William Empson Quotes
Twixt devil and deep sea, man hacks his caves; Birth, death; one, many; what is true, and seems; Earth's vast hot iron, cold space's empty waves.

Quotes to Explore
-
But I also think that the more you reason collectively about what the project should be at the beginning of the process, the more you can improvise later.
-
An interview has become such a confrontational thing. It makes you very defensive.
-
For most of us, wisdom is acquired in the thicket of experience and usually meets us somewhere along the way if we live long enough. But sooner is better than later.
-
I'm sure I'm perceived in a more glam way. This is my breakout if you will.
-
The best situation is being a single parent. The best part about is that you get time off, too, because the kids are with their mom, so it's the best of both worlds. There's a lot to be said for it.
-
You have to expect the raps when you have achieved popularity as a writer.
-
Mike Leigh taught me about making choices - as an actor, you choose between being honest and clever, and with Mike, it's always about being honest. I learned how to behave on a film set from Jim Broadbent. He was a great example of someone with a fantastic career who kept his feet on the ground.
-
I want to keep talking about my people and my country in my own language.
-
I love the smell of Burger King when I ride past, but sometimes I have to avoid it.
-
Books, like proverbs, receive their chief value from the stamp and esteem of the ages through which they have passed.
-
Well, there's just some universal truths in a way that I've just observed to be true. You read Voltaire. You read modern literature. Anywhere you go, there's these observations about romantic love and what it does people, and these rotten feelings that rarely are people meaning to do that to each other.
-
He who has religion will speak poetry. But philosophy is the tool with which to seek and discover religion.
-
When I was 15, I worked as a bag boy in a grocery store. I also needed to walk old ladies to their car and put their bags in the car, and they would give me two dollars. I felt like the richest man in the world.
-
I've had some threaten not to give Communion to me, even though they don't know my position, just because I'm a Democrat. I've had cardinals refuse to shake my hand because I'm a Democrat.
-
I'll go for broke. Swim faster. It's not going to be easy - this whole thing was never going to be easy.
-
Microsoft is engaging in unlawful predatory practices that go well beyond the scope of fair competition.
-
Some people look at movies and think, 'Oh my gosh, that's so amazing.' But to me, I look at a politician or a scientist and think, 'They're creating the content of humanity.'
-
My father was a gambler. My father could not resist a casino or a card game. He loved gambling.
-
If you live in a small space, you should do the things that make it feel luxurious.
-
Everything that we have gone through, are going through, and will go through is there in Shakespeare. It is all of human life.
-
The writer can choose what he writes about but he cannot choose what he is able to make live.
-
It's a fire, it's a passion to get out and to create and to innovate. And that I've always enjoyed and I've always been very proud of is that the people I've done business with, the people around me have always made money.
-
If I had my way, any man guilty of golf would be ineligible for any office of trust in the United States.
-
Twixt devil and deep sea, man hacks his caves; Birth, death; one, many; what is true, and seems; Earth's vast hot iron, cold space's empty waves.