John Ashbery Quotes
There is the view that poetry should improve your life. I think people confuse it with the Salvation Army.
Quotes to Explore
-
A sack is way better than any nightclub. A touchdown is way better than any bar experience I've ever had.
-
To have ego means to believe in your own strength. And to also be open to other people's views. It is to be open, not closed. So, yes, my ego is big, but it's also very small in some areas. My ego is responsible for my doing what I do - bad or good.
-
I never left doo wop.
-
If I'm daring at all, I guess it would be emotionally. I try to keep things interesting for myself and to do things that challenge me.
-
Risk comes from not knowing what you're doing.
-
It took me just three months to pick up Hindi. I guess I'm a fast learner when it comes to languages.
-
I was deposed by a coup d'etat, by friends that I trusted and aided by the American Government.
-
What gives the artist real prestige is his imitators.
-
I was thinking things had changed: that the next generation of men weren't as institutionally misogynist as the previous were. And then, suddenly, the Internet came along and gave them a platform to voice their feelings anonymously. And boy, did the bile come out.
-
I don't accept gifts from perfect strangers - but then, nobody's perfect.
-
I don't turn my nose up at anything. If it's a great part, it's a great part. I'd love to do a box-office hit.
-
'Power Play' is a morality tale for our post-Enron world and - not incidentally - wildly entertaining. Nothing wrong with that.
-
My family and relatives alone could fill Shanmukhananda Hall in Bombay.
-
If Asian America exists, it is because of systemic racism.
-
I go to Australia probably once every two years. It's wide-open spaces there, so I just rent a motorcycle and ride out to the middle of the continent. For hours, you don't see anybody.
-
Movies can't ruin books. They can only ruin movies.
-
I don't really approach a character as to whether or not it's good or bad. I just approach a character as to where it lives in me.
-
History, whether sacred or profane, hides her teaching from those who study her through coloured glasses. She only reveals truth to those who look through the cold clear medium of passionless inquiry, who seek the Truth without determining first the masquerade in which alone they will receive it.
-
I like uncertainty in roles, and I like uncertainty in art, really.
-
The highest art is always the most religious, and the greatest artist is always a devout person.
-
Where the stakes are the highest, in the war on terror, we cannot possibly succeed without extraordinary international cooperation. Effective international police actions require the highest degree of intelligence sharing, planning and collaborative enforcement.
-
In our search for a lasting solution to the Kashmir problem, both in its external and internal dimensions, we shall not traverse solely on the beaten track of the past. Mindsets will have to be altered and historical baggage jettisoned.
-
Sort of desolate, decayed, the smell of - I don't want to dramatise it - but death, you know. That is what it feels like, no-man's-land, and it is not a nice place to be.
-
There is the view that poetry should improve your life. I think people confuse it with the Salvation Army.
