that connection and stewardship for Earth for as long as I can remember. And not just for Earth, but the whole universe.
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Life is neither comedy or tragedy, life is what you make of it.
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I think, like any artist, those baby songs are not the best things you've ever written, but they count because they're you're first attempts at creating art and expressing yourself.
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I'm not playing for other musicians. We're trying to reach the guy who works all day and wants to spend a buck at night. We'll keep him happy.
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A president who aspires to be recognized as a global leader should not personally stake out a foreign-policy goal, commit himself eloquently to its attainment, and then yield the ground when confronted by firm opposition.
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You never want to have that ticking clock and know that you had all this time and didn't use it.
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I think that cancer is a life form that exists out there, and it exists in us. I think even the concept of healing is a spiritual principle that we have to really look at. I think the word itself is something we ought to get rid of, because it implies that there is illness - that there is something wrong.
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Mankind: A quality of life upgrade is available to each and every one of you. It should give you a quality of life upgrade, which means no drugs, no alcohol, no fast food - unless, of course, it's a mallard.
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I'm not a one-issue person.
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I try to avoid conflict. I don't want people to be unhappy.
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Hollywood so often likes to make movies that are just about itself. I felt there were a lot of stories that were yet to be told in the middle of the country, and I wanted to capture some of that beauty.
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Yes, Heathrow is the U.K.'s busiest airport, but new runways or a new airport are not the answer. It is far better to focus on improving capacity.
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I'm nervous before all shows.
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Nothing says 'economic growth' like fundamental tax reform.
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When I was a kid at first I wanted to own a candy shop. I guess every kid wants to - we just want to have access - free access.
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Help them to learn songs of joy, instead of burn, baby, burn.
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Life is perpetually creative because it contains in itself that surplus which ever overflows the boundaries of the immediate time and space, restlessly pursuing its adventure of expression in the varied forms of self-realization.
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The poem is sad because it wants to be yours, and cannot be.
