Quotes about skin
page 4

Laurell K. Hamilton photo

“He wanted to feed the hunger of his skin. The hunger of his body not so much for orgasm but for that need to be held close and tight, that need we all have to press our nakedness against someone else's.”

Laurell K. Hamilton (1963) Novelist

Anita Blake's observation about vampire servant Damian; p. 81
Anita Blake: Vampire Hunter series, Incubus Dreams (2004)

Stephen Colbert photo

“While skin and race are often synonymous, skin cleansing is good, race cleansing is bad.”

Stephen Colbert (1964) American political satirist, writer, comedian, television host, and actor

"A Mock Columnist, Amok", in The New York Times (14 October 2007)

E. B. White photo
Ron Paul photo
Sylvia Plath photo
Toni Morrison photo
Octavio Paz photo
Herbert Spencer photo

“The saying that beauty is but skin deep is but a skin-deep saying.”

Herbert Spencer (1820–1903) English philosopher, biologist, sociologist, and prominent classical liberal political theorist

Vol. 2, Ch. XIV, Personal Beauty
Essays: Scientific, Political, and Speculative (1891)

David Harvey photo

“The capacity to transform itself from the inside makes capitalism a somewhat peculiar beast - chameleon-like, it perpetually changes it colour; snake-like, it periodically sheds its skin.”

David Harvey (1935) British anthropologist

Source: The Limits To Capital (2006 VERSO Edition), Chapter 10, Finance Capital And Its Contradictions, p. 327

Lyndon B. Johnson photo
Margaret Cho photo

“I stamp my feet and claim ignorance like a child, because its the color of my skin that says I'm supposed to know. I become the "one who refuses to see the self."”

Margaret Cho (1968) American stand-up comedian

From Her Books, I Have Chosen To Stay And Fight, PIGEONHOLING PEOPLE

Nelson Mandela photo
Richard Rodríguez photo
Stephen Fry photo

“I think faith in each other is much harder than faith in God or faith in crystals. I very rarely have faith in God; I occasionally have little spasms of it, but they go away, if I think hard enough about it. I am incandescent with rage at the idea of horoscopes and of crystals and of the nonsense of 'New Age', or indeed even more pseudo-scientific things: self-help, and the whole culture of 'searching for answers', when for me, as someone brought up in the unashamed Western tradition of music and poetry and philosophy, all the answers are there in the work that has been done by humanity before us, in literature, in art, in science, in all the marvels that have created this moment now, instead of people looking away. The image to me... is gold does exist, and for 'gold' say 'truth', say 'the answer', say 'love', say 'justice', say anything: it does exist. But the only way in this world you can achieve gold is to be incredibly intelligent about geology, to learn what mankind has learnt, to learn where it might lie, and then break your fingers and blister your skin in digging for it, and then sweat and sweat in a forge, and smelt it. And you will have gold, but you will never have it by closing your eyes and wishing for it. No angel will lean out of the bar of heaven and drop down sheets of gold for you. And we live in a society in which people believe they will. But the real answer, that there is gold, and that all you have to do is try and understand the world enough to get down into the muck of it, and you will have it, you will have truth, you will have justice, you will have understanding, but not by wishing for it.”

Stephen Fry (1957) English comedian, actor, writer, presenter, and activist

From Radio 4's Bookclub http://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/p00f8l3b
2000s

Jean Cocteau photo

“The skin of all of us is responsive to gypsy songs and military marches.”

Jean Cocteau (1889–1963) French poet, novelist, dramatist, designer, boxing manager and filmmaker

As quoted in Slonimsky's Book of Musical Anecdotes (2002) by Nicolas Slonimsky, p. 33

Roger Ebert photo
Bob Dylan photo

“Well, I see you got your brand new leopard-skin pill-box hat
Yes, I see you got your brand new leopard-skin pill-box hat
Well, you must tell me, baby
How your head feels under somethin' like that
Under your brand new leopard-skin pill-box hat”

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

Compare: "I saw you riding 'round in your brand new automobile/ Yes I saw you ridin' around, babe, in your brand new automobile/ Yes you was sitting there happy with your handsome driver at the wheel/ In your brand new automobile." Lightnin' Hopkins, Automobile Blues.
Song lyrics, Blonde on Blonde (1966), Leopard-Skin Pill-Box Hat

William H. Seward photo

“The color of the prisoner’s skin, and the form of his features, are not impressed upon the spiritual immortal mind which works beneath. In spite of human pride, he is still your brother, and mine, in form and color accepted and approved by his Father, and yours, and mine, and bears equally with us the proudest inheritance of our race — the image of our Maker. Hold him then to be a Man.”

William H. Seward (1801–1872) American lawyer and politician

Argument as defense attorney during the trial of an African-American criminal defendant, Auburn, New York (July 1846), published in Works of William H. Seward, vol. I (New York: Redfield, 1853), p. 417.

Justin Trudeau photo

“The North American idea that diversity is strength, is our great gift to the world. No matter where you are from, or the faith you profess, nor the colour of your skin, nor whom you love, you belong here. This is home.”

Justin Trudeau (1971) 23rd Prime Minister of Canada; eldest son of Pierre Trudeau

While introducting Barack Obama to Parlement. http://www.theglobeandmail.com/news/politics/obama-touches-down-in-ottawa-for-meeting-with-trudeau-pena-nieto/article30673135/ (June 28, 2016)
2016

Peter Greenaway photo
Rand Paul photo
Bob Dylan photo

“My clothes are wet, tight on my skin/but not as tight as the corner I painted myself in.”

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

Song lyrics, Love and Theft (2001), Mississippi

James Fenimore Cooper photo
Harry Reid photo

“Reid spoke of future President Barack Obama in 2008 describing him as a, "light-skinned' African American 'with no Negro dialect, unless he wanted to have one." Reid apologized for these remarks in January 2010 when they were publicized.”

Harry Reid (1939) American politician

Majority Leader Reid apologizes to Obama for 2008 remarks - Washington Post January 9, 2010 http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2010/01/09/AR2010010902141.html

Ze Frank photo

“[T]here's more than one way to skin a cat. But from the cat's perspective, they all suck.”

Ze Frank (1972) American online performance artist

http://www.zefrank.com/theshow/archives/2006/05/060206.html
"The Show" (www.zefrank.com/theshow/)

Elvis Costello photo

“Why can't a man stand alone?
Must he be burdened by all that he's taught to consider his own?
His skin and his station, his kin and his crown, his flag and his nation
They just weigh him down”

Elvis Costello (1954) English singer-songwriter

Why Can't A Man Stand Alone?
Song lyrics, All This Useless Beauty (1996)

Bob Dylan photo

“Shedding off one more layer of skin, keeping one step ahead of the persecutor within.”

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

Song lyrics, Infidels (1983), Jokerman

Ben Harper photo
George Eliot photo
Laurette Taylor photo
Glenn Beck photo

“During his February 8, 2006 show, Beck repeatedly referred to former U. S. President Jimmy Carter as "a waste of skin", adding that North Korean leader Kim Jong Il was not a bigger waste of skin because "[a]t least evil is using that skin."”

Glenn Beck (1964) U.S. talk radio and television host

New CNN host Beck rants: Jimmy Carter biggest "waste of skin"; "at least evil is using" skin of Kim Jong Il
Media Matters for America
2006-02-09
http://mediamatters.org/items/200602090005
2000s

Paul Cézanne photo
Smita Nair Jain photo
Tom Morello photo

“The skin you're in makes choices for you.”

Tom Morello (1964) American guitarist and singer-songwriter

Maximum Firepower.
Lyrics

Lil Wayne photo

“Top peeled back like the skin of a potato.”

Lil Wayne (1982) American rapper, singer, record executive and businessman

Upgrade
Official Mix tapes, Da Drought 3 (2007)

Iain Banks photo

“He was tall and very dark-skinned and he had fabulously blond hair and a voice that could raise bumps on your skin at a hundred meters, or, better still, millimeters.”

Source: Culture series, Excession (1996), Chapter 5 “Kiss the Blade” section IV (p. 151).

Kent Hovind photo
Nick Cave photo
Clay Shirky photo
Thomas Fuller (writer) photo

“950. Beauty is but Skin deep; within is Filth and Putrefaction.”

Thomas Fuller (writer) (1654–1734) British physician, preacher, and intellectual

Introductio ad prudentiam: Part II (1727), Gnomologia (1732)

Brian W. Aldiss photo
Vernon L. Smith photo
Amit Chaudhuri photo
Ian Fleming photo
Dawn Richard photo
Sören Kierkegaard photo
Mickey Spillane photo
Sienna Guillory photo
Daniel Pipes photo
Cassandra Clare photo
Stevie Wonder photo
Philippe Kahn photo

“A watch is much more than a list of functionality and features… the bottom line is this is fashion, this is image, this something that is on our skin that we want to wear, and it’s not just another electronic gadget that becomes obsolete…. there is an emotional character to it.”

Philippe Kahn (1952) Entrepreneur, camera phone creator

The Growth Show podcast, April 15th, 2015, regarding why some smartwatches to date have failed https://soundcloud.com/the-growth-show/apple-watch-special.

George Carlin photo
James K. Morrow photo
Benjamin H. Freedman photo
Henry Moore photo
Mickey Spillane photo
Kate Bush photo

“Outside
Gets inside
Through her skin.”

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

Song lyrics, Never for Ever (1980)

William McDougall photo
Tom Petty photo

“Here am I a fallen arrow.
My load is wide, my street is narrow.
My skin is thicker, my heart is tougher.
I don't mind workin', but I'm scared to suffer.
You know? You know?”

Tom Petty (1950–2017) American musician

All or Nothin, written with Mike Campbell and Jeff Lynne
Lyrics, Into The Great Wide Open (1991)

Clarence Thomas photo
Margaret Cho photo

“Where still the branches guarded the skin of ruddy hue, like to illumined cloud or to Iris when she ungirds her robe and glides to meet glowing Phoebus.”
Cuius adhuc rutilam servabant bracchia pellem, nubibus accensis similem aut cum veste recincta labitur ardenti Thaumantias obvia Phoebo.

Source: Argonautica, Book VIII, Lines 114–116

Martin Luther King, Jr. photo
Ramakrishna photo
George Bernard Shaw photo

“Your father is a fool skin deep; but you are a fool to your very marrow.”

George Bernard Shaw (1856–1950) Irish playwright

Eve to Cain, in Pt. I, Act II
1920s, Back to Methuselah (1921)

José Rizal photo

“Law has no skin, reason has no nostrils.”

José Rizal (1861–1896) Filipino writer, ophthalmologist, polyglot and nationalist

"The Philippines: A Century Hence"

“Never hesitate to imitate another writer - every person learning a craft or an art needs models. Eventually you'll find your own voice and will shed the skin of the writer you imitated.”

William Zinsser (1922–2015) writer, editor, journalist, literary critic, professor

Source: On Writing Well (Fifth Edition, orig. pub. 1976), Chapter 13, Bits & Pieces, p. 136.

Charles Stross photo
Christopher Golden photo

“Instead, it had slipped into her subconscious, and worked its way beneath her skin.”

Christopher Golden (1967) American writer

Page 280 Last Breath
Body of Evidence

Gwyneth Paltrow photo
Richard Dawkins photo
David Berg photo
Charles Taze Russell photo
William Cowper photo

“Fleecy locks and black complexion
Cannot forfeit nature's claim;
Skins may differ, but affection
Dwells in white and black the same.”

William Cowper (1731–1800) (1731–1800) English poet and hymnodist

Source: The Negro's Complaint (1788), Lines 13-16

J. Michael Straczynski photo
Richard Rodríguez photo
Orson Pratt photo
Dawn Richard photo

“Animals don’t have the ability to say how much pain they’re in or tell you not to rip their skin off for your ability to wear something. … Really get into the process of seeing what you’re putting not only inside your body, but outside, too.”

Dawn Richard (1983) American musician

“D△WN Poses Naked in Graphic Anti-Leather Ad,” video interview with PETA (27 September 2017) https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RILtC1gVN58.

Bill Mollison photo
Kent Hovind photo
Bert McCracken photo

“Whether the color of your skin is black, white, yellow, brown or purple -- the extent of this tragedy is so incredibly devastating that we had to do something.”

Bert McCracken (1982) American musician

Statement about Hurricane Katrina on website of The Used, reported in L. Martinez (September 10, 2005) "Rockers plug in for Katrina", Ventura County Star, p. 1.

P.G. Wodehouse photo
Ulysses S. Grant photo

“One thing has struck me as a bit queer. During my two terms of office the whole Democratic press, and the morbidly honest and 'reformatory' portion of the Republican press, thought it horrible to keep U. S. troops stationed in the Southern States, and when they were called upon to protect the lives of negroes– as much citizens under the Constitution as if their skins were white– the country was scarcely large enough to hold the sound of indignation belched forth by them for some years. Now, however, there is no hesitation about exhausting the whole power of the government to suppress a strike on the slightest intimation that danger threatens. All parties agree that this is right, and so do I. If a negro insurrection should arise in South Carolina, Mississippi, or Louisiana, or if the negroes in either of these states, where they are in a large majority, should intimidate the whites from going to the polls, or from exercising any of the rights of American citizens, there would be no division of sentiment as to the duty of the president. It does seem the rule should work both ways.”

Ulysses S. Grant (1822–1885) 18th President of the United States

Regarding keeping U.S. Army soldiers stationed in southern U.S. states to protect the safety and civil rights of freed slaves (26 August 1877), as quoted in The Papers of Ulysses S. Grant: November 1, 1876-September 30, 1878, by U.S. Grant, pp. 251-252.
1870s, Letter to Daniel Ammen (1877)

Jean Paul Sartre photo
Joanna Krupa photo
William Empson photo

“Not to have fire is to be a skin that shrills.”

William Empson (1906–1984) English literary critic and poet

"Missing Dates", line 12; cited from John Haffenden (ed.) The Complete Poems (London: Allen Lane, 2000) p. 79.
The Complete Poems

Charles Lamb photo
Kage Baker photo
Bill Bryson photo
Helen Keller photo