William Stafford Quotes

My question is "when did other people give up the idea of being a poet?" You know, when we are kids we make up things, we write, and for me the puzzle is not that some people are still writing, the real question is why did the other people stop?

William Stafford

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Quotes to Explore

• You don't always get to work as much as you like, because I'm waiting to find things that I care about. Sometimes that's frustrating.

  

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• In theory, there is no difference between theory and practice. But, in practice, there is.

  

  Manfred Eigen
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• When we don't have information, we go to the simplest outlook, to black and white. But then we have to lie to ourselves. Black is never as black as you're painting it and white is never as white.

  

  Patricia Sun
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• The fact is we can only love what we know personally. And we cannot know much. In public affairs, in the rebuilding of civilization, something less dramatic and emotional is needed, namely tolerance.

  

  E. M. Forster
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• Playing evil is just not interesting. I don't think anyone who does evil stuff thinks they're doing evil stuff. That's the scary part.

  

  Carice van Houten
  • Think
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• Why would Senator Allen want to oppose saving money for the state? It's simply another example of Republicans fighting the governor tooth and nail against any measure where she might be able to turn the state's budget around.

  

  Bart Stupak
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• I like things simple.

  

  Valentino Garavani
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• I just make up lyrics off the top of my head. A lot of times, there's a phrase I really like, and I kind of build the song around that.

  

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• I really don't see a reason why you wouldn't want to have a relationship with Jesus Christ. I mean, not only was He the greatest human being to ever walk the earth, He's everything that I want to strive for. He's everything that anyone should ever want to strive for.

  

  Sam Bradford
  • Why
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• Many people think fairy tales and retellings of fairy tales are only for children, but I'm not the only writer to take an old tale and retell it for a sophisticated adult audience.

  

  Kate Forsyth
  • People
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• I did try fillers once. Don't ever have fillers because when your cheekbones are high, it's chipmunk time.

  

  Felicity Kendal
  • Time
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• I thought of Jeff Bridges in 'Hell or High Water' and Ben Foster, and I kept trying very hard not to, because you're terrified you're going to write this thing that then feeds specifically to this one person that then won't do it.

  

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  • Trying
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• I don't like people waiting on me. I feel it is an unnecessary expense.

  

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• American business at this point is really about developing an idea, making it profitable, selling it while it's profitable and then getting out or diversifying. It's just about sucking everything up.

  

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  • Up
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• Two cheers for Democracy; one because it admits variety, and two because it permits criticism.

  

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  • Democracy
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• Capitalism is using its money; we socialists throw it away.

  

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• Abraham Lincoln is singular. Abraham Lincoln, before he was killed, stood up and, you know, for the first time from any sitting president, stood for the right for suffrage for African-American men who had served in the Civil War. And that's a limited suffrage, but it was quite radical at the time.

  

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• We have an idea that the man should help pay for the child. But we don't have a law that says a man has to support any woman he gets pregnant. Why is that? Because she doesn't have the baby yet. But if we're going to say it's a human being, then he should be supporting her during pregnancy.

  

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• I'm not trying to disrespect anybody by saying this - I'm not sure I feel any interaction with Asian America in any collective sense. - It's like, when you're telling me this right now, my reaction is, Really? Asian America knows about me?

  

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• Martin Landau in 'Crimes and Misdemeanors' - he gave me chills.

  

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• If there are malpractices in sports, part of the solution lies in the organisations themselves taking a very strong view and cleaning up the mess from within.

  

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  • Up
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  • Sports

• Obviously people don't want other people to tell them how to think or what to believe, or to tell them what's right politically and what's wrong.

  

  Leonardo DiCaprio
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  • Believe
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• Putting yourself out there is hard, but it's so worth it. I don't think anyone who has ever spoken out, or stood up or had a brave moment, has regretted it. It's empowering and confidence-building and inspiring. Not only to other people, but to yourself.

  

  Megan Rapinoe
  • People
  • Up
  • Confidence

• My question is "when did other people give up the idea of being a poet?" You know, when we are kids we make up things, we write, and for me the puzzle is not that some people are still writing, the real question is why did the other people stop?

  

  William Stafford
  • People
  • Writing
  • Real