Quotes about birds

„I've been waiting for that! (After an audience member requests "Free Bird" by Lynyrd Skynyrd.)“

—  Kurt Cobain American musician and artist 1967 - 1994

1993-11-18 at Sony Music Studios, New York City, New York (MTV Unplugged).
Stage banter

„Birds scream at the top of their lungs in horrified hellish rage every morning at daybreak to warn us all of the truth, but sadly we don't speak bird.“

—  Kurt Cobain, book Journals

Journals (2002)
Context: Birds... scream at the top of their lungs in horrified hellish rage every morning at daybreak to warn us all of the truth. They know the truth. Screaming bloody murder all over the world in our ears, but sadly we don't speak bird. [p. 224]

„I spent a lot of money on booze, birds and fast cars. The rest I just squandered.“

—  George Best British footballer 1946 - 2005

Reported in " Best: Decline of the golden boy http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/uk_news/4090840.stm", BBC News (June 14 2005).

„If only, if only, the moon speaks no reply;
Reflecting the sun and all that's gone by.
Be strong my weary wolf, turn around boldly.
Fly high, my baby bird,
My angel, my only“

—  Louis Sachar, book Holes

Source: Holes

„I want to paint the way a bird sings.“

—  Claude Monet French impressionist painter 1840 - 1926

Variant: I would like to paint the way a bird sings.
Source: Monet By Himself

„I'm a warrior. I was brought up as a warrior. I didn't have toys, I had weapons. I slept with a wooden sword until I was five. My first books were medieval demonologies with illuminated pages. The first songs I learned were chants to banish demons. I know what brings me peace, and it isn't sandy beaches or chirping birds in rain forests. I want a weapon in my hand and a strategy to win."
"So you're saying what brings you peace is war.“

—  Cassandra Clare, The Mortal Instruments

"Now you get it."
Jace Herondale and Jordan Kyle, pg. 29
The Mortal Instruments, City of Heavenly Fire (2014)

„Spring: trees flying up to their birds“

—  Paul Celan Romanian poet and translator 1920 - 1970

„It is a matter of great shame that the birds wake up in the morning before you.“

—  Abu Bakr First Muslim Caliph and a companion of Muhammad 573 - 634

Abdul Jaleel Qureshi, Hazrat Abu Bakr Nay Farmaya (Ferozesons, 2011), p.65)

„What are you?" I whispered.
He shrugged again.
"Something," he said. "Something like you, something like a beast, something like a bird, something like an angel." He laughed. "Something like that.“

—  David Almond, book Skellig

Source: Skellig

„No empty handed man can lure a bird“

—  Geoffrey Chaucer, book The Canterbury Tales

Source: The Canterbury Tales

„Then swiftly, neatly, with the grace of the young man on the trapeze, he was gone from his body.
For an eternal moment he was still all things at once: the bird, the fish, the rodent, the reptile, and man.“

—  William Saroyan American writer 1908 - 1981

"The Daring Young Man on the Flying Trapeze"
The Daring Young Man on the Flying Trapeze (1934)
Context: Then swiftly, neatly, with the grace of the young man on the trapeze, he was gone from his body.
For an eternal moment he was still all things at once: the bird, the fish, the rodent, the reptile, and man. An ocean of print undulated endlessly and darkly before him. The city burned. The herded crowd rioted. The earth circled away, and knowing that he did so, he turned his lost face to the empty sky and became dreamless, unalive, perfect.

„Like birds whose wings are broken, you live without direction!“

—  Andrew Biersack American singer-songwriter 1990

„It is extraordinary that nobody nowadays under the stress of great troubles is turned into stone or a bird or a tree or some inanimate object; they used to undergo such metamorphoses in ancient times (or so they say), though whether that is myth or a true story I know not. Maybe it would be better to change one's nature into something that lacks all feeling, rather than be so sensitive to evil. Had that been possible, these calamities would in all probability have turned me to stone“

—  Anna Comnena, book Alexiad

The Alexiad, Preface

„Birds sing after a storm; why shouldn't people feel as free to delight in whatever sunlight remains to them?“

—  Rose Fitzgerald Kennedy American philanthropist and mother of John F. Kennedy 1890 - 1995

„…I keep looking for one more teacher, only to find that fish learn from the water and birds learn from the sky.” (p.275)“

—  Mark Nepo American writer 1951

Source: Facing the Lion, Being the Lion: Finding Inner Courage Where It Lives

„Perched up high on a rooftop,
like a bird I'm having evil thoughts,
A black hood covers my face
as death flows through my mind at its own pace.“

—  Eazy-E American rapper and producer 1963 - 1995

"Neighborhood Sniper", 5150: Home 4 tha Sick (1992).
1990s

„More often than not, the classes of objects encountered in the real physical world do not have precisely defined criteria of membership. For example, the class of animals clearly includes dogs, horses, birds, etc. as its members, and clearly excludes such objects as rocks, fluids, plants, etc. However, such objects as starfish, bacteria, etc. have an ambiguous status with respect to the class of animals. The same kind of ambiguity arises in the case of a number such as 10 in relation to the “class” of all real numbers which are much greater than 1.“

—  Lotfi A. Zadeh Electrical engineer and computer scientist 1921 - 2017

Source: 1960s, Fuzzy sets (1965), p. 338

„Every true writer is like a bird; he repeats the same song, the same theme, all his life. For me, this theme as always been revolt.“

—  Alberto Moravia Italian writer and journalist 1907 - 1990

„Caged birds accept each other, but flight is what they long for.“

—  Tennessee Williams American playwright 1911 - 1983