Quotes about play
page 32

Neil Diamond photo

“Don't know that I will,
But until I can find me
The girl who'll stay
And won't play games behind me,
I'll be what I am:
A solitary man, solitary man.”

Neil Diamond (1941) American singer-songwriter

Solitary Man
Song lyrics, The Feel of Neil Diamond (1966)

John Ralston Saul photo
Neil Diamond photo

“You are the sun, I am the moon.
You are the words, I am the tune.
Play me.”

Neil Diamond (1941) American singer-songwriter

Play Me
Song lyrics, Moods (1972)

Burkard Schliessmann photo

“To approach Bach, one has to realize that 100 years after Bach’s death, Bach and his music totally had been forgotten. Even while he was still alive, Bach himself believed in the polyphonic power and the resulting symmetric architectures of well-proportioned music. But this had been an artificial truth - even for him. Other composers, including his sons, already composed in another style, where they found other ideals and brought them to new solutions. The spirit of the time already had changed while Bach was still alive. A hundred years later, it was Mendelssohn who about 1850 discovered Bach anew with the performance of the St. Matthew Passion. Now a new renaissance began, and the world learned to know the greatness of Bach. To become acquainted with Bach, many transcriptions were done. But the endeavors in rediscovering Bach had been - stylistically - in a wrong direction. Among these were the orchestral transcriptions of Leopold Stokowski, and the organ interpretations of the multitalented Albert Schweitzer, who, one has to confess, had a decisive effect on the rediscovery of Bach. All performances had gone in the wrong direction: much too romantic, with a false knowledge of historic style, the wrong sound, the wrong rubato, and so on. The necessity of artists like Rosalyn Tureck and Glenn Gould - again 100 years later - has been understandable: The radicalism of Glenn Gould pointed out the real clarity and the internal explosions of the power-filled polyphony in the best way. This extreme style, called by many of his critics refrigerator interpretations, however really had been necessary to demonstrate the right strength to bring out the architecture in the right manner, which had been lost so much before. I’m convinced that the style Glenn Gould played has been the right answer. But there has been another giant: it was no less than Helmut Walcha who, also beginning in the 1950, started his legendary interpretations for the DG-Archive productions of the complete organ-work cycle on historic organs (Silbermann, Arp Schnitger). Also very classical in strength of speed and architectural proportions, he pointed out the polyphonic structures in an enlightened but moreover especially humanistic way, in a much more smooth and elegant way than Glenn Gould on the piano. Some years later it was Virgil Fox who acquainted the U. S. with tours of the complete Bach cycle, which certainly was effective in its own way, but much more modern than Walcha. The ranges of Bach interpretations had become wide, and there were the defenders of the historical style and those of the much more modern romantic style. Also the performances of the orchestral and cantata Bach had become extreme: on one side, for example, Karl Richter, who used a big and rich-toned orchestra; on the other side Helmut Rilling, whose Bach was much more historically oriented.”

Burkard Schliessmann classical pianist

Talkings on Bach

Roger Ebert photo

“Hitchcock said a movie should play the audience like a piano. Death Race played me like a drum. It is an assault on all senses, including common. Walking out, I had the impression I had just seen the video game and was still waiting for the movie.”

Roger Ebert (1942–2013) American film critic, author, journalist, and TV presenter

Review http://www.rogerebert.com/reviews/death-race-2008 of Death Race (22 August 2008)
Reviews, Half-star reviews

Vladimir Horowitz photo
Rafael Benítez photo

“To me, Arsenal played much better football two or three years ago. They won matches and were exciting to watch. They create excitement so how can you say Chelsea are the best in the world?”

Rafael Benítez (1960) Spanish association football player and manager

We don't need to give away flags for our fans to wave (2012)

Eugéne Ionesco photo
Bill Burr photo
Mo Yan photo
Nisargadatta Maharaj photo
Roger Ebert photo
Karen Horney photo
Joseph Joubert photo
Warren Farrell photo

“Men are still playing protector of women’s transitions, and both sexes expect only men to make transitions on their own.”

Warren Farrell (1943) author, spokesperson, expert witness, political candidate

Women Can't Hear What Men Don't Say (2000)

Stéphane Mallarmé photo
Gloria Estefan photo
Britney Spears photo

“Carlson: Give me the chronology of the kiss. How did you decide to kiss Madonna?
Spears: Well, actually, in rehearsals, it wasn't something that was like, "Y'know, This is what we're gonna do. Y'know." It was just kinda like we play around a little bit and, um, she said during—before the performance, "Let's just feel it out and see what happens."”

Britney Spears (1981) American singer, dancer and actress

So I didn't know it was gonna be that long and everything, but it was cool.
CNN interview with Tucker Carlson http://www.cnn.com/2003/SHOWBIZ/Music/09/03/cnna.spears/ (3 September 2003)

Bismillah Khan photo

“An image can never be the real thing. Varanasi is where the Ganga flows, where I can play the Shehnai for Lord Balaji. I shall be at home, nowhere else but in India.”

Bismillah Khan (1916–2006) Indian musician

Sukriya.
When he was asked to stay back in America following his concerts there, even with a promise that a Varanasi would be replicated for him there.
Quote, Encyclopedia of Bharat Ratnas

Arthur Schopenhauer photo
Romário photo

“"I quit. I can't play anymore. I lack the desire to do it. "”

Romário (1966) Brazilian association football player

Parei. Não dá mais. Não tenho mais vontade.
Source: Veja Magazine; 1886 Edition. January 5th, 2005.
Context: Announcing his retirement.

Rafael Benítez photo
Salvador Dalí photo
Paul Simon photo
David Foster Wallace photo
Christopher Walken photo
Marcus Orelias photo
L. Ron Hubbard photo

“We're playing for blood, the stake is EARTH.”

L. Ron Hubbard (1911–1986) American science fiction author, philosopher, cult leader, and the founder of the Church of Scientology

(7 November 1962).
Scientology Policy Letters

Garry Kasparov photo

“Caissa, the goddess of chess, had punished me for my conservative play, for betraying my nature.”

Garry Kasparov (1963) former chess world champion

Part III, Chapter 15, Crisis Point, p. 188
2000s, How Life Imitates Chess (2007)

Elizabeth Bibesco photo

“Each play worth seeing should be watched a second time on the faces of the audience.”

Elizabeth Bibesco (1897–1945) writer, actress; Romanian princess

Haven (1951)

Bobby Fischer photo

“White can always play differently, in which case he merely loses differently.”

Bobby Fischer (1943–2008) American chess prodigy, chess player, and chess writer

On his eponymous defense to the King's Gambit. A bust to the King's Gambit http://www.chesscafe.com/text/bust.pdf (1960)
1960s

Margaret Atwood photo
John Hannah (actor) photo
Suzanne Collins photo
Frida Kahlo photo
Derren Brown photo
Jaani Peuhu photo

“Today we play guitar. We shall not speak or write. We just play and maybe drink some blood of virgins.”

Jaani Peuhu (1978) Finnish musician

Iconcrash: Enochian Devices Blog, 2007-12-14 http://www.eurobands.us/2007/04/06/iconcrash-506,

Max Weber photo
Arthur Schopenhauer photo
Jack Buck photo

“Breaking ball, hit off the pitcher, TO THE THIRD BASEMAN!!! No play! Base hit! Three thousand for Lou Brock!”

Jack Buck (1924–2002) American sportscaster

Calling Brock's 3,000th career hit in 1979.
1970s

Pablo Casals photo
Kumar Sangakkara photo

“Disappointed we didn't win it for Sanga. We promised him we would play our best cricket, but we didn't. On behalf of the team, we can't thank Sanga enough for his services over the last 15 years.”

Kumar Sangakkara (1977) Sri Lankan cricketer

Sri Lanka captain Angelo Mathews said that he was disappointed that the team could not gift a farewell win to batting great Kumar Sangakkara, who retired from cricket at the P Sara Oval, quoted on sports.ndtv, "Angelo Mathews Unhappy Sri Lanka Did Not Win it for Kumar Sangakkara" http://sports.ndtv.com/sri-lanka-vs-india-2015/news/247472-angelo-mathews-unhappy-sri-lanka-did-not-win-it-for-kumar-sangakkara, August 24, 2015.
About

Sania Mirza photo
Percy Bysshe Shelley photo
Anthony Eden photo
Ravi Shankar photo

“Thank you, if you appreciate the tuning so much, I hope you will enjoy the playing more.”

Ravi Shankar (1920–2012) Indian musician and sitar player

To the audience at The Concert for Bangladesh (1971)
Variant: Thank you, if you appreciate the tuning so much, I hope you will enjoy the playing more.

Kent Hovind photo
Jerry Springer photo

“The GNP by itself is no mark of our national achievement. For it includes smokestacks that pollute, drugs that destroy, and ambulances which clear our highways of human wreckage. It includes a mugger's knife, a rioter's bomb, and Oswald's rifle, but if the GNP tells us all this, there is much that it does not tell us. It says nothing about the health of our families, the quality of their education, or the joy of their play.”

Jerry Springer (1944) American television presenter, former lawyer, politician, news presenter, actor, and musician

from a speech given circa 1970 to citizens in Cincinnati Ohio.
This American Life http://www.thislife.org/pages/descriptions/04/258.html, Ep. 258, 01/30/04, Leaving the Fold; Act One.
PLEASE NOTE that this quote borrows very heavily, in substance and form, from a 1968 speech by Robert F. Kennedy http://www.mccombs.utexas.edu/faculty/Michael.Brandl/Main%20Page%20Items/Kennedy%20on%20GNP.htm.

Edmund White photo
A.E. Housman photo

“Tell me not here, it needs not saying,
What tune the enchantress plays
In aftermaths of soft September
Or under blanching mays,
For she and I were long acquainted
And I knew all her ways.”

A.E. Housman (1859–1936) English classical scholar and poet

No. 40, st. 1.
Last Poems http://www.gutenberg.org/dirs/etext05/8lspm10.txt (1922)

Alexander Woollcott photo
Jayachamarajendra Wadiyar photo
Jeremy Clarkson photo
Steve Wozniak photo
Andrew Ure photo
Roger Ebert photo

“It's like the high school production of something you saw at Steppenwolf, with the most gifted students in drama class playing the John Malkovich and Joan Allen roles.”

Roger Ebert (1942–2013) American film critic, author, journalist, and TV presenter

Review http://www.rogerebert.com/reviews/the-pink-panther-2006 of The Pink Panther (10 February 2006)
Reviews, One-and-a-half star reviews

Heinrich Heine photo
Dorothy Parker photo

“There is one thing that appreciably eases the strain for the plays that arrive at this time of year, and that is that practically nothing is expected of them. p. 306”

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 5: 1922

Magnus Carlsen photo

“He played the Berlin, I played the most solid line, yada yada yada, let's go to the doping control.”

Magnus Carlsen (1990) Norwegian chess player

Magnus Carlsen on the press conference http://www.firstpost.com/sports/anand-admits-he-has-to-liven-things-up-after-another-tame-draw-1239891.html after holding Vishy Anand to a draw in the 8th game of the World championships, using only 15 minutes of his thinking time.

Max Beerbohm photo

“There is much virtue in a window. It is to a human being as a frame is to a painting, as a proscenium to a play, as 'form' to literature. It strongly defines its content.”

"Fenestralia" http://books.google.com/books?id=YZMhAAAAMAAJ&q=%22There+is+much+virtue+in+a+window+It+is+to+a+human+being+as+a+frame+is+to+a+painting+as+a+proscenium+to+a+play+as+form+to+literature+It+strongly+defines+its+content%22&pg=PA147#v=onepage, Mainly on the Air (1946), The Atlantic ( April 1944 http://books.google.com/books?id=5KAGAQAAIAAJ&q=%22There+is+much+virtue+in+a+window+It+is+to+a+human+being+as+a+frame+is+to+a+painting+as+a+proscenium+to+a+play+as+form+to+literature+It+strongly+defines+its+content%22&pg=PA85#v=onepage)

Joanna MacGregor photo
Jim Henson photo

“With 'The Muppet Show' we used to play with a lot of different styles. That's what it was: a variety thing.”

Jim Henson (1936–1990) American puppeteer

Interview with Associated Press (1984)

Antoni Tàpies photo
TotalBiscuit photo

“You better save regularly if you intend to play this, 'cause you will just…die. From anything! At random! With no prior warning!”

TotalBiscuit (1984–2018) British game commentator

WTF Is…? series, Day One: Garry's Incident (October 1, 2013)

Hans Freudenthal photo

“No statistician present at this moment will have been in doubt about the meaning of my words when I mentioned the common statistical model. It must be a stochastic device producing random results. Tossing coins or a dice or playing at cards are not flexible enough. The most general chance instrument is the urn filled with balls of different colours or with tickets bearing some ciphers or letters. This model is continuously used in our courses as a didactic tool, and in our statistical analyses as a means of translating realistic problems into mathematical ones. In statistical language " urn model " is a standard expression.”

Hans Freudenthal (1905–1990) Dutch mathematician

Source: The Concept and the Role of the Model in Mathematics and Natural and Social Sciences (1961), p. 79; Partly cited in: Norman L. Johnson and Samuel Kotz (1977) Urn Models and Their Application: an. Approach to Modern Discrete Probability Theory http://dis.unal.edu.co/~gjhernandezp/sim/hide/Urn%20Models%20and%20Their%20Application%20-%20An%20approach%20to%20modern%20discrete%20probability%20theory_Norman%20L.Johnson(Wiley%201977%20413s).pdf, John Wiley & Sons.

Joe Zawinul photo
Benoît Mandelbrot photo
Suze Robertson photo

“No, absolutely not, I have never been what one calls a gifted child, never a dreamer. I didn't think of making fantasies with the pencil on the paper, although at school we learned to draw and play music of course. But in those days the piano was actually what I preferred most... But until my eighteenth year I have been hesitating long between both [painting and playing piano]..”

Suze Robertson (1855–1922) Dutch painter

version in original Dutch / origineel citaat van Suze Robertson: Nee, ik ben volstrekt nooit wat men noemt een begaafd kind geweest, nooit een droomster. Aan fantasie met 't potlood op 't papier dacht ik niet, al leerden we op school natuurlijk ook teekenen en muziek. Maar in dien tijd was de piano eigenlijk meer mijn fort.. .Toch heb ik tot mijn achttiende jaar tussen die beide lang gewankeld.
Source: 1900 - 1922, Onder de Menschen: Suze Robertson' (1912), p. 30

Eiji Aonuma photo
Ayelet Waldman photo
Henri Matisse photo
Max Scheler photo

“There is usually no ressentiment just where a superficial view would look for it first: in the criminal. The criminal is essentially an active type. Instead of repressing hatred, revenge, envy, and greed, he releases them in crime. Ressentiment is a basic impulse only in the crimes of spite. These are crimes which require only a minimum of action and risk and from which the criminal draws no advantage, since they are inspired by nothing but the desire to do harm. The arsonist is the purest type in point, provided that he is not motivated by the pathological urge of watching fire (a rare case) or by the wish to collect insurance. Criminals of this type strangely resemble each other. Usually they are quiet, taciturn, shy, quite settled and hostile to all alcoholic or other excesses. Their criminal act is nearly always a sudden outburst of impulses of revenge or envy which have been repressed for years. A typical cause would be the continual deflation of one's ego by the constant sight of the neighbor's rich and beautiful farm. Certain expressions of class ressentiment, which have lately been on the increase, also fall under this heading. I mention a crime committed near Berlin in 1912: in the darkness, the criminal stretched a wire between two trees across the road, so that the heads of passing automobilists would be shorn off. This is a typical case of ressentiment, for any car driver or passenger at all could be the victim, and there is no interested motive. Also in cases of slander and defamation of character, ressentiment often plays a major role...”

Max Scheler (1874–1928) German philosopher

Das Ressentiment im Aufbau der Moralen (1912)

Nicolas Bratza photo

“The United Kingdom's contribution to the European Convention on Human Rights has been immense. British parliamentarians and lawyers played a key role in its conception and its drafting.”

Nicolas Bratza (1945) British judge

"Britain should be defending European justice, not attacking it", The Independent, Tuesday 24 January 2012 http://www.independent.co.uk/opinion/commentators/nicolas-bratza-britain-should-be-defending-european-justice-not-attacking-it-6293689.html

Thomas Hardy photo
Amir Taheri photo
Jean Tinguely photo

“The relationship of art and play: to play is art - consequently I play. I play enraged.”

Jean Tinguely (1925–1991) Swiss painter and sculptor

Jean Tinguely (1959), quoted in: ACM multimedia 2000: proceedings. ACM. Special Interest Group on Multimedia (2000). p. 19.
Quotes, 1950's

Bob Dylan photo

“Pointed threats, they bluff with scorn
Suicide remarks are torn
From the fool's gold mouthpiece the hollow horn
Plays wasted words, proves to warn
That he not busy being born is busy dying”

Bob Dylan (1941) American singer-songwriter, musician, author, and artist

Song lyrics, Bringing It All Back Home (1965), It's Alright, Ma (I'm Only Bleeding)

Vladimir Horowitz photo

“Of the Russian pianists I like only one, Richter. Gilels did some things well, but I did not like his mannerisms, the way he moved around while he was playing.”

Vladimir Horowitz (1903–1989) American classical pianist and composer

quoted in Harold C. Schonberg, Horowitz: his life and music

Temple Grandin photo
Mahela Jayawardene photo

“My role with England is to help develop their cricketers, and to help with how they should approach different challenges - like playing spin. The pools hadn't been decided when I agreed to do it. England didn't hire me to give information on the Sri Lankan team. They have analysts and coaches to do that. I'm quite disappointed to see those comments from the board, to be fair.”

Mahela Jayawardene (1977) Former Sri Lankan cricketer

Jayawardene on criticism from SLC president Thilanga Sumathipala, contending that his ten-day consulting role with England is largely geared toward player development and not toward providing specific tactical information, quoted on ESPN Cricket Info, "Jayawardene brushes off SLC president's criticism" http://www.espncricinfo.com/srilanka/content/story/976925.html, February 27, 2016.
Quote

John Dos Passos photo

“I find playing with form allows me to play with ideas.”

Anne Simpson (1956) Canadian poet

Loop Annual Award.com Interview (February 2010)

Alanis Morissette photo

“I want to decide between survival and bliss
And though I know who I'm not I still don't know who I am
But I know I won't keep on playing the victim”

Alanis Morissette (1974) Canadian-American singer-songwriter

Precious Illusions
Under Rug Swept

Thomas Little Heath photo
Todd Snider photo