Diane Ackerman Quotes
There is a way of beholding nature which is a form of prayer, a way of minding something with such clarity and aliveness that the rest of the world recedes. It . . . gives the brain a small vacation.

Quotes to Explore
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I love clothes but I have spent so much of my professional life creating an image of one kind or another that it is nice not to care about it in life and let your skin breathe.
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There are so many different criteria for my collecting, and I have to confess that the goalposts do shift. But obviously, with my background, I am particularly drawn to things that have been documented in contemporary magazines.
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I am prepared to oppose a Jim Crow army till I rot in jail.
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Furthermore, America suffers not only from a lack of standards, but also not infrequently from a confusion or an inversion of standards.
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Close friends consider me a literary snob.
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I don't see myself as a diva at all.
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I said 'It can't go on' and he said 'No, it can't.' Honestly, I don't think I could have mattered less to him by then. But by then, nothing mattered to him.
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I knew I had to write a good screenplay to be taken seriously, and I knew I needed to present Mississippi on visuals instead of just saying, 'Hey I wanted to film it in Mississippi.' It would seem like it was a hometown boy just wanting to be home.
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I hold this to be the highest task for a bond between two people: that each protects the solitude of the other.
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I am ashamed to run against a lady. It's demeaning, very degrading. I have always refused to argue with a lady.
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We're sad about some of the losses of members of great seniority and distinction in the Congress, and some very new members, who will no longer be serving with us.
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Picasso is what is going to happen and what is happening; he is posterity and archaic time, the distant ancestor and our next-door neighbor. Speed permits him to be two places at once, to belong to all the centuries without letting go of the here and now.
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Usually when I write a song, I'll write the music and then kind of fit some words to it.
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A peculiar fact about termite-tapeworm-fungus-moss art is that it goes always forward, eating its own boundaries, and, likely as not, leaves nothing in its path other than the signs of eager, industrious, unkempt activity.
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You should always go to other people's funerals; otherwise, they won't come to yours.
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I am married.
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I am very lucky in that I can eat what I want and don't have to follow any special diet.
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A responsible choice is a choice that creates consequences that you are willing to assume responsibility for.
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overwhelming force indiscriminately applied, not giving up on it well after he was sure no more was required.
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When I'm working, I try to be serious and rest where I can. I just mark in rehearsals. I still train. I warm up. And I still take lessons from this unbelievable teacher in New York, Joan Lader. I try to be stretched and ready to go.
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Those who survived the San Francisco earthquake said, 'Thank God, I'm still alive.' But, of course, those who died, their lives will never be the same again.
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Comedians don't have a monopoly on suffering. But creative people are sometimes fortunate enough to be able to incorporate their most traumatic experiences into their art.
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There is a way of beholding nature which is a form of prayer, a way of minding something with such clarity and aliveness that the rest of the world recedes. It . . . gives the brain a small vacation.