Quotes About Expression

Cuando uno está borracho, va por ahí contando su historia. El talento de un hombre equivale a la historia que vende de mesa en mesa cuando está borracho.

even though much of what America believed about itself was also fraudulent, at least the press and publishers could express unorthodox views.

Wang Chaosu shouted everything at me, the way many Americans do when they meet foreigners with bad English.

When the cadres banned his students from singing any actual Christmas carols in a stage version of ''A Christmas Carol,'' he had them substitute patriotic Communist songs -- which actually improved Dickens: ''My favorite scene was when a furious Scrooge swung his cane at a band of merry carolers who were belting out 'The East Is Red,' singing the praises of Mao Zedong while the old man shouted, 'Humbug!

I felt a sense of brotherhood with anybody who peddled stories... A crowd had gathered around one man who sold pamphlets. He was in his early twenties, and you could tell from his appearance - dark skin, dirty collar, cheap blue suit - that he was a migrant. But he spoke beautifully, holding the crowd with his words... He sold pamphlets not because he needed to, but because the pamphlets deserved to be sold.

The Bible is closer to poetry than to a scientific manual, and the biblical writers' use of words is more like that of poets than of linguists or scientists.

College students, couples, people covered with eagle tattoos, boat captains, white-haired folks—we were all singing, waiting especially for the chorus

Philosophy says truth, literature shows truth.

Philosophy makes literature clear, literature makes philosophy real.

I find my data first in myself, not first in the poets. For if I did not find it in myself, I would not be able to find it in the poets.

Not all prayer is in words, because not all conversation is in words.

All metaphors limp.

All artists are mothers. To be an artist is to be a creator, whether of a symphony or a supper or a painting or a person. Motherhood is the primary art, the art of creating (procreating) people.

Read Alexander Solzhenitsyn's 1978 Harvard commencement address on that one.)

Literature in the West arose from liturgy.

I screamed, which means I can't tell you the actual words.

What is that instrument?" Aly asked the head guard. When he returned a blank stare, she pantomimed playing the instrument. "A zither?" "Santur," he said.

Code is FLUFFY AND FIERCE.

The artistry of dialogue lies in experiencing the flow of meaning and seeing the one thing that needs to be said now. Like the Quakers, who enjoin members to say not simply whatever pops into their heads but only those thoughts that are compelling (and which cause the speaker to quake from the need to speak them)

The boy Weneluke wove hand patterns with a string, working skillfully into abstract designs on all eight fingers: one of these represented a man and woman facing each other, and, by manipulating each sex, he arrived at a nice parody of copulation.

Half-familiar sounds could be dimly recognized as words through the swirls and eddies of Provençal: demain became demang, vin became vang, maison became mesong.

For Elvis, individual style came unconsciously, from within, demanding expression years before he could have been categorized as an artist. His unique appearance was uncontrived, something that emerged from him, rather than something put onto him.

In addition, Elvis carried within him a millstone that impeded his initial striving toward musical expression: he didn't really feel deserving. All his life Presley was burdened by deep inner fears of success. He 138 THE INNER ELVIS expected all he had accomplished to evaporate instantly, thrusting him back into the pit of poverty from which he came. He felt this fear of failure from the inception of his career.

But this is exactly why I read--and don't belong to a book group--because reading is the most individual thing there is. Why collectivize it? Didn't we have enough bad English teachers in school? Crowd sourcing and literature shouldn't mix.