Quotes About Expression

Every now and then I read a poem that does touch something in me, but I never turn to poetry for solace or pleasure in the way that I throw myself into prose.

The I-Kiribati are a remarkably musical people. Everyone sings. There is something arresting about seeing a tough-looking teenage boy suddenly put a flower behind his ear and begin to croon.

But, as I delved into Chinese for Dummies, I couldn't help but conclude that the Chinese language is the Great Wall of languages, a clever linguistic barrier erected to keep outsiders out. What, frankly, is wrong with Esperanto? Or alphabets? What is so deficient about an alphabet that uses a judicious twenty-six letters? We can make lots of words with those twenty-six letters, big words even.

Is your speaking an improvement on silence?

I've written for every medium except poetry, at which I suck.

The more important the emotion is, the fewer words required to express it: Will you go out with me? I think I like you. I care for you. I love you. Marry me. Goodbye.

My philosophy: find what it is you want to say, walk in the room, say it, and get the hell out.

Until we begin to put pen to paper, we historically do not exist.

Poetry is frosted fire.

Poetry is prose, bent out of shape.

Poetry is perfect verbs hunting for elusive nouns.

I have always believed that poems beg to be read aloud, even if the reader is in a world all her own.

The beauty one can find in art is one of the pitifully few real and lasting products of human endeavor.

if you don't speak your emotions you serve them, and if you don't tell your story you lose it—or, what might be worse, you get lost inside it. Telling is how we cement details, preserve continuity, stay sane. We say ourselves into being every day, or else.

Every journalist has a novel in him, which is an excellent place for it.

Sensuality does not understand why everyone else is so disturbed by her. As a young girl, she was often scolded for going barefoot.

Writers write for various reasons. I write because my heart demands so. There is so much freedom in the simple act of sitting there, holding up my hands, waiting to pound on the computer keyboard, waiting for words to pour from the tips of my fingers and compose the melody of life from the faded tapestry of my past.

Institutions that embody moral beauty—universities, museums, cathedrals, courthouses, monuments, the criminal justice system—can inspire awe in those who live lives of privilege. For those who've been subjugated by such institutions, the feeling is often much closer to threat-based awe and its bodily expressions, shudders and cold shivers.

I'd bite myself and take out my feelings with my teeth.

There is nothing more gorgeous than being in a room with a play or watching someone on a stage delineate the human condition.

The best grammarian still can't write a verse.

Grammarians make no new thoughts, but thoughts make new grammar.

If you're having fun, enjoy it. If you're angry, get angry. And when you want to cry, go ahead and cry your heart out. You'll feel a lot better after a good cry. And then you'll be able to laugh again.

Well said the owner of the house she has a most idiotick run.