Quotes about play
page 20

Robert Crumb photo
William Shatner photo

“They said I was this William Shatner character, and I figured I had to be it, pompous, takes himself seriously, hardheaded. So I played it. But I didn’t see it. That character doesn’t seem like me to me. I know the real William Shatner.”

William Shatner (1931) Canadian actor, musician, recording artist, author, and film director

"The Many Iterations of William Shatner" http://www.nytimes.com/2010/09/05/magazine/05Shatner-t.html?_r=0 Pat Jordan, Sept. 3, New York Times, 2010

James Kenneth Stephen photo
Hans Arp photo
Michel De Montaigne photo

“When I play with my cat, who knows if I am not a pastime to her more than she is to me?”

Quand je me joue à ma chatte, qui sait si elle passe son temps de moi, plus que je ne fais d'elle.
Book II, Ch. 12
The 1595 edition adds: “We entertain each other with reciprocal monkey tricks. If I have my time to begin or to refuse, so has she hers.” As quoted in Jacques Derrida, The Animal That Therefore I Am https://books.google.it/books?id=y8Drc-QghEIC&pg=PT21, trans. David Wills, Fordham University Press, 2008.
Essais (1595), Book II

Alex Salmond photo
Max Scheler photo
L. Ron Hubbard photo
Vyjayanthimala photo
Daniel Pennac photo
Kate Bush photo

“My terrible fear of dying
No longer plays with me,
for now I know that I'm needed
For the symphony.”

Kate Bush (1958) British recording artist; singer, songwriter, musician and record producer

Song lyrics, Lionheart (1978)

George Graham photo
James K. Morrow photo

“Every religion says war is evil, but one way or another they end up playing along.”

James K. Morrow (1947) (1947-) science fiction author

Source: The Wine of Violence (1981), Chapter 14 (p. 164)

Ty Cobb photo

“Certainly it is okay for them to play. I see no reason in the world why we shouldn't compete with colored athletes as long as they conduct themselves with politeness and gentility. Let me say also that no white man has the right to be less of a gentleman than a colored man, in my book that goes not only for baseball but in all walks of life.”

Ty Cobb (1886–1961) American baseball player

Responding to the impending integration of the Dallas Rangers, as quoted in "Between the Lines" http://www.mediafire.com/view/e8dga7hnpbb7tzk/BETWEEN_THE_LINES_THE_GREAT_T(2).jpg by Dean Gordon Hancock (ANP), in The Atlanta Daily World (February 10, 1952); reproduced in "The Knife in Ty Cobb’s Back" http://www.smithsonianmag.com/history/the-knife-in-ty-cobbs-back-65618032/ (30 August 2011), Smithsonian, by Gilbert King.

Howie Rose photo
Anthony Daniels photo

“Everybody uses mime and gesture in real life, though we don’t realize it. It’s very useful as a performance technique, though it can be boring to watch on its own. As for radio, I had a wonderful teacher. I was hugely lucky. I didn’t want to play a robot, but the situation was an object lesson in fate taking over.”

Anthony Daniels (1946) English actor

A Q&A with Anthony Daniels (C3PO), touring with “Star Wars: In Concert” https://www.seattletimes.com/entertainment/a-qa-with-anthony-daniels-c3po-touring-with-star-wars-in-concert/ (October 9, 2009)

Louis Brandeis photo
Jean Piaget photo
Mark Knopfler photo
Pauline Kael photo

“What's disgusting about the Dirty Harry movies is that Eastwood plays this angry tension as righteous indignation.”

"Pop Mystics," review of Pale Rider (1985-08-12), p. 17.
Hooked (1989)

Sachin Tendulkar photo

“The only thing that was on my mind was, 'I want to play for India one day,' and I was pretty sure and confident that one day I will.”

Sachin Tendulkar (1973) A former Indian cricketer from India and one of the greatest cricketers ever seen in the world

Tendulkar referring to his passion for cricket as a young player. http://www.cnn.com/2008/WORLD/asiapcf/05/28/ta.tendulkar/index.html#cnnSTCText

Wilt Chamberlain photo
Peter Greenaway photo

“You can play lacrosse all over the world provided you know where the goalposts are.”

Peter Greenaway (1942) British film director

In an interview in Artforum, Nov. 83
Interviews

Robert Solow photo
Bill Downs photo
Roberto Clemente photo

“It was a much bigger thrill to play on a winning team in 1960 than for me to win the batting title in 1961 when we finished sixth. When you’re with a bad team, you don’t have the incentive to keep going. Winning is such fun.”

Roberto Clemente (1934–1972) Puerto Rican baseball player

As quoted in “Clouter Clemente: Popular Buc; Rifle-Armed Flyhawk Aims At Second Bat Crown"
Baseball-related, <big><big>1960s</big></big>, <big>1964</big>

Paul Robeson photo

“Films make me into some cheap turn…You bet they'll never let me play a part in a film where a Negro is on top.”

Paul Robeson (1898–1976) American singer and actor

As quoted in Paul Robeson : The Whole World in His Hands (1981) by Susan Robeson, p. 92

Peyton Manning photo

“If your team is going to win, you need to play better than the other quarterback.”

Peyton Manning (1976) American football quarterback

ESPN The Magazine, September 2001 http://espn.go.com/talent/danpatrick/s/2001/0822/1242493.html

Howard Roberts photo
Maurice de Vlaminck photo
Anthony Watts photo
Phil Brooks photo

“Punk: Wow, everybody, it's John Cena. He comes out here every Monday night, he's excitable, he throws his hat at somebody, everybody loves it. I am so impressed at how you do that. You get all these people to believe you're that friendly, smiling, everyday man, when I know the truth. And the truth, John Cena, is you're thoughtless, you're heartless, and above all else, you are dishonest. I'm sure there's millions of people worldwide, including yourself, that would love to believe this is over a spilled diet soda, but John, this goes way beyond my spilled diet soda. Yeah. John, you were fired from the WWE. You were gone. You gave a very tear-inducing speech in the middle of the ring about how you finally get to see your mom and hang out with your little brother, and you said you were gonna go away. You were gonna be a man of your way, but what happened? You came back later that night, and then you came back the next week, and then you came back the next week, showing all of these people who aren't intelligent to see through your facade what I have known all along—that your word is absolutely worthless. And then there's TLC, you have the man beaten. Wade Barrett, a very tough individual, and you have him beat in a chairs match, but that's not good enough for you. You don't take the high ground, you can't walk off into the sunset with your victory; you drag the man off to the side of the stage and you drop fifteen steel chairs on him, and I wanna know exactly why you think that's acceptable behavior. I wanna know why you think it's okay to show up the next night on Raw and humiliate the poor guy…
Cena: That is balderdash! Fifteen steel chairs? That's insane. It was 23 steel chairs. And in case you forgot, Wade Barrett and the Nexus gave me about five thousand beat-downs, made me their personal slave, and ended my career.
Punk: You wanna talk about ended careers, you hypocrite? This is exactly what I'm talking about. You ended the career of my good friend Dave Batista. John! John, look at me when I'm talking to you. This is a reoccurring pattern with you. Once again, you have the man beaten—last man standing, he verbally submits, how humiliating, the match is won. But, no, you AA him off a car through the very steel ramp that I'm sitting on, which facilitated the end of his career. Now we'll talk about Vickie Guerrero. I'm surprised the lovely Vickie Guerrero doesn't up and quit based on all the abuse you heap on her. It's not just the physical things to the Wade Barretts and the Dave Batistas, but it's the name-calling, it's the mental abuse to somebody as gorgeous and beautiful as Vickie Guerrero.
Cena: "It's the this… it's the that." Okay, CM Punk is gonna play Mr. Fingerpointer. Well…1.—Dave Batista broke my neck; 2.—He showed up on Raw the next night and quit on his own terms. And C—I didn't just single out Vickie Guerrero. In case you haven't been watching for the past… eight years, I talk about everybody. Uh… Michael Cole. Michael Cole has an anonymous fetish with Justin Bieber and has the word "The Miz" man-scaped right below his belly button. Me! Look at me. I look like the crazy sex child of the Incredible Hulk and Grimace. And then there's you.
Punk: Yeah, and then there's me, who happens to not be laughing. I don't know if you noticed that. You're not funny.”

Phil Brooks (1978) American professional wrestler and mixed martial artist

December 27, 2010
WWE Raw

Jean Paul Sartre photo
Emmitt Smith photo

“I love to play bid whist as much as I love football.”

Emmitt Smith (1969) American football player and sports broadcaster

Angel Beck (October 22, 2000) "Another Game For Emmitt Smith", Syracuse Herald American, p. 27.

Bill Hicks photo
Wilt Chamberlain photo
Klaus Kinski photo

“I am not the official Church Jesus who is accepted by policemen, bankers, judges, executioners, officers, church bosses, politicians and similar representatives of power. I am not your Superstar who keeps playing his part for you on the cross, and whom you hit in the face when he steps out of his role, and who therefore cannot call out to you, "I am fed up with all your pomp and all your rituals! Your incense is disgusting. It stinks of burnt human flesh. I can't bear your holy celebrations and holidays any longer. You can pray as much as you like, I'm not listening. Keep all your idiotic honours and laudations. I won't have anything to do with them. I do not want them. I am no pillar of peace and security. Security that you achieve with tear gas and with billy clubs. I am no guarantee for obedience and order either. Order and obedience at reform schools, prisons, penal institutions, insane asylums. I am the disobedient one, the restless one who does not live in any house. Nor am I a guarantee for success, savings accounts and possessions. I am the homeless one without a permanent home who stirs up trouble wherever he goes. I am the agitator, the invoker, I am the scream. I am the hippie, bum, Black Power, Jesus people. I want to free the prisoners. I want to make the blind see. I want to redeem the tortured. I want to cast love into your hearts, the love that reaches out beyond everything that exists. I want to turn you into living human beings, immortals.”

Klaus Kinski (1926–1991) German actor

Jesus Christus Erlöser (1971)

Clint Eastwood photo
Derren Brown photo
Philip K. Dick photo
Willie Mays photo
Mahela Jayawardene photo

“We should not play like Australia or India or England — we should play like Sri Lanka.”

Mahela Jayawardene (1977) Former Sri Lankan cricketer

Quoted in Charlie Austin, " Mahela Jayawardene http://www.cricinfo.com/wisdenalmanack/content/story/287060.html," Wisden Cricketers' Almanack (2007).
Quote

Michel Foucault photo
Nicolas Chamfort photo
Bernie Sanders photo

“My ears may have been playing a trick on me, but I thought I heard the gentleman a moment ago say something quote unquote about homos in the military. Was I right in hearing that expression? Was the gentleman referring to the thousands and thousands of gay people who have put their lives on the line in countless wars defending this country? Was that the groups of people that the gentleman was referring to? You have insulted thousands of men and women who have put their lives on the line. I think they are owed an apology.”

Bernie Sanders (1941) American politician, senator for Vermont

Speaking to Representative Duke Cunningham on the floor of the House of Representatives, 11 May 1995, from Watch Bernie Sanders Demolish A Republican Over ‘Homos In The Military’ http://www.huffingtonpost.com/entry/bernie-sanders-duke-cunningham-homophobia_us_56cb75eee4b041136f17dc9f by Zach Carter, The Huffington Post (22 February 2016)
1990s

Dana Gioia photo
Jacob Bronowski photo
Kofi Annan photo
John L. Lewis photo
Dan Patrick photo

“Do you wanna play with fire, scarecrow?”

Dan Patrick (1956) American sportscaster

Catch Phrases

Wilhelm Liebknecht photo

“At any rate we may be sure that the political instinct of our bourgeois opponents, as soon as their class interests come into play, will lead them to take a position hostile to us. A classical example is furnished by Belgium, where, as already remarked, a compromise was concluded under the most favorable circumstances conceivable, between the socialists and the liberals. Our party was in undisputed possession of the leadership and was therefore in no danger of being cheated out of the fruits of the common victory. The end sought was universal, equal and direct suffrage. But the clerical party knows its boys, knows its Pappenheimers. It knows that the bourgeoisie has no class interest in giving the laborers, who, in modern industrial states, constitute a majority of the population, the universal suffrage and thereby the prospect of winning a majority and getting political supremacy. It made a counter demand for proportional representation with plural voting, that is, giving more votes to the rich, and thereby granting to the radical bourgeoisie a share in the government, if it would assist in defeating universal and direct suffrage. And behold, without a minute’s hesitation the gentlemen of the radical bourgeoisie broke their agreement with the socialists and joined the clericals in their fight against universal suffrage and the social democracy. Whoever is not convinced by this example that the emancipation struggle of the proletariat is a class struggle is one on whom further arguments would be wasted.”

Wilhelm Liebknecht (1826–1900) German socialist politician

No Compromise – No Political Trading (1899)

Pierce Brosnan photo
Andrew Breitbart photo

“Celebrity is everything in this country. And if these guys don't learn how to play the media the way that Barack Obama played the media last election cycle and the way that Donald Trump is playing the election cycle, we're going to probably get a celebrity candidate.”

Andrew Breitbart (1969–2012) American writer and publisher

Interview with Bill O'Reilly, April 22nd, 2011 http://www.businessinsider.com/bill-orielly-andrew-breitbart-donald-trump-video-2011-4 (Video) http://www.mediaite.com/tv/andrew-breitbart-in-2011-donald-trump-is-not-a-conservative/

Joni Mitchell photo
Burkard Schliessmann photo
Michael Swanwick photo
Paul Simon photo

“Home where my thought's escaping,
Home where my music's playing,
Home where my love lies waiting
Silently for me.”

Paul Simon (1941) American musician, songwriter and producer

Homeward Bound
Song lyrics, Parsley (1966)

John Rogers Searle photo
Kátya Chamma photo

“We made music seated on the grass of Brasilia's super-squares, at home, at college. It was a creative time, more ingenuous, when the people amused more themselves, played more.”

Kátya Chamma (1961) Brazilian singer and writer

Source: Interview at Recanto das Letras http://recantodasletras.com.br/entrevistas/625556, 2007.

C. V. Boys photo

“There is more in a common bubble than those who have only played with them generally imagine.”

C. V. Boys (1855–1944) British physicist

[Charles Vernon Boys, Soap-bubbles and the forces which mould them: Being a course of three lectures delivered in the theatre of the London institution on the afternoons of Dec. 30, 1889, Jan. 1 and 3, 1890, before a juvenile audience, Society for promoting Christian knowledge, 1896, 10]

Glenn Gould photo
Adolfo Bioy Casares photo

“Even more so than when we are awake, we are ourselves when we are asleep. We play all the parts.”

Adolfo Bioy Casares (1914–1999) Argentine novelist

"Más exclusivamente que en la vigilia, en el sueño somos nosotros. Contribuimos con todo el reparto."
Descanso de caminantes, 2001.

Orson Scott Card photo
Van Morrison photo
Bill Engvall photo

“[playing golf with his friends]”

Bill Engvall (1957) American comedian and actor

Here's Your Sign (1996)

Sandy Koufax photo

“The game has a cleanness. If you do a good job, the numbers say so. You don't have to ask anyone or play politics. You don't have to wait for the reviews.”

Sandy Koufax (1935) American baseball player

As quoted in "Koufax" https://www.washingtonpost.com/archive/politics/1979/03/21/koufax/3139f66f-996a-485f-8cce-8f7671152136/?utm_term=.174cfc71ede2) by Thomas Boswell, in The Washington Post (March 21, 1979)

Neil Simon photo
Bryce Dallas Howard photo
Peter Cook photo

“You know, I go to the theatre to be entertained… I don’t want to see plays about rape, sodomy and drug addiction… I can get all that at home.”

Peter Cook (1937–1995) British architect

Caption to a cartoon drawn by Roger Law, published in The Observer (8 July 1962)

Reggie Fils-Aimé photo

“Because of the limited keyboard. This is a very strange thing. When I play the piano, I get clear down to the left edge of the piano. Now, unlike Art Tatum, I don't take runs that go up, that always end up on the extreme high "C". But I really do like the low end. Even as an organist, it has bothered me that the keyboards are five octaves and stop at "C". I've always wished that my pedal board went down to "F". My harmonic thinking gets involved clear down to that "F" and to be cut off at the "C". I can't explain it. It's as if somebody were standing right next to you while you were playing and you just kept having the feeling like: "I can't go there; I can't go there."”

Clare Fischer (1928–2012) American keyboardist, composer, arranger, and bandleader

It does something to me. Whereby [sic] having the full keyboard just opens up a world of things to me.
On his preference for Yamaha's 88-key PF-15 piano over the then prevalent DX7; radio interview, circa 1985, by Ben Sidran, as quoted in Talking Jazz With Ben Sidran, Volume 1: The Rhythm Section https://books.google.com/books?id=O3hZDQAAQBAJ&pg=PT457&dq=%22because+of+the+limited+keyboard%22&hl=en&sa=X&ved=0ahUKEwjOhaCoxMXRAhXB5iYKHcvbBykQ6AEIGjAA#v=onepage&q&f=false (1992, 2006, 2014)

Aldo Capitini photo
Diana, Princess of Wales photo

“These children need to feel the same things as other children. To play, to laugh and cry, to make friends, to enjoy the ordinary experiences of childhood. To feel loved and nurtured and included by the world they live in, without the stigma that AIDS continues to attract.”

Diana, Princess of Wales (1961–1997) First wife of Charles, Prince of Wales

The Princess of Wales during a speech about women and children with Aids (8 September 1993) http://www.settelen.com/diana_women_and_children_with_aids.htm

Jean-Paul Marat photo
Herbert Marcuse photo
David Graeber photo
P.G. Wodehouse photo
Francisco De Goya photo

“To occupy my imagination, which has been depressed by dwelling on my misfortunes, and to compensate at least in part for some of the considerable expenses I have incurred, I set myself to painting a series of cabinet pictures.... they depict themes that cannot usually be dealt with in commissioned works, where 'capricho' [whim] and invention do not have much of a role to play. I thought of sending them to the academy..”

Francisco De Goya (1746–1828) Spanish painter and printmaker (1746–1828)

letter to his friend Bernardo de Iriarte, deputy of the Royal Academy of San Fernando in Madrid, Jan. 1794; as quoted in 'Goya and Iriarte', in Goya his Life and Work, P. Gassier and J. Wilson, 1971, p. 382
cabinet paintings were small portable paintings, which did not need a lot of wall-space and could be moved around at the owner's whim. Goya's famous series 'Caprichos' really begin after physical and probably mental breakdown in 1792. He was 46, and thereafter deaf until his death in 1828
1790s

Ralph Waldo Trine photo
Lillian Gish photo
Stephen Leacock photo
Jack McDevitt photo
Zita Johann photo
Gary Gygax photo
Dorothy Parker photo

“You know how a play in dialect is. At the first act, you think, “How quaint!”; at the second act, you wish they would either stop using dialect or keep quiet; and at the third act, you wish you hadn’t come. And Tillie, may I mention in passing, has four acts. p. 64”

Dorothy Parker (1893–1967) American poet, short story writer, critic and satirist

Dorothy Parker: Complete Broadway, 1918–1923 (2014) https://openlibrary.org/books/OL25758762M/Dorothy_Parker_Complete_Broadway_1918-1923, Chapter 2: 1919

Shingai Shoniwa photo

“We're just going to play the hell out of it until they can't take it anymore.”

Shingai Shoniwa (1981) British musician

http://www.indietastic.net/cms/2007/06/noisettes_interview.html

Aaron Copland photo

“If you want to know about the Sixties, play the music of The Beatles.”

Aaron Copland (1900–1990) American composer, composition teacher, writer, and conductor

Aaron Copland: the Life and Work of an Uncommon Man, ISBN 0805049096.

Arundhati Roy photo
Merrill McPeak photo