Andrew Motion Quotes

But in a lot of ways my poems are very conventional, and it's no big deal for me to write a poem in either free verse or strict form; modern poets can, and do, do both.

Andrew Motion

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Quotes to Explore

• So people think I'm lying about my age all the time? It's the records that are wrong. I've never told anyone how old I am. The minute they ask me, I say 'That's none of your business.' So that means I've never once lied about my age. Now that's true!

  

  Calista Flockhart
  • People
  • Time
  • Business

• When I was about four, people used to walk up to my mom and say I should be in commercials.

  

  Zachary Gordon
  • People
  • Up
  • Mom

• I learned so much in Zimbabwe, in particular about the need for humility in our ambition to extend mental health care in countries where there were very few psychiatrists and where the local culture harboured very different views about mental illness and healing. These experiences have profoundly influenced my thinking.

  

  Vikram Patel
  • Different
  • Thinking
  • Culture

• I think it's always easy to be sympathetic to parts of the government in detail; in their concrete manifestations. Because obviously, we don't have government for no reason.

  

  P. J. O'Rourke
  • Think
  • Government
  • Easy

• I was excited when King's College announced a scholarship for students who are in developing countries.

  

  Malala Yousafzai
  • College
  • King
  • Students

• They do not understand Islam, and I think that is one area where perhaps I hope one day I will play a role in actually making people understand what we perceive Islam to be.

  

  Imran Khan
  • People
  • Hope
  • Day

• Proposing inner-life solutions to our political and economic catastrophes is something done, say the critics, only by people who've spent more time in la-la land than in the 'real world.'

  

  Parker Palmer
  • People
  • Life
  • Time

• If I'm offered a good case in Florida or a good case somewhere else, South Florida will win every time.

  

  F. Lee Bailey
  • Time
  • Good
  • Win

• I have big hands. I can't do the touch-screen thing. I'm a button guy. I want to press buttons.

  

  J. B. Smoove
  • Guy
  • Want
  • Hands

• The usual fortune of complaint is to excite contempt more than pity.

  

  Samuel Johnson
  • More
  • Fortune
  • Pity

• When I was being brought up, we weren't allowed to wallow in self-pity, which was a thoroughly good thing. We were all fine and healthy because that was what we were told to be.

  

  Maeve Binchy
  • Up
  • Good
  • Healthy

• As a woman, I've learned that having a uniform of your staples or setting your look and saying what distinguishes you - like red lips or hair or whatever - leaves so much time for the rest of the day.

  

  Natasha Lyonne
  • Time
  • Day
  • Rest

• It's the sum of the parts that make up the whole, so in my opinion excellence comes from how one undertakes to do something. It all begins with the thought process - which is creative and exalted to produce something out of the ordinary.

  

  Pankaj Patel
  • Up
  • Opinion
  • Creative

• I'm not a walking extra in a Chekhov play; I'm no Slavic gloom or Irish gloom.

  

  Orson Welles
  • Play
  • Walking
  • Irish

• I've definitely become smuttier. When I first started out, I had these aspirations: 'I'm not going to do jokes about anything crude because I'm bigger and better than that.' But then, I don't know... It makes me laugh, so I started doing it.

  

  Jack Whitehall
  • Me
  • Laugh
  • Jokes

• When you go to jail, there's so much simple stuff missing. You just want some good toilet paper or a real toothbrush, a real blanket and a real bed to lay in.

  

  Ja Rule
  • Good
  • Real
  • Want

• Our goal is a title. With LeBron, we are in 'win now' mode.

  

  Dan Gilbert
  • Goal
  • Win
  • Now

• I'll talk about these things, but it's just, you know, you only get so much time and I'm much more interested in what I'm going to be doing next year than in something I did 10 years ago.

  

  Walter Hill
  • Time
  • Know
  • Year

• On certain projects, on big public projects, people definitely are interested in making them greener, but on smaller projects with tight budgets it can be harder.

  

  Frank Gehry
  • People

• I know some people might think it odd - unworthy even - for me to have written a cookbook, but I make no apologies. The U.S. poet laureate Billy Collins thought I had demeaned myself by writing poetry for Hallmark Cards, but I am the people's poet so I write for the people.

  

  Maya Angelou
  • People
  • Writing
  • Poetry

• The most important thing to remember is that the composer is a senior partner. You cannot force a subject on a composer if it doesn't inspire him. He has to take the lead, you are an enabler, and you are creating the enabling conditions under which he can write great music. Your words are secondary. Many librettists in opera collaborations in the past have forgotten this, or not known it, or refuse to accept it and tried to get out in front of the creative process and it just doesn't work that way.

  

  Terry Teachout
  • Important
  • Writing
  • Remember

• Against spin, my god, he is really a murderer

  

  V. V. S. Laxman
  • God
  • Murderer

• I work for three or four hours a day, in the late morning and early afternoon. Then I go out for a walk and come back in time for a large gin and tonic.

  

  J. G. Ballard
  • Time
  • Work
  • Morning

• But in a lot of ways my poems are very conventional, and it's no big deal for me to write a poem in either free verse or strict form; modern poets can, and do, do both.

  

  Andrew Motion
  • Writing
  • Free
  • Poet