Quotes about play
page 30

Arnold Vosloo photo

“Oh it’s a relief to do movies, especially ones like this because you get to be like a little kid again and run around and play in this great adventure. I had a wonderful time.”

Arnold Vosloo (1962) South African-American actor

Interview: Arnold Vosloo http://www.bbc.co.uk/films/2001/05/11/arnold_vosloo_article.shtml (May 11, 2001)

Marissa Mayer photo

“If you can find something that you're really passionate about, whether you're a man or a woman comes a lot less into play. Passion is a gender-neutralizing force.”

Marissa Mayer (1975) American business executive and engineer, former ceo of Yahoo!

http://www.entrepreneur.com/article/234222.

Ben Kowalewicz photo

“So after Humpfest 06, it was time to play our rock show.”

Ben Kowalewicz (1975) musician

From "The Diary of Billy Talent":

“Bill and I were pretty much the same age bracket, and strangely enough, we both went through the same influences, starting with Nat Cole, going into Bud Powell during the bebop period, and then getting into the Lennie Tristano school orienta—in my particular case, Lee Konitz more than Lennie. I mean, in an era when everybody else was playing funky piano, we… I suppose, in a general category, that made us both the same. Whereby [sic] to my mind, we were both radically different. But after I put out that first album, the reviews started off by saying, "Clare Fischer owes much to Bill Evans." And then, when I would write an album, they would say "Clare Fischer owes much to Gil Evans."”

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

And I would call that my Evans brothers syndrome.
Radio interview https://itunes.apple.com/us/album/talking-jazz-volume-22-arrangers/id398326105, 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=PT452&dq=%22But+Bill+and+I+were+pretty+much%22&hl=en&sa=X&ved=0ahUKEwjWm_Tw9MXRAhWF8CYKHdeKBs8Q6AEIFDAA#v=onepage&q&f=false (1992, 2006, 2014)

Floyd Mayweather Jr. photo

“I'm a chess player; I play chess.”

Floyd Mayweather Jr. (1977) American boxer

2010s, 2015, Interview with Jim Gray (September 2015)

Orson Scott Card photo
Mao Zedong photo
Henri Poincaré photo
Jean Paul Sartre photo

“The anti‐Semite has chosen hate because hate is a faith; at the outset he has chosen to devaluate words and reasons. How entirely at ease he feels as a result. How futile and frivolous discussions about the rights of the Jew appear to him. He has placed himself on other ground from the beginning. If out of courtesy he consents for a moment to defend his point of view, he lends himself but does not give himself. He tries simply to project his intuitive certainty onto the plane of discourse. I mentioned awhile back some remarks by anti‐Semites, all of them absurd: "I hate Jews because they make servants insubordinate, because a Jewish furrier robbed me, etc." Never believe that anti‐ Semites are completely unaware of the absurdity of their replies. They know that their remarks are frivolous, open to challenge. But they are amusing themselves, for it is their adversary who is obliged to use words responsibly, since he believes in words. The anti‐Semites have the right to play. They even like to play with discourse for, by giving ridiculous reasons, they discredit the seriousness of their interlocutors. They delight in acting in bad faith, since they seek not to persuade by sound argument but to intimidate and disconcert. If you press them too closely, they will abruptly fall silent, loftily indicating by some phrase that the time for argument is past. It is not that they are afraid of being convinced. They fear only to appear ridiculous or to prejudice by their embarrassment their hope of winning over some third person to their side.”

Jean Paul Sartre (1905–1980) French existentialist philosopher, playwright, novelist, screenwriter, political activist, biographer, and …

Pages 13-14
(1945)

Roger Waters photo

“We've got the recording side together and not the playing side.”

Roger Waters (1943) English songwriter, bassist, and lyricist of Pink Floyd

Melody Maker, August 1967
Music

Pat Carroll (actress) photo
Joanna MacGregor photo

“Memory is the fear, and I play most of my repertoire from memory.”

Joanna MacGregor (1959) British musician

The Express on Sunday, 06/01/2002
Musician's life

Viswanathan Anand photo

“I learned to play fast without agonizing about strategy or overanalyzing individual moves”

Viswanathan Anand (1969) Indian chess player

After he started playing “blitz” (the shortest format of Chess) in Chennai in early years, pages=292-293
Reimagining India: Unlocking the Potential of Asia’s Next Superpower

Joseph Strutt photo
Georg Christoph Lichtenberg photo
Peter Greenaway photo

“And I've also written a play called Miranda, about what happens afterwards on the ship on the way home. It's about what happens to innocence and how it has to be destroyed.”

Peter Greenaway (1942) British film director

During the filming of Prospero's Books, quoted in an interview in American Film, Nov/Dec 1991
Prospero's Books

Christopher Walken photo

“Well, I don't play heroes obviously. I never played the guy who gets the girl. It might be interesting to do a part where I was a father in a functional family.”

Christopher Walken (1943) American actor

Hap Erstein (October 29, 2004) "Walken Doesn't Mind Playing Creepy Type - As Long As He's Cast", The Palm Beach Post, p. 9.

Anthony Kennedy photo
Mohammad Reza Pahlavi photo
Leon Fleisher photo
Michael Swanwick photo

“If I have to play your stupid games, at least I don’t have to pretend to enjoy them.”

Michael Swanwick (1950) American science fiction author

Source: In the Drift (1985), Chapter 1, “Mummer Kiss” (p. 4)

Kurt Schuschnigg photo
William H. Rehnquist photo

“Well, it's just a sense of personal satisfaction. Just like taking a good photograph or painting a picture or playing a good golf game or something, it's the thing in itself that justifies it.”

William H. Rehnquist (1924–2005) Chief Justice of the United States

On writing.
Booknotes http://www.booknotes.org/Transcript/index_print.asp?ProgramID=1107 television interview (July 5, 1992)

Naomi Klein photo
Margaret Cho photo
Mark Satin photo
Anil Kumble photo
Nathan Lane photo
Charles Maurice de Talleyrand-Périgord photo

“You do not play then at whist, sir! Alas, what a sad old age you are preparing for yourself!”

Charles Maurice de Talleyrand-Périgord (1754–1838) French diplomat

Vous ne jouez donc pas le whist, monsieur? Hélas! quelle triste vieilesse vous vous préparez!
Reported in Hoyt's New Cyclopedia Of Practical Quotations (1922), p. 90.

Kumar Sangakkara photo

“He is an extremely messy person, the messiest on earth. But he loves to cook and absolutely loves making pasta at home. We never discussed cricket at home and always made sure there was life away from the sport at home. Conversations revolved around kids and made sure there was life beyond the sport. Kumar is a very relaxed, open sort of person. He has never demanded much. (But) He will have to get used to our routine now. He will of course still play some cricket for a year or two.”

Kumar Sangakkara (1977) Sri Lankan cricketer

Kumar's wife, Yehali Sangakkara, quoted on sports.ndtv, "Kumar Sangakkara is Extremely Messy, Would Love to Have Him at Home Now: Yehali Sangakkara" http://sports.ndtv.com/sri-lanka-vs-india-2015/news/247313-kumar-sangakkara-is-extremely-messy-would-love-to-have-him-at-home-now-yehali-sangakkara, August 21, 2015.
About

Tigran Petrosian photo

“Some consider that when I play I am excessively cautious, but it seems to me that the question may be a different one. I try to avoid chance. Those who rely on chance should play cards or roulette. Chess is something quite different.”

Tigran Petrosian (1929–1984) Soviet Georgian Armenian chess player and chess writer

Attributed without citation in "Tigran Petrosian's Best Games" http://www.chessgames.com/perl/chesscollection?cid=1014968 at chessgames.com

Michael Jordan photo
Patrick White photo
Brian Clevinger photo
David Berg photo
Edmund Spenser photo
Jorge Luis Borges photo

“I suppose he had the good luck to be executed, no? I had an hour's chat with him in Buenos Aires. He struck me as a kind of play actor, no? Living up to a certain role. I mean, being a professional Andalusian… But in the case of Lorca, it was very strange because I lived in Andalusia and the Andalusians aren't a bit like that. His were stage Andalusians. Maybe he thought that in Buenos Aires he had to live up to that character, but in Andalusia, people are not like that. In fact, if you are in Andalusia, if you are talking to a man of letters and you speak to him about bullfights, he'll say, 'Oh well, that sort of this pleases people, I suppose, but really the torero works in no danger whatsoever. Because they are bored by these things, because every writer is bored by the local color in his own country. Well, when I met Lorca, he was being a professional Andalusian… Besides, Lorca wanted to astonish us. He said to me that he was very troubled about a very important figure in the contemporary world. A character in whom he could see all the tragedy of American life. And then he went on in this way until I asked him who was this character and it turned out this character was Mickey Mouse. I suppose he was trying to be clever. And I thought, 'That's the kind of thing you say when you are very, very young and you want to astonish somebody.' But after all, he was a grown man, he had no need, he could have talked in a different way. But when he started in about Mickey Mouse being a symbol of America, there was a friend of mine there and he looked at me and I looked at him and we both walked away because we were too old for that kind of game, no? Even at that time.”

Jorge Luis Borges (1899–1986) Argentine short-story writer, essayist, poet and translator, and a key figure in Spanish language literature

Richard Burgin, Conversation with Jorge Luis Borges, pages 92-93.
Conversations with Jorge Luis Borges (1968)

MS Dhoni photo

“Dhoni is best captain I have played under.”

MS Dhoni (1981) Indian cricket player

Sachin Tendulkar https://www.scoopwhoop.com/sports/dhoni-quotes/#.ttnzmcqgv

Francis Bacon photo
Orson Scott Card photo
Bismillah Khan photo

“I wish I could hold a concert…. It is unfair that the Shehnai is not played at concerts. Why should not the Shehnai be played at the concerts?… Then let me do it now. Let me break tradition…. May Lord Balaji help me.”

Bismillah Khan (1916–2006) Indian musician

When he was perturbed at not being invited to play in concerts when other instrumentalists held solo performances, and it is when Lord Balaji whispered in his ears “All good things begin with Shehnai”.
Quote, Encyclopedia of Bharat Ratnas

Charles Mingus photo

“In my music, I'm trying to play the truth of what I am. The reason it's difficult is because I'm changing all the time.”

Charles Mingus (1922–1979) American jazz double bassist, composer and bandleader

Statement to Nat Hentoff, as quoted in California Rock, California Sound : The Music of Los Angeles and Southern California (1979) by Anthony Fawcett, p. 56; also in “Jazz : Beyond Time and Nations” in The Nat Hentoff Reader (2001), Part 2 : The Passion of Creation, p. 99

David Lee Roth photo
Albert Einstein photo
Arthur Hugh Clough photo
Logan Pearsall Smith photo

“Perhaps not only in his attitude towards truth, but in his attitude towards himself, Montaigne was a precursor. Perhaps here again he was ahead of his own time, ahead of our time also, since none of us would have the courage to imitate him. It may be that some future century will vindicate this unseemly performance; in the meanwhile it will be of interest to examine the reasons which he gives us for it. He says, in the first place, that he found this study of himself, this registering of his moods and imaginations, extremely amusing; it was an exploration of an unknown region, full of the queerest chimeras and monsters, a new art of discovery, in which he had become by practice “the cunningest man alive.” It was profitable also, for most people enjoy their pleasures without knowing it; they glide over them, and fix and feed their minds on the miseries of life. But to observe and record one’s pleasant experiences and imaginations, to associate one’s mind with them, not to let them dully and unfeelingly escape us, was to make them not only more delightful but more lasting. As life grows shorter we should endeavour, he says, to make it deeper and more full. But he found moral profit also in this self-study; for how, he asked, can we correct our vices if we do not know them, how cure the diseases of our soul if we never observe their symptoms? The man who has not learned to know himself is not the master, but the slave of life: he is the “explorer without knowledge, the magistrate without jurisdiction, and when all is done, the fool of the play.””

Logan Pearsall Smith (1865–1946) British American-born writer

“Montaigne,” p. 6
Reperusals and Recollections (1936)

Annie Dillard photo
Tina Fey photo

“They made a porn movie about Sarah Palin, and the same actress, Lisa Ann, played me in the porn version of 30 Rock. Weirdly, of the three of us, Lisa Ann knows the most about foreign policy.”

Tina Fey (1970) American comedian, writer, producer and actress

"Ask Tina" segment from NBC's 30 Rock website

Lionel Richie photo

“People dancing all in the street
See the rhythm all in their feet
Life is good, wild and sweet.
Let the music play on (play on, play on)
Feel it in your heart
And feel it in your soul
Let the music take control.”

Lionel Richie (1949) American singer-songwriter, musician, record producer and actor

All Night Long (All Night).
Song lyrics, Can't Slow Down (1983)

Henry Newbolt photo

“And it's not for the sake of a ribboned coat,
Or the selfish hope of a season's fame,
But his Captain's hand on his shoulder smote --
'Play up! play up! and play the game!”

Henry Newbolt (1862–1938) English poet and writer

Describing a game of cricket.
Vitai Lampada http://net.lib.byu.edu/english/wwi/influences/vitai.html

A. R. Rahman photo
Alexander Ovechkin photo

“I don't think pressure, that word, is on his mind. He loves to play hockey and enjoys the way he's playing. He's kind of made me re-establish my thinking.”

Alexander Ovechkin (1985) Russian ice hockey player

Sergei Fedorov, interview in Jill Painter (November 20, 2008) Los Angeles Daily News.
About

Dave Grohl photo

“Perez [Hilton]: Are you drunk right now?
Grohl: No, I gotta play.
Perez: Britney Spears has been getting wasted all the time, hasn't stopped her.
Grohl: Yeah, but she doesn't have to sing live.”

Dave Grohl (1969) American rock musician, multi-instrumentalist, and singer-songwriter

Quoted in Shirley Halperin, "My Summer With the Foo Fighters," http://www.ew.com/ew/article/0,,20056567_9,00.html Entertainment Weekly (2007-09-21)

Arsène Wenger photo

“Fair play is an English word. It is not a French word, and it has been copied all over the world. Unfortunately, it does not function any more here.”

Arsène Wenger (1949) French footballer and manager

19 April 1997
Quotations from the Public Comments of Arsene Wenger: Manager, Arsenal Football Club (2005)

William Cobbett photo
Paul Newman photo
Wilt Chamberlain photo
Angus Young photo

“I don't like to play above or below people's heads. Basically, I just like to get up in front of a crowd and rip it up.”

Angus Young (1955) Scottish Australian guitarist

Interview with NME magazine in October 1976

Nick Drake photo
Fran Lebowitz photo
Stanley Baldwin photo

“Improvements in housing—in which the Government has played a large part—is another direction in which standards have tended since the War to appreciate. Comfortable housing is an essential condition to the welfare and happiness of the people.”

Stanley Baldwin (1867–1947) Former Prime Minister of the United Kingdom

Speech to the Federation of British Industries (13 April 1937), quoted in Service of Our Lives (1937), p. 116.
1937

Victor Borge photo

“When I was a little boy and played Liebestraum, my father used to hit me on the head with a newspaper every time I slopped the cadenza... I hate Liebestraum.”

Victor Borge (1909–2000) Danish and US-American comedian and musician

From the obit in The Independent.
Quotations from Borge's performances

Hazrat Inayat Khan photo
Alan Keyes photo
Tommy Douglas photo

“It's the story of a place called Mouseland. Mouseland was a place where all the little mice lived and played, were born and died. And they lived much the same as you and I do. They even had a Parliament. And every four years they had an election. Used to walk to the polls and cast their ballots. Some of them even got a ride to the polls. And got a ride for the next four years afterwards too. Just like you and me. And every time on election day all the little mice used to go to the ballot box and they used to elect a government. A government made up of big, fat, black cats. Now if you think it strange that mice should elect a government made up of cats, you just look at the history of Canada for last 90 years and maybe you'll see that they weren't any stupider than we are. Now I'm not saying anything against the cats. They were nice fellows. They conducted their government with dignity. They passed good laws--that is, laws that were good for cats. But the laws that were good for cats weren't very good for mice. One of the laws said that mouseholes had to be big enough so a cat could get his paw in. Another law said that mice could only travel at certain speeds--so that a cat could get his breakfast without too much physical effort. All the laws were good laws. For cats. But, oh, they were hard on the mice. And life was getting harder and harder. And when the mice couldn't put up with it any more, they decided something had to be done about it. So they went en masse to the polls. They voted the black cats out. They put in the white cats. Now the white cats had put up a terrific campaign. They said: "All that Mouseland needs is more vision." They said:"The trouble with Mouseland is those round mouseholes we got. If you put us in we'll establish square mouseholes." And they did. And the square mouseholes were twice as big as the round mouseholes, and now the cat could get both his paws in. And life was tougher than ever. And when they couldn't take that anymore, they voted the white cats out and put the black ones in again. Then they went back to the white cats. Then to the black cats. They even tried half black cats and half white cats. And they called that coalition. They even got one government made up of cats with spots on them: they were cats that tried to make a noise like a mouse but ate like a cat. You see, my friends, the trouble wasn't with the colour of the cat. The trouble was that they were cats. And because they were cats, they naturally looked after cats instead of mice. Presently there came along one little mouse who had an idea. My friends, watch out for the little fellow with an idea. And he said to the other mice, "Look fellows, why do we keep on electing a government made up of cats? Why don't we elect a government made up of mice?" "Oh," they said, "he's a Bolshevik. Lock him up!"”

Tommy Douglas (1904–1986) Scottish-born Canadian politician

So they put him in jail. But I want to remind you: that you can lock up a mouse or a man but you can't lock up an idea!
http://www.cbc.ca/player/Digital+Archives/Politics/Parties+and+Leaders/Tommy+Douglas/ID/1409090169/?sort=MostPopular

Roberto Clemente photo

“I dedicate this hit to the fans in Pittsburgh. They have been wonderful. And to the people back in Puerto Rico, but especially to the fellow who pushed me to play baseball, Roberto Marin. He made me play. He carried me around looking for the man to sign me. […] I dedicate that hit to the person I owe most to in professional baseball, Roberto Marin.”

Roberto Clemente (1934–1972) Puerto Rican baseball player

Speaking with reporters, and later on the radio, about his 3,000th hit; as quoted, respectively, in "Roberto Gets 3,000th, Will Rest Till Playoffs" http://news.google.com/newspapers?id=rXcqAAAAIBAJ&sjid=TVMEAAAAIBAJ&pg=4436,402538 by Bob Smizik, in The Pittsburgh Press (Sunday, October 1, 1972), p. D-1; and in Clemente! https://books.google.com/books?id=n-4qAwAAQBAJ&pg=PT14 (1973) by Kal Wagenheim, p. 23
Baseball-related, <big><big>1970s</big></big>, <big>1972</big>

Lee Meriwether photo

“When there is no game, don't play,…”

George Goodman (1930–2014) American author and economics commentator

Source: The Money Game (1968), Chapter 18, Timing And A Diversion: The Cocoa Game, p. 253

Aaliyah photo

“Playing off of people that great was great for me.”

Aaliyah (1979–2001) American singer, actress and model

CBS interview (2000)

Joanna MacGregor photo
A. J. Liebling photo
Burkard Schliessmann photo
Maurice Glasman, Baron Glasman photo
Peter Greenaway photo
Neil Gaiman photo

“My goal is to play for Australia in all three formats of the game”

Arjun Nair (1998) cricketer

Nair's goal, quoted on Sportskeeda, "Indian-origin cricket prodigies Arjun Nair and Jason Sangha earn their way into Australia's U19 squad" http://www.sportskeeda.com/cricket/indian-origin-cricket-prodigies-arjun-nair-jason-sangha-earn-way-australia-u19-squad, January 7, 2016.

Friedrich Wilhelm Joseph Schelling photo

“Where is the Mississippi panorama
And the girl who played the piano?
Where are you, Walt?
The Open Road goes to the used-car lot.”

Louis Simpson (1923–2012) Jamaican poet

Walt Whitman at Bear Mountainjim hutchinson quote " I would have not lived my life
Poetry quotes

Roberto Clemente photo

“What I did was mild compared to what Durocher did to Conlan. I don't see how what I did can be called more serious than the Durocher incident. I had good reason to lose my head. That was the second time they call me out on a play I thought I had beat. That's enough to make anybody mad.”

Roberto Clemente (1934–1972) Puerto Rican baseball player

As quoted in "Fined, Suspended: Clemente Hit Hard By Giles" by Bill Nunn, Jr. in The New Pittsburgh Courier (June 8, 1963), p. 23
Baseball-related, <big><big>1960s</big></big>, <big>1963</big>

Arthur Schopenhauer photo
John Foxe photo
Joey Comeau photo

“When I played "doctor" I played to win.”

Joey Comeau (1980) writer

A Softer World

Arsène Wenger photo

“I feel Bolton played a cup game today, they were one week late.”

Arsène Wenger (1949) French footballer and manager

Bolton 2-1 Arsenal (24 April 2011) http://www.skysports.com/football/match_report/0,19764,11065_3371710,00.html
Interviews

Arthur Rimbaud photo

“Old poetics played a large part in my alchemy of the word.”

Arthur Rimbaud (1854–1891) French Decadent and Symbolist poet

La vieillerie poétique avait une bonne part dans mon alchimie du verbe.
Une Saison en Enfer http://www.mag4.net/Rimbaud/poesies/Season.html (A Season in Hell) (1873)

John Steinbeck photo

“Give a critic an inch, he’ll write a play.”

John Steinbeck (1902–1968) American writer

On Critics
Writers at Work (1977)

André Maurois photo
Brian Wilson photo
Max Beckmann photo
Winston S. Churchill photo