Ornette Coleman Quotes
I decided, if I'm going to be poor and black and all, the least thing I'm going to do is to try and find out who I am. I created everything about me.
Quotes to Explore
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I was not so committed to financial success that I was willing to abandon my principles and priorities. One of the most visible examples of this is our decision to close on Sunday.
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As a novelist, I ask of myself only that I tell the truth and that I tell it beautifully.
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I grew up in a house full of books, and we belonged to the Country Lending Service - each month the State Library would send us a parcel of books by train.
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For someone who writes fiction, in order to activate the imagination and the unconscious, it's essential to be free.
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It's like everybody is shooting something, and everybody's a filmmaker; everybody can shoot a cat video and post it. So the big thing now is - for people that have talent and have something to say, and are creative, and are capable of making something good - is how do they get attention to it?
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Isn't it astonishing that all these secrets have been preserved for so many years just so we could discover them!
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Human attention is limited, and a massive number of newly browsable books from the long tail necessarily compete with the biggest best-sellers, just as cable siphons audience from the major networks, and just as the Web pulls viewers from TV.
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Everything about me is a contradiction, and so is everything about everybody else. We are made out of oppositions; we live between two poles. There's a philistine and an aesthete in all of us, and a murderer and a saint. You don't reconcile the poles. You just recognize them.
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Being the vice-captain, you see a lot of things on the field. You have to try and help the captain as much as you can and lead by example on the field. Small things like getting a run-out or taking a catch makes the other boys try and lift their standards. So yes, I do have an important role, even if I'm not captain.
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I grew up in New York and have lived here all my life. I think it's the best city in the world and can write about it with gusto and fervor and passion.
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I never figured I'd go into the Hall of Fame. A kid from the Hill.
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At key crossroads in his life, Vernon Davis has continued to make a conscious choice to grow as a person and player. His determination through adversity since his childhood days is commendable.
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Truth is the property of no individual but is the treasure of all men.
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I had to quit ballet because it felt like a part of me was dying inside.
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Human activity is having a major impact on the planet. We consume or have diverted a large proportion of the productivity of the land and oceans. Our hunger for land crowds out fellow species. Our waste products pollute the waters, warm the atmosphere and acidify the oceans.
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As is well known, 'McCarthyism' was an alleged focus of political evil in the 1950s: Accusations of Communist taint, without factual basis; bogus lists of supposed Communists who never existed; failure in the end to produce even one provable Communist or Soviet agent, despite his myriad charges of subversion.
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Everybody is improving but I am improving slowly, which seemingly widens our distance.
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But at the beginning it was clear to me that concrete poetry was peculiarly suited for using in public settings. This was my idea, but of course I never really much got the chance to do it.
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What makes 'American Pie' so unusual is that it isn't a relic from the counterculture but a talisman, which, like a sacred river, keeps bringing joy to listeners everywhere. When 'American Pie' suddenly is played on a jukebox or radio, it's almost impossible not to sing along.
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My dad has totally taken my Cat Stevens T-shirt, but it's OK; I have his Black Flag one, and that's amazing.
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As for the virtuous poor, one can pity them of course, but one cannot possibly admire them.
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The gaudy leonine sunflower Hangs black and barren on its stalk, And down the windy garden walk The dead leaves scatter,- hour by hour.
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Affirmative action is not going to be the long-term solution to the problems of race in America, because, frankly, if you've got 50 percent of African-American or Latino kids dropping out of high school, it doesn't really matter what you do in terms of affirmative action. Those kids aren't going to college.
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I decided, if I'm going to be poor and black and all, the least thing I'm going to do is to try and find out who I am. I created everything about me.
