Quotes about talking
page 13

“All the things you can talk about in anyone's work are the things that are least important.”

Edward Gorey (1925–2000) American writer, artist, and illustrator

Source: Ascending Peculiarity: Edward Gorey on Edward Gorey

“This may sound a little West Texan to you, but I like it. When I'm talking about.. when I'm talking about myself, and when he's talking about myself, all of us are talking about me.”

George W. Bush (1946) 43rd President of the United States

“Hello?" Isabelle called from the other side. "Simon, is your diva moment over? I need to talk to Jace.”

Cassandra Clare book City of Glass

Source: City of Glass

“I don't have alot of people to talk to. Not alot of people are worth my time.”

Julie Anne Peters (1952) American writer

Source: By the Time You Read This, I'll Be Dead

People, Time

“We're in such a hurry most of the time we never get much chance to talk. The result is a kind of endless day-to-day shallowness, a monotony that leaves a person wondering years later where all the time went and sorry that it's all gone.”

Robert M. Pirsig book Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance

Source: Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance (1974), Ch. 1
Source: Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance: An Inquiry Into Values

Chance, Time, Personality

“Great. She shook her head. Not only am I having conversations with myself, but now I'm refusing to talk to me. This has got to be the first sign of madness.”

Trudi Canavan book The High Lord

Source: The High Lord

Madness

“The best time to talk to ghosts is just before the sun comes up.”

Laurie Halse Anderson (1961) American children's writer

Time, Sun

“[…]if you talk any more flummery to me, Frederica, I shall give you one of my—er—icy set-downs!”(Alverstoke)”

Georgette Heyer book Frederica

Source: Frederica

“Talking about music is like dancing about architecture.”

Steve Martin (1945) American actor, comedian, musician, author, playwright, and producer

Music, Dance, Funny

“There was a sad fellow over on a bar stool talking to the bartender, who was polishing a glass and listening with that plastic smile people wear when they are trying not to scream.”

Raymond Chandler book The Long Goodbye

Source: The Long Goodbye

People, Sadness, Smile

“Whenever I see her, we laugh enough to last for the month. She's my best friend, and someday when we're old enough I'm going to talk her into staying here forever.”

Grace Lin book Where the Mountain Meets the Moon

Source: Where the Mountain Meets the Moon

“I hadn't fully realized just how powerful words could be before this. Whoever came up with the saying 'sticks and stones may break my bones but words will never hurt me' was talking out of his or her armpit.”

Malorie Blackman Noughts & Crosses

Source: Noughts & Crosses

Hurt

“Now I am depressed myself,' I said. 'That's why I never think about these things. I never think and yet when I begin to talk I say the things I have found out in my mind without thinking.”

Ernest Hemingway book A Farewell to Arms

Source: A Farewell to Arms

Thinking

“What were you two talking about?" she whispered as Wes pulls the door shut.
Nothing," I said. "Running."
You should have seen your face," she said, her breath hot in my ear. "Sa-woooon.”

Sarah Dessen book The Truth About Forever

Source: The Truth About Forever

“You should try not to talk so much, friend. You'll sound far less stupid that way.

- Breeze”

Brandon Sanderson (1975) American fantasy writer

Source: The Final Empire

Stupidity, Way

“Chiron insisted that we talk about the Labyrinth in the morning which is like 'Hey, your life's in mortal danger. Sleep tight!”

Rick Riordan book The Battle of the Labyrinth

Source: The Battle of the Labyrinth

Life, Sleep

“the guilty think all talk is of themselves.”

Geoffrey Chaucer (1343–1400) English poet

Thinking

“Usually people look at you when they're talking to you. I know that they're working out what I'm thinking, but I can't tell what they're thinking. It is like being in a room with a one-way mirror in a spy film.”

Mark Haddon book The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-Time

Source: The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-Time

People, Way, Thinking

“I need to talk to Clarisse," Annabeth said.
I stared at her as if she'd just said "I need to eat a large, smelly boot."
"What for?”

Rick Riordan book The Battle of the Labyrinth

Source: The Battle of the Labyrinth

“To be able to talk to your heart’s content about a book you like with someone who feels the same way about it is one of the greatest joys that life can offer.”

Haruki Murakami (1949) Japanese author, novelist

Life, Books, Way, Feeling

“I sat there for three hours and did not feel the time or the boredom of our talk and its foolish disconnection. As long as I could hear his voice, I was quite lost, quite blind, quite outside my own self.”

Anaïs Nin (1903–1977) writer of novels, short stories, and erotica

Feeling, Time

“Someone said that patriotism is the last refuge of cowards; those without moral principles usually wrap a flag around themselves, and those bastards always talk about the purity of race.”

Umberto Eco book The Prague Cemetery

Source: The Prague Cemetery

“You're talking!"
"I know I am."
"And making sense!"
"Thank you kindly."
"And in sentences!"
"I've noticed." - Stefan and Elena”

L.J. Smith (1965) American author

Source: Nightfall

Sense

“I loved the feeling of talking and having somebody really listen to what I have to say. It was like a high or something.”

Jenny Han (1980) American writer

Source: The Summer I Turned Pretty

Love, Feeling

“Old lady judges watch people in pairs
Limited in sex, they dare
To push fake morals, insult and stare
While money doesn't talk, it swears
Obscenity, who really cares
Propaganda, all is phony.”

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

Money, People, Sex

“The wise man tests before he talks. The critic but follows the fad of a cynical and apathetic age.”

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

Age

“And I told you, I'm not going to pursue another man's girlfriend. You want to talk honor. There it is in its purest form”

Richelle Mead book Last Sacrifice

Source: Last Sacrifice

“When a woman is talking to you, listen to what she says with her eyes”

Victor Hugo (1802–1885) French poet, novelist, and dramatist

Relationship

“She needed to talk, she needed to cry, she needed to vent all her frustrations and disappointments.”

Cecelia Ahern (1981) Irish novelist

Source: P.S. I Love You

Disappointment, Cry

“Sometimes it is better not to talk about art by using the word "art". If we just act with awareness and integrity, our art will flower, and we don't have to talk about it at all.”

Thich Nhat Hanh (1926) Religious leader and peace activist

Source: Peace Is Every Step: The Path of Mindfulness in Everyday Life

Art, Flowers

“If there's anything unsettling to the stomach, it's watching actors on television talk about their personal lives.”

Marlon Brando (1924–2004) American screen and stage actor

Personality

“Jem spoke with enormous care; talking to Will about anything personal was like trying not to startle away a wild animal.”

Cassandra Clare book Clockwork Angel

Source: Clockwork Angel

Animals, Personality

“As with many people, Charles, who could not talk, wrote with fullness. He set down his loneliness and his perplexities, and he put on paper many things he did not know about himself.”

John Steinbeck book East of Eden

Source: East of Eden

People, Loneliness

“I realized that even if we went on talking till Judgment Day, I would still find the time all too short.”

Simone de Beauvoir (1908–1986) French writer, intellectual, existentialist philosopher, political activist, feminist, and social theorist

Time

“I learn a great deal by merely observing you, and letting you talk as long as you please, and taking note of what you do not say.”

T.S. Eliot (1888–1965) 20th century English author

Learning

“I dreamt we walked together along the shore. We made satisfying small talk and laughed. This morning I found sand in my shoe and a seashell in my pocket. Was I only dreaming?”

Maya Angelou (1928–2014) American author and poet

Dreams, Shoe

“People love talking, and I have never been a huge talker. I carry on an inner monologue, but the words often don't reach my lips.”

Gillian Flynn book Gone Girl

Source: Gone Girl

Love, People

“The way to get a man interested and to hold his interest was to talk about himself, and then gradually lead the conversation around yourself—and keep it there.”

Margaret Mitchell (1900–1949) American author and journalist

Way

“So you decided to help us by killing the guy we were talking to?" Clary demanded "Because you thought he had a shady past? Who- who does that? It doesnt make any sense.”

Cassandra Clare book City of Glass

Source: City of Glass

Guy, Sense, Past, Help

“All the talking in the world couldn't even prove you and the other person both saw the same color red.”

L.J. Smith (1965) American author

Source: Secret Vampire

World, Color, Personality

“Normally I hate people who whine all the time, but in your case, it would be okay to complain. Be selfish, say what you want once in a while. It's okay to let yourself be sad." -Kyo talking to Tohru”

Natsuki Takaya (1973) Manga artist

Source: Fruits Basket, Vol. 1

Hate, People, Sadness, Time

“Nights without beginning that had no end. Talking about a past as if it'd really happened. Telling themselves that this time next year, this time next year, things were going to be different.”

Raymond Carver (1938–1988) American short story author and poet

Time, Past, Night

“Yes, you bit me, yes, I kind of liked it, yes, let's not talk about it again, said Jace. You're not a vampire anymore. Focus.”

Cassandra Clare book City of Heavenly Fire

Simon Lewis and Jace Herondale, pg. 716
Source: The Mortal Instruments, City of Heavenly Fire (2014)
Context: Simon was looking at Jace as if he were both fascinating and also a little alarming. 'Did I-- did we ever-- did I bite you?'
Jace touched the scar on his throat. 'I can't believe you remember that.'
'Did we... roll around on the bottom of a boat?'
'Yes, you bit me, yes, I kind of liked it, yes, let's not talk about it again,' said Jace.

“But hands are sacred things. Touch is personal, fingers of love, feelers of blind eyes, tongues of those who cannot talk…”

Keri Hulme book The Bone People

Source: The Bone People

Love, Personality

“People surprise you, Frank, with just how fuckin stupid they are. I mean, do you actually realize how much adult conversation is spent on this fuckin business? Facts treated like they were opinions just for the simple purpose of talking about it longer? Some people might think that's interesting, bub, but I'll tell you. It's romanticizing a goddamn rock by calling it a mountain range to me. People waste a helluva lot of time they could be putting to useful purposes. This is a game. See it and forget about it.”

Richard Ford The Sportswriter

Source: The Sportswriter (1986), p. 104

People, Stupidity, Mountain, Game

“I'm not usually an eavesdropper, but i dare you to try not listening if you hear your best friend talking about you to an adult.”

Rick Riordan book The Lightning Thief

Source: The Lightning Thief

“Based on her experience with men, most assumed that when you talked to them about a problem or dilemma, they were expected to offer an opinion, even when all you wants was for them to listen.”

Nicholas Sparks book The Lucky One

Source: The Lucky One

Men, Problem

“Bore, n. A person who talks when you wish him to listen.”

Ambrose Bierce (1842–1914) American editorialist, journalist, short story writer, fabulist, and satirist

The Devil's Dictionary (1911)
Source: The Unabridged Devil's Dictionary

Personality

“Hearth signed, 'is it talking? I don't read sword lips.'"
'what is he saying?' Jack asked. 'I don't read elf hands”

Rick Riordan book The Sword of Summer

Source: The Sword of Summer

Reading

“There are many here among us who feel that life is but a joke. But you and I, we've been through that, and this is not our fate, so let us not talk falsely now, the hour is getting late.”

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

Song lyrics, John Wesley Harding (1967), All Along the Watchtower
Context: "No reason to get excited," the thief, he kindly spoke
"There are many here among us who feel that life is but a joke
But you and I, we've been through that, and this is not our fate
So let us not talk falsely now, the hour is getting late"

Life, Fate, Feeling, Falseness

“He glanced over at me, a smile twisting his lips. "Hey, no advice, Ghost Girl. Guardians should be seen and not heard."
I flipped him off for the "Ghost Girl" comment but he didn't notice because Lissa was talking to him again.”

Richelle Mead Shadow Kiss

Source: Shadow Kiss

Smile, Girl

“We born dyin'… But you ask a man an' he talk like he gonna live forevah.”

Walter Mosley (1952) American writer

Source: The Last Days of Ptolemy Grey

“Don't talk unless you can improve the silence.”

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

Silence

“If I had to give young writers advice, I would say don't listen to writers talking about writing or themselves.”

Lillian Hellman (1905–1984) American dramatist and screenwriter

“How can you talk if you haven't got a brain?
I don't know, but some people without brains do an awful lot of talking.”

L. Frank Baum book The Wonderful Wizard of Oz

Source: The Wonderful Wizard of Oz

People

“Love made us partners in narcissism, and we talked ceaselessly about how close we were, how perfect our connection was, like we were the first people in history to ever get it exactly right.”

Jonathan Tropper (1970) American writer

Source: This is Where I Leave You

Love, People, History, Perfection

“Preachers err by trying to talk people into belief; better they reveal the radiance of their own discovery.”

Joseph Campbell (1904–1987) American mythologist, writer and lecturer

People

“Gods, I love it when you talk mathy to me.”

Kresley Cole American writer

Source: Dark Desires After Dusk

Love, God

“I try to convince myself that it's the alcohol talking. But alcohol can't talk. It just sits there. It can't even get itself out of the bottle.”

David Levithan The Lover's Dictionary

Source: The Lover's Dictionary

Alcohol

“Money talks, bullshit walks.”

Stephen King book The Dark Tower II: The Drawing of the Three

Source: The Drawing of the Three

Money

“Everyone always talks about how well mothers know their children. No one ever seems to notice how well children know their mothers.”

Lisa Unger book Fragile

Source: Fragile

Children

“Talk not of wasted affection, affection never was wasted;
If it enrich not the heart of another, its waters, returning
Back to their springs, like the rain, shall fill them full of refreshment;
That which the fountain sends forth returns again to the fountain.”

Henry Wadsworth Longfellow Evangeline: A Tale of Acadie

Part II, section 1.
Evangeline: A Tale of Acadie (1847)

Spring, Water, Heart

“barfly n.
You have the ability to talk to anyone which is an ability I do not share.”

David Levithan The Lover's Dictionary

Source: The Lover's Dictionary

“and getting dressed we talk about what else there might be to do, but being together solves most of it, in fact, solves all of it”

Charles Bukowski book Mockingbird Wish Me Luck

Source: Mockingbird Wish Me Luck

“A friend of mine once defined love as finding someone you can talk to late into the night”

James Patterson (1947) American author

Love, Night

“The trouble with giving yourself a pep talk is, that deep down you know it's all bullshit.”

Sophie Kinsella book Remember Me?

Source: Remember Me?

“There is no religion without love,
and people may talk as much as
they like about their religion, but
if it does not teach them to be good
and kind to man and beast,
it is all a sham.”

Anna Sewell book Black Beauty

Source: Black Beauty (1877), Ch. XIII, p. 66

Love, People, Religion

“The end comes when we no longer talk with ourselves. It is the end of genuine thinking and the beginning of the final loneliness”

Edward Gibbon (1737–1794) English historian and Member of Parliament

Thinking, Loneliness

“They spent days, nights, weeks, and years talking, never accepting the fact that, good or bad, an idea only exists when someone tries to put it into practice.”

Paulo Coelho (1947) Brazilian lyricist and novelist

Source: Veronika Decides to Die

Idea, Night

“Sometimes it's a form of love just to talk to somebody that you have nothing in common with and still be fascinated by their presence.”

David Byrne (1952) Scottish alternative rock musician and promoter of world music

Love

“I was talking about Cady’s hair,” says Bonnie. “You don’t have to tell her she looks dead.” “It’s okay,” I tell Bonnie. “I don’t actually care what you think, so it’s perfectly okay.”

E. Lockhart book We Were Liars

Source: We Were Liars

Thinking, Dead

“How do you know when you're God?" "When I pray to him I find I am talking to myself.”

Peter Barnes (1931–2004) British writer

Source: The Ruling Class: A Baroque Comedy

God

“It is a common delusion that you make things better by talking about them.”

Rose Macaulay (1881–1958) English novelist and writer

“Why must one talk? Often one shouldn't talk, but live in silence. The more one talks, the less the words mean. (Nana Kleinfrankenheim, Vivre Sa Vie)”

Jean-Luc Godard (1930) French-Swiss film director, screenwriter and film critic

Source: La Nouvelle Vague

Silence

“That's what the world is like: people talk as if they knew everything, but ifyou dare to ask a question, they don't know anything.”

Paulo Coelho book Eleven Minutes

Source: Eleven Minutes

People, World, Question

“When you pray be sure that you listen as well as talk. You have things you want to say to God but He also has things He wants to say to you.”

Joyce Meyer (1943) American author and speaker

God

“We do, to what extent of freedom we have earned or are allowed by others and ourselves, what we most want to do. We say - speak, paint, carve, write, express ourselves… as we damn please. And in both the doing of things and the talking about them - which together seem to me to sum up life - we so crave freedom or liberty or whatever one may choose to call it as to justify our Declaration's romantically terming it an unalienable right of Man, bestowed on Man by his Creator.”

Rockwell Kent (1882–1971) American artist

This Is My Own, p. 130 (1940)

Life, Freedom, Painting

“These are smart people;
They receive a mess from the east, and a good life from the west;
They never rush because only life rushes;
They are not interested in what awaits after tomorrow;
What is meant to be will come, and little of it depends on them;
When they are together they are in trouble, for this they do not like to be together often;
They rarely trust anyone, but it’s easiest to fool them with nice words;
They do not resemble heroes, but they are not easily scared with threats;
They pay attention to nothing, they care not of what happens around them;
And then out of nowhere suddenly everything interests them, they flip everything and look around;
Then they become sleepers again and do not like to remember what came to pass;
They are scared of change because it often brings evil;
They are easily fed up with a man, even if he does them good;Strange people;
They talk bad about you but love you, kiss you on the cheek but hate you;
Laugh at noble deeds but remember them;
They spend most of their life on spite and goodness;
And don’t know which is stronger when;
Evil, good, gentle, raw, unable to move on, stormy, open, hidden;
They are all this and everything in between;
And most importantly they are mine, and I am theirs;
And everything I’m saying; I’m saying about myself.”

Meša Selimović (1910–1982) Yugoslav-Bosnian writer

Poem

Love, Life, Hate, People

“We are talking here about the future: about the lives of people in the world without wars, without social oppression, without national inequality, without suppression of human’s abilities. In other word, it is about the future that we all call Communism. We strive to imagine (and show to the viewer) the reality of the 21st century - the life of future humans developing, solving their difficulties and problems but being already on the new levels of cognition and morality. But the foundation of that future is being laid now. We strive to represent the future people as vivid and free, in the unity of their joys and cares, poetry and prose of their life. We are in no way satisfied with the primitive and unconvincing image of "people of the future", which can be observed in some works of literature and cinema. At the same time, we consider our work to be polemical with the many books and movies produced by the bourgeois world, which tend to see the future in an apocalyptic or technocratic way, affirming a sort of disbelief in the strength and capabilities of a human being.”

Andrei Tarkovsky (1932–1986) Soviet and Russian film-maker, writer, film editor, film theorist, theatre and opera director

Letter to the central committee of the CPSU (Communist Party of Soviet Union) https://varjag2007su.livejournal.com/2591915.html?utm_source=fbsharing&utm_medium=social (20 October 1970).

Life, War, People, Books

“When people start talking about their bowel movements, they are inexorable as the processes of which they speak.”

William S. Burroughs book Junkie

Junkie (1953)

People

“Women must not merely imitate men. Women have more to give than performing any job in society like neutered robots. Those who talk today of rousing the 'consciousness' of women contribute an idea of real importance. It was such a grievous mistake to leave out women. For whence can come love, compassion and understanding if not out of the relations of men and women and of them to their children?”

Dora Russell (1894–1986) author, feminist, socialist campaigner

Source: The Tamarisk Tree (1975), Ch. XIV

Love, Women, Men, Children

“Of asphodel, that greeny flower,

::like a buttercup

::::upon its branching stem —

save that's green and wooden —

::I come, my sweet,

::::to sing to you.

We lived long together,

::a life filled,

::::if you will,

with flowers. So that

::I was cheered

::::when I first came to know

that there were flowers also

::in hell.

::::Today

I'm filled with the fading memory of those flowers

::that we both loved,

::::even to this poor

colorless thing —

::I saw it

::::when I was a child —

little prized among the living

::but the dead see,

::::asking among themselves:

What do I remember

::that was shaped

::::as this thing is shaped?
while our eyes fill
::with tears.
::::Of love, abiding love
it will be telling
::though too weak a wash of crimson
::::colors it
to make it wholly credible.
::There is something
::::something urgent
I have to say to you
::and you alone
::::but it must wait
while I drink in
::the joy of your approach,
::::perhaps for the last time.
And so
::with fear in my heart
::::I drag it out
and keep on talking
::for I dare not stop.”

William Carlos Williams book Journey to Love

Journey to Love (1955), Asphodel, That Greeny Flower

Love, Life, Fear, Color

“When you constantly hear people talking about going the distance, going the distance, you can't help but wonder about it. I learned a lesson: next time I will fight my fight without that doubt.”

Larry Holmes (1949) American boxer

After the Cooney fight, as quoted in "Sport: Larry Holmes: I Still Have It" by Tom Callahan in TIME (21 June 1982) http://www.time.com/time/magazine/article/0,9171,925485-3,00.html.

People, Learning, Time, Help

“I'd had a long talk with Bob Silverberg, who was very influential on my early career. He'd, out of the kindness of his heart, at a convention told me that he thought I'd made several mistakes in the way I was disposing of my stories. And I said, "I don't understand what you mean, but I'll be glad to buy you a few drinks, if you'll tell me about it". So we adjourned to the bar and sat there a couple of hours. He was drinking Bloody Marys back then; I was drinking Black Russians. And he told me all sorts of things which carried me over the next several years; it was a lot of information for a couple of drinks. He told me that the first thing I should do if I wanted to write full-time was to get a really good agent. He said that after a while the business end of writing takes too much of the writing time. Better to pay someone ten percent and find that you're still more than ten percent ahead in the end.
Which is true. My present agent says that he always feels that a good agent during the course of a year should earn back for his client at least the ten percent he takes by way of commission, so the client's really nothing out. And what he should ideally do is make him more money than the ten percent.”

Roger Zelazny (1937–1995) American speculative fiction writer

Phlogiston interview (1995)

Money, Way, Feeling, Drink

“Often in the theatre I can hardly hear myself talking or assuring my doxy that so-and-so is the same fellow that played so-and-so in so-and-so, he's very good, he's a civil servant in the Department of Agriculture, I met a sister of his in Skerries, and so on. Actors should conduct themselves like the rest of us and practise the unobtrusive intonation of the gentleman.”

Flann O'Brien (1911–1966) Irish writer

Page 37
The Best of Myles (1968)

Sister

“Saddam gave us a lot of things. The development of the country … but I think what he took away from us in the meantime, was our very souls. We got into a stage where we were fearing each other, where husbands and wives didn't talk to each other, where parents were afraid to express anything in front of their kids because the teachers often asked the kids, 'what does daddy think of uncle Saddam? What does your mummy think of uncle Saddam?.”

Zainab Salbi (1969) Iraqi American author, women's rights activist

And there are horror stories of parents being executed because of the child. About Human rights in Saddam Hussein's Iraq, as quoted in the documentary I Knew Saddam https://www.aljazeera.com/programmes/general/2008/02/2008525183923377591.html (2007) by Al Jazeera English.

Fear, Soul, Thinking, Parent

“The time has come to stop telling the American people only what they want them to hear, and start talking frankly about the sacrifices we must all make.”

John B. Anderson (1922–2017) American politician

As quoted in “Anderson Offers Barter: Ideas for Votes” by Bernard Weinraub, in The New York Times (12 March 1980)

People, Time

“He didn't move. He couldn't talk. He didn't say a word to her. He just looked at her. It is so sad that he had to go this way”

Tariq Aziz (1936–2015) Iraqi Foreign Minister under Saddam Hussein

Daughter of Tariq Aziz, Zenaib Aziz, referring to death of Tariq Aziz... mentioned on BBC News (June 5, 2015), "Tariq Aziz, ex-Saddam Hussein aide, dies after heart attack" http://www.bbc.com/news/world-middle-east-33021771 About

Sadness, Way

“Watch and study the mosques, because a lot of talk is going on at the mosques.”

Donald J. Trump (1946) 45th President of the United States of America

As quoted in "Donald Trump: 'Strongly consider' shutting mosques" http://www.cnn.com/2015/11/16/politics/donald-trump-paris-attacks-close-mosques/index.html (16 November 2015), by Gregory Krieg, CNN (2015), Atlanta, Georgia: Cable News Network. 2010s, 2015

Study

“The marriage of David Brooks and the Democratic Leadership Council makes perfect sense. It's repugnant and the kind of thing one should shield young children from knowing about, but it makes perfect sense. Both prefer a policy of being "cautious soldiers," "incrementalists" who shun upheavals and vote the status quo, although they subscribe to this policy for different reasons. Brooks worships the status quo because he has no penis and wants to spend the rest of his life buying periwinkle bath towels without troubling interruptions of conscience. The DLC, a nonprofit created in the mid-1980s to help big business have a say in the Democratic Party platform, supports the status quo because they are paid agents of the commercial interests that define it. Moreover, Brooks and the DLC have this in common: While they both frown on the open flag-waving and ostentatious religiosity of the talk-radio right-wing as being gauche and in bad form, they're only truly offended by people of their own background who happen to be idealistic. Hence the recurring backlash by both against the various angry electoral challenges to the establishment of the Democratic Party.”

Matt Taibbi (1970) author and journalist

"David Brooks and the DLC: Best Friends Forever?", AlterNet (3 August 2006) http://web.archive.org/web/20060808224928/http://www.alternet.org/columnists/story/39862/

Life, Marriage, Children, People

“We comprehend… that nuclear power is a real danger for mankind, that over-crowding of the planet is the greatest danger of all. We have understood that the destruction of the environment is another enormous danger. But I truly believe that the lack of adequate imagery is a danger of the same magnitude. It is as serious a defect as being without memory. What have we done to our images? What have we done to our embarrassed landscapes? I have said this before and will repeat it again as long as I am able to talk: if we do not develop adequate images we will die out like dinosaurs.”

Werner Herzog (1942) German film director, producer, screenwriter, actor and opera director

Herzog on Herzog (2002)

Memory

“It is very sobering to realize just what the future holds for a boy of my age. On the other hand it is a practical challenge to a man’s courage and personal integrity. A man who talks but is afraid to act, who sacrifices principle to expediency whenever real danger threatens is not worthy to keep and enjoy what he has. He is not worthy of his background and heritage who kowtows to tyranny in order to cling to his temporary safety and comfort…I trust I will have the courage to act as I speak come what may. I will not be easy – but should, therefore, can be done.”

Nile Kinnick (1918–1943) College football player

Letter to his grandmother (April 29, 1941)

Age, Boy, Courage, Future

“Talk about it as much as you like,—one's breeding shows itself nowhere more than in his religion.”

Oliver Wendell Holmes (1809–1894) Poet, essayist, physician

The Autocrat of the Breakfast Table (1858)

Religion

“The stamp of great minds is to suggest much in few words; by contrast, little minds have the gift of talking a great deal and saying nothing.”

François de La Rochefoucauld book Reflections; or Sentences and Moral Maxims

Comme c’est le caractère des grands esprits de faire entendre en peu de paroles beaucoup de choses, les petits esprits au contraire ont le don de beaucoup parler, et de ne rien dire.
Maxim 142.
Reflections; or Sentences and Moral Maxims (1665–1678)

“As he continued to talk to me, I realized one of the fundamental points about Islamism that so many people fail to understand. The way Osman was speaking wasn’t in the orthodox, religious way of the imam with a stick; he was talking about politics, about events that were happening now. That’s crucial to understanding what Islamism is all about: it isn’t a religious movement with political consequences, it is a political movement with religious consequences.”

Maajid Nawaz book Radical: My Journey out of Islamist Extremism

Source: Radical: My Journey out of Islamist Extremism (2012), p. 62

People, Way, Understanding

“No, no. Bill should play two or three more years. Talk to him. Tell him he can get in shape. I know he can play better second base than anybody. He is two years younger than I am. He is the greatest second baseman of all time, a real super star. But people forget too fast what he has done for the Pirates. Nobody I ever saw could field with him. He won the World Series with his home run against the Yankees. I don't like to see him retire.”

Roberto Clemente (1934–1972) Puerto Rican baseball player

As quoted in "Sidelights on Sports: Monday Morning's Sports Wash" https://news.google.com/newspapers?id=XOANAAAAIBAJ&sjid=u2wDAAAAIBAJ&pg=7387%2C128274 by Al Abrams, in The Pittsburgh Post-Gazette (Monday, October 2, 1972), p. 24 Baseball-related, <big><big>1970s</big></big>, <big>1972</big>

People, World, Home, Star

“Giving is something Mr. Rogers talks about. … Mr. Rogers didn't say anything about not drinking beer before you gave blood. Asel thinks that his big day is going to hell. Not too much has worked out for him. He drinks another beer at the bar and leaves.”

Robert Olmstead (1954) American writer

Source: Soft Water (1988), p. 165

Hell, Drink, Beer, Thinking

“On the rock stars: Rock stars don’t talk to each other. They’re too important to talk to another one. They’ve all got their own little palace, their own universe, of which they are the head. So how can they possibly go to somebody else’s universe? They can’t handle it. I will one day write the book that shows just how massive some of these egos are. Because I was a slow success, I was meeting people socially whose records I had at home, who were now talking to me on a what-strings-do-you-use level. And very few of them have not disappointed. [Pink Floyd’s] Dave Gilmour is the only one that [hasn’t disappointed]. That paints everyone else as a cunt. Which they are. But Gilmour is fabulous.”

Chris Rea (1951) English singer-songwriter

Henry Yates (2015 December 1) " An Interview With The Straight-Talking, No-F**ks-Given Chris Rea http://teamrock.com/feature/2015-12-01/chris-rea-straight-shooter" by TeamRock 2015

People, Books, Disappointment, Home

“When politicians talk about immigration reform, they usually mean the following: amnesty, open borders, and lower wages. Immigration reform should mean something else entirely: it should mean improvements to our laws and policies to make life better for American citizens. But if we are going to make our immigration system work, then we have to be prepared to talk honestly and without fear about these important and sensitive issues.”

Donald J. Trump (1946) 45th President of the United States of America

Immigration speech (31 August 2016)
Source: https://www.politico.com/story/2016/08/donald-trump-immigration-address-transcript-227614

Life, Fear, Law

“[Islamic terrorism] is different from all other forms of terrorism in at least three important respects. First, it rejects all the contemporary ideologies in their various forms; it sees itself as the total outsider with no option but to take control or to fall, gun in hand. It cannot even enter into talks with other terrorist movements which may, in some specific cases at least, share its tactical objectives. Considering itself as an expression of Islamic revival - which must, by definition, lead to the conquest of the entire globe by the True Faith - it bases all its actions on the dictum that the end justifies the means… The second characteristic that distinguishes the Islamic version from other forms of terrorism is that it is clearly conceived and conducted as a form of Holy War which can only end when total victory has been achieved. The term 'low-intensity warfare' has often been used to describe terrorism, but it applies more specifically to the Islamic kind, which does not seek negotiations, give-and-take, the securing of specific concessions or even the mere seizure of political power within a certain number of countries… The third specific characteristic of Islamic terrorism is that it forms the basis of a whole theory of both individual conduct and of state policy. To kill the enemies of Allah and to offer the infidels the choice between converting to Islam or being put to death is the duty of every individual believer as well as the supreme - if not the sole - task of the Islamic state.”

Amir Taheri (1942) Iranian journalist

Holy Terror: The inside story of Islamic terrorism (1987)

Death, War, Faith, Victory

Quotes about talking page 13

Quotes about talking
page 13