Quotes about play
page 16

Roger Manganelli photo

“[Godzilla kenpo] is a combination of karate and the kinds of moves I make while playing Godzilla. I developed it to help me from becoming too worn out while playing Godzilla.”

Kenpachiro Satsuma (1947) Japanese actor

As quoted by David Milner, "Kenpachiro Satsuma Interview I" http://www.davmil.org/www.kaijuconversations.com/satsum.htm, Kaiju Conversations (December 1993)

Yitzhak Shamir photo
Fiona Apple photo
Gore Vidal photo
Fiona Apple photo
Donald J. Trump photo
Edward Albee photo

“I'm not suggesting that the play is without fault; all of my plays are imperfect, I'm rather happy to say — it leaves me something to do.”

Edward Albee (1928–2016) American playwright

On his play Tiny Alice, in National Observer (5 April 1965)

Norman Mailer photo
Kane Hodder photo
Lisa Wilcox photo
Mickey Spillane photo
Letitia Elizabeth Landon photo

“Sleep, little Paul, what, crying, hush! the night is very dark;
The wolves are near the rampart, the dogs begin to bark;
The bell has rung for slumber, and the guardian angel weeps
When a little child beside the hearth so late a play-time keeps.”

Letitia Elizabeth Landon (1802–1838) English poet and novelist

Traits and Trials of Early Life (1836), 'The Little Boy's Bed-time' translation from Mdme. Marceline Desbordes-Valmore
Translations, From the French

Gyles Brandreth photo

“One of the interesting things about writing a play is that when you've finished it you have to give it away.”

Gyles Brandreth (1948) British writer, broadcaster and former Member of Parliament

WhatsonStage interview, 2010

Frida Kahlo photo
Neil Kinnock photo
Patrick Stump photo
Gustave de Molinari photo
Brendan Fraser photo
Anatoliy Tymoshchuk photo
Johnny Mercer photo

“The days of wine and roses laugh and run away like a child at play
Through the meadow land toward a closing door
A door marked "nevermore" that wasn't there before”

Johnny Mercer (1909–1976) American lyricist, songwriter, singer and music professional

Song The Days of Wine and Roses

Roberto Clemente photo

“I want to thank my teammates for being a bunch of swell guys. I want to thank Branch Rickey for giving me the opportunity of playing baseball. Most of all I want to thank the people of Pittsburgh whose encouragement helped me win this award. They deserve the best.”

Roberto Clemente (1934–1972) Puerto Rican baseball player

From the Dapper Dan Award acceptance speech given on February 4, 1962, as quoted in "CHANGE OF PACE: Clemente Holds His Own as a Speaker'" by Bill Nunn, Jr., in The New Pittsburgh Courier (February 17, 1962)
Baseball-related, <big><big>1960s</big></big>, <big>1962</big>

Grant Morrison photo

“I use media exposure as a means of playing with multiple personalities. Each interview is a different me and they're all untrustworthy”

Grant Morrison (1960) writer

2000
http://web.archive.org/web/20010215211642/http://www.bbc.co.uk/edfest/chat/post_chat.shtml
On himself

Oksana Shachko photo
Bernie Sanders photo

“In Vermont, at a state beach, a mother is reprimanded by Authority for allowing her 6 month old daughter to go about without her diapers on. Now, if children go around naked, they are liable to see each others sexual organs, and maybe even touch them. Terrible thing! If we [raise] children up like this it will probably ruin the whole pornography business, not to mention the large segment of the general economy which makes its money by playing on peoples sexual frustrations.”

Bernie Sanders (1941) American politician, senator for Vermont

1969 essay in the Freeman — as quoted in "You Might Very Well Be the Cause of Cancer": Read Bernie Sanders' 1970s-Era Essays http://www.motherjones.com/politics/2015/07/bernie-sanders-vermont-freeman-sexual-freedom-fluoride, by Tim Murphy, Mother Jones (6 July 2015)
1970s

Halldór Laxness photo
Charles Mingus photo
Lewis H. Lapham photo
Johann Georg Hamann photo

“Let us assume that we invited an unknown person to a game of cards. If this person answered us, “I don’t play,” we would either interpret this to mean that he did not understand the game, or that he had an aversion to it which arose from economic, ethical, or other reasons. Let us imagine, however, that an honorable man, who was known to possess every possible skill in the game, and who was well versed in its rules and its forbidden tricks, but who could like a game and participate in it only when it was an innocent pastime, were invited into a company of clever swindlers, who were known as good players and to whom he was equal on both scores, to join them in a game. If he said, “I do not play,” we would have to join him in looking the people with whom he was talking straight in the face, and would be able to supplement his words as follows: “I don’t play, that is, with people such as you, who break the rules of the game, and rob it of its pleasure. If you offer to play a game, our mutual agreement, then, is that we recognize the capriciousness of chance as our master; and you call the science of your nimble fingers chance, and I must accept it as such, it I will, or run the risk of insulting you or choose the shame of imitating you.” … The opinion of Socrates can be summarized in these blunt words, when he said to the Sophists, the leaned men of his time, “I know nothing.””

Johann Georg Hamann (1730–1788) German philosopher

Therefore these words were a thorn in their eyes and a scourge on their backs.
Socratic Memorabilia, J. Flaherty, trans. (Baltimore: 1967), pp. 165-167.

Charlotte Salomon photo

“The tri-coloured play with music begins' (in Deutsch: Das Drei Farben Singespiel beginnt..)
the cast is as follows
Dr. and MRS. Knarre, a married couple
Franziska and Charlotte, their daughters
Dr. Kahn, a physician
Charlotte Kahn, his daughter
Paulinka Bimbam, a singer
Dr. Singsong, a versatile person
Professor Klingklang, a famous conductor
An Art teacher
Professor and Students at an art academy
and Chorus..
.. The action takes places during the years 1913 to 1940 in Germany, later in Nice, France”

Charlotte Salomon (1917–1943) German painter

Charlotte's 3rd introduction page, related to image JHM no. 4155-3 https://charlotte.jck.nl/detail/M004155-c/part/character/theme/keyword: 'The tri-coloured play with music begins..', p. 43
the quote is written in brush, over the whole page of the painting, with a rough painted gate above
Charlotte Salomon - Life? or Theater?

Ben Carson photo

“Risk played a really important role in making me the person I am.”

Ben Carson (1951) 17th and current United States Secretary of Housing and Urban Development; American neurosurgeon

Source: Take The Risk (2008), p. 67

Tracey Ullman photo

“People think I'm a demented little pixie, but I'm not 'on' all the time. I'm sensible. I pay my bills. I've never done drugs. I don't drink or smoke. I eat organic. I'm a goody-goody, really, but I can play bad girls.”

Tracey Ullman (1959) English-born actress, comedian, singer, dancer, screenwriter, producer, director, author and businesswoman

"Q&A: Tracey Ullman" http://www.newsweek.com/newsmakers-127011 (Newsweek, 19 September 2004)

John Evelyn photo

“I saw Hamlet Pr: of Denmark played: but now the old playe began to disgust this refined age.”

John Evelyn (1620–1706) writer, gardener and diarist

November 26, 1661.
The Diary

John S. Bell photo
George Moore (novelist) photo

“I have always noticed that when a fellow wants to finish a play, the only way to do it is to go away to the country and leave no address.”

George Moore (novelist) (1852–1933) Irish novelist, short-story writer, poet, art critic, memoirist and dramatist

Vain Fortune, Chapter 1.

“When you've seen all of Ionesco's plays, I felt at the end, you've seen one of them.”

Kenneth Tynan (1927–1980) English theatre critic and writer

Review of Victims of Duty by Eugène Ionesco (1960), p. 36
Tynan Right and Left (1967)

Iain Banks photo
Thomas Moore photo

“"Come, come," said Tom's father, "at
your time of life,
There's no longer excuse for thus
playing the rake--
It is time you should think, boy, of
taking a wife."
"Why, so it is father--whose wife
shall I take?"”

Thomas Moore (1779–1852) Irish poet, singer and songwriter

A Joke Versified http://books.google.com/books?id=ENdgFkCgU3gC&pg=PA486&q=%22a+joke+versified%22#v=onepage

Sophia Loren photo
Marshall Faulk photo
Jock Stein photo

“We did it by playing football. Pure, beautiful, inventive football.”

Jock Stein (1922–1985) Scottish footballer and manager

Lisbon, 1967 (after winning the European Cup) http://www.weekender.co.jp/new/030516/sports_news-030516.html

Laisenia Qarase photo
Adrienne von Speyr photo
Hilary Hahn photo
Roger Manganelli photo
Jean Chrétien photo
Roberto Clemente photo

“Last year I lose almost 20 pounds. When I go home end season I weigh only 163. I worry more 'bout bad back than I worry 'bout baseball. Now I feel goot. Ver goot. I sink I play one fitty games and I hit thee hunnert. I feel I hab goot season. Maybe fiteen home runs, nyenee RBIs, steal maybe dirty bases.”

Roberto Clemente (1934–1972) Puerto Rican baseball player

As quoted in "The Great Outdoors: Drafted for $4,000, Clemente Becomes Bucs' Top Bargain; Now That His Back Ailment Is Cured, Outfielder Hopes He'll Hit .300 Again" https://news.google.com/newspapers?id=xUEqAAAAIBAJ&sjid=Dk4EAAAAIBAJ&pg=7140%2C2566447 by Les Biederman, in The Pittsburgh Press (Thursday, April 10, 1958), p. 28
Baseball-related, <big><big>1950s</big></big>, <big>1958</big>

David Letterman photo

“Nice job…what the hell is U2 supposed to play?”

David Letterman (1947) American comedian and actor

To Paul Shaffer, after the CBS Orchestra played "Pride (In the Name of Love)", The Late Show with David Letterman (5 March 2009), during U2's week-long guest appearance.

Robert A. Heinlein photo
Arthur Waley photo
Christopher Golden photo
Andy Murray photo

“I can cry like Roger. It's just a shame I can't play like him.”

Andy Murray (1987) British tennis player

After being defeated by Roger Federer; BBC sports report 31 January 2010 http://news.bbc.co.uk/sport1/hi/tennis/8489082.stm

William James photo
Chris Cornell photo
Lewis Black photo

“The new vision of man and politics was never taken by its founders to be splendid. Naked man, gripped by fear or industriously laboring to provide the wherewithal for survival, is not an apt subject for poetry. They self-consciously chose low but solid ground. Civil societies dedicated to the end of self-preservation cannot be expected to provide fertile soil for the heroic and inspired. They do not require or encourage the noble. What rules and sets the standards of respectability and emulation is not virtue or wisdom. The recognition of the humdrum and prosaic character of life was intended to play a central role in the success of real politics. And the understanding of human nature which makes this whole project feasible, if believed in, clearly forms a world in which the higher motives have no place. One who holds the “economic” view of man cannot consistently believe in the dignity of man or in the special status of art and science. The success of the enterprise depends precisely on this simplification of man. And if there is a solution to the human problems, there is no tragedy. There was no expectation that, after the bodily needs are taken care of, man would have a spiritual renaissance—and this for two reasons: (1) men will always be mortal, which means that there can be no end to the desire for immortality and to the quest for means to achieve it; and (2) the premise of the whole undertaking is that man’s natural primary concern is preservation and prosperity; the regimes founded on nature take man as he is naturally and will make him ever more natural. If his motives were to change, the machinery that makes modern government work would collapse.”

Allan Bloom (1930–1992) American philosopher, classicist, and academician

“Commerce and Culture,” p. 284.
Giants and Dwarfs (1990)

Harry Chapin photo
Tamsin Greig photo
Gillian Anderson photo

“I'm damaged in many ways. And yet a lot of what my fight is about is pushing through that to live a meaningful, sane existence and make a difference and play to my strengths.”

Gillian Anderson (1968) American-British film, television and theatre actress, activist and writer

WSJ "Gillian Anderson: Reviving Blanche DuBois in Brooklyn" http://www.wsj.com/articles/gillian-anderson-reviving-blanche-dubois-in-brooklyn-1461975005 (April 29, 2016)
2010s

Pierre Trudeau photo

“The state has an active role to play in ensuring that there is equilibrium between the constituent parts of the economy, the consumers and the producers.”

Pierre Trudeau (1919–2000) 15th Prime Minister of Canada

Part 3, 1974 - 1979 Victory And Defeat, p. 189
Memoirs (1993)

Studs Terkel photo
F. W. de Klerk photo
Arthur Rubinstein photo
Moby photo

“One simple word: ugh. Is something still considered a conspiracy if it's played out right under our noses?”

Moby (1965) Activist, American musician, DJ and photographer

"oil industry", journal entry (21 January 2003) at moby.com http://www.moby.com/journal/2003-01-21/oil_industry.html

Henri Matisse photo

“In a picture every part will be visible and will play the role conferred upon it, be it principal or secondary. All that is not useful in the picture is detrimental.”

Henri Matisse (1869–1954) French artist

Source: 1900s, Notes d'un Peintre (Notes of a Painter) (1908), p. 410

Du Fu photo
Megan Mullally photo

“We are so accustomed to hear arithmetic spoken of as one of the three fundamental ingredients in all schemes of instruction, that it seems like inquiring too curiously to ask why this should be. Reading, Writing, and Arithmetic—these three are assumed to be of co-ordinate rank. Are they indeed co-ordinate, and if so on what grounds?
In this modern “trivium” the art of reading is put first. Well, there is no doubt as to its right to the foremost place. For reading is the instrument of all our acquisition. It is indispensable. There is not an hour in our lives in which it does not make a great difference to us whether we can read or not. And the art of Writing, too; that is the instrument of all communication, and it becomes, in one form or other, useful to us every day. But Counting—doing sums,—how often in life does this accomplishment come into exercise? Beyond the simplest additions, and the power to check the items of a bill, the arithmetical knowledge required of any well-informed person in private life is very limited. For all practical purposes, whatever I may have learned at school of fractions, or proportion, or decimals, is, unless I happen to be in business, far less available to me in life than a knowledge, say, of history of my own country, or the elementary truths of physics. The truth is, that regarded as practical arts, reading, writing, and arithmetic have no right to be classed together as co-ordinate elements of education; for the last of these is considerably less useful to the average man or woman not only than the other two, but than 267 many others that might be named. But reading, writing, and such mathematical or logical exercise as may be gained in connection with the manifestation of numbers, have a right to constitute the primary elements of instruction. And I believe that arithmetic, if it deserves the high place that it conventionally holds in our educational system, deserves it mainly on the ground that it is to be treated as a logical exercise. It is the only branch of mathematics which has found its way into primary and early education; other departments of pure science being reserved for what is called higher or university instruction. But all the arguments in favor of teaching algebra and trigonometry to advanced students, apply equally to the teaching of the principles or theory of arithmetic to schoolboys. It is calculated to do for them exactly the same kind of service, to educate one side of their minds, to bring into play one set of faculties which cannot be so severely or properly exercised in any other department of learning. In short, relatively to the needs of a beginner, Arithmetic, as a science, is just as valuable—it is certainly quite as intelligible—as the higher mathematics to a university student.”

Joshua Girling Fitch (1824–1903) British educationalist

Source: Lectures on Teaching, (1906), pp. 267-268.

Marshall McLuhan photo

“One of the things that happens at the speed of light is that people lose their goals in life. So what takes the place of goals and objectives? Well, role-playing is coming in very fast.”

Marshall McLuhan (1911–1980) Canadian educator, philosopher, and scholar-- a professor of English literature, a literary critic, and a …

Interview between Californian Governor Jerry Brown and Marshall McLuhan, 1977
1970s

Robert Lynn Asprin photo

“Playing God was a sweetly addictive game.”

Robert Lynn Asprin (1946–2008) American science fiction and fantasy author

Source: Ripping Time (2000), Chapter 14 (p. 431)

Josh Billings photo

“As in a game ov cards, so in the game ov life, we must play what is dealt tew us, and the glory consists, not so mutch in winning, as in playing a poor hand well.”

Josh Billings (1818–1885) American humorist

Josh Billings on Ice, and Other Things https://archive.org/details/joshbillingsoni00billgoog (1868), Chapter XXIV: "Perkussion Caps", p. 89; republished in The Complete Works of Josh Billings http://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/36556 (1876), Chapter 141: "Ods and Ens", p. 248. Often paraphrased as "Life consists not in holding good cards but in playing those you hold well."

Marianne Moore photo

“Whatever it is.. poem.. play, story.. it must hold attention.”

Marianne Moore (1887–1972) American poet and writer

Poetry as Expression - The Writer April 1962
Prose

Andrey Voznesensky photo

“It's shameful to spot a lie and not to name it,
shameful to name it and then to shut your eyes,
shameful to call a funeral a wedding
and play the fool at funerals besides.”

Andrey Voznesensky (1933–2010) Soviet poet

Stanley Kunitz (trans.) Story Under Full Sail (New York: Doubleday, 1974) p. 20.

“Secondly, the student is trained to accept historical mis-statements on the authority of the book. If education is a pre- paration for adult life, he learns first to accept without question, and later to make his own contribution to the creation of historical fallacies, and still later to perpetuate what he has learnt. In this way, ignorant authors are leading innocent students to hysterical conclusions. The process of the writers' mind provides excellent material for a manual on logical fallacies. Thirdly, the student is told nothing about the relationship between evidence and truth. The truth is what the book ordains and the teacher repeats. No source is cited. No proof is offered. No argument is presented. The authors play a dangerous game of winks and nods and faints and gestures with evidence. The art is taught well through precept and example. The student grows into a young man eager to deal in assumptions but inapt in handling inquiries. Those who become historians produce narratives patterned on the textbooks on which they were brought up. Fourthly, the student is compelled to face a galling situation in his later years when he comes to realize that what he had learnt at school and college was not the truth. Imagine a graduate of one of our best colleges at the start of his studies in history in a university in Europe. Every lecture he attends and every book he reads drive him mad with exasperation, anger and frustration. He makes several grim discoveries. Most of the "facts", interpretations and theories on which he had been fostered in Pakistan now turn out to have been a fata morgana, an extravaganza of fantasies and reveries, myths and visions, whims and utopias, chimeras and fantasies.”

Khursheed Kamal Aziz (1927–2009) historian

The Murder of History, critique of history textbooks used in Pakistan, 1993

Henri Fayol photo

“Management plays a very important part in the government of undertakings: of all undertakings, large or small, industrial, commercial, political, religious or other. I intend to set forth my ideas here on the way in which that part should be played.”

Henri Fayol (1841–1925) Developer of Fayolism

Source: General and industrial management, 1919/1949, p.xxi cited in: Harold R. Pollard (1974) Developments in management thought. p. 88

Jimi Hendrix photo

“Blues is easy to play, but hard to feel.”

Jimi Hendrix (1942–1970) American musician, singer and songwriter

As quoted in Crosstown Traffic (1989) by Charles Shaar Murray

Adrian Slywotzky photo
Arthur Seyss-Inquart photo

“The Fuehrer declared that the Jews have played their final act in Europe, and therefore they have played their final act.”

Arthur Seyss-Inquart (1892–1946) austrian chancellor and politician, convicted of crimes against humanity in Nuremberg Trials and sentenced …

Speech in Amsterdam, March 12, 1941. Quoted in "The Scourge of the Swastika: A Short History of Nazi War Crimes" - Page 248 - World War, 1939-1945 - 1954

Patrick Modiano photo
James K. Morrow photo
Ben Gibbard photo
Robert Maynard Hutchins photo
Margaret Cho photo
Jessica Lange photo
Elton John photo

“And every one of us has to face that day;
Do you cross the bridge or do you fade away?
And every one of us that ever came to play
Has to cross the bridge or fade away.”

Elton John (1947) English rock singer-songwriter, composer and pianist

The Bridge
Song lyrics, The Captain & the Kid (2006)

Margaret Thatcher photo

“I am still at the crease, though the bowling has been pretty hostile of late. And in case anyone doubted it, can I assure you there will be no ducking the bouncers, no stonewalling, no playing for time. The bowling's going to get hit all round the ground. That is my style.”

Margaret Thatcher (1925–2013) British stateswoman and politician

Lord Mayor's Banquet at Guildhall (12 November 1990) http://www.margaretthatcher.org/speeches/displaydocument.asp?docid=108241
Third term as Prime Minister

Chuck Berry photo
Sherilyn Fenn photo

“The world has certain rules — Hollywood has certain rules — but it doesn't mean you have to play by them, and I don't, or I'd be a miserable person.”

Sherilyn Fenn (1965) American actress

Sherilyn Fenn, quoted in "Fenn Fatale", by Mike Bygrave. Sky Magazine (UK). July 1992. p. 6-10.

Samantha Power photo