Quotes about tell
page 70

Bernard Cornwell photo
Richard Dawkins photo
Richard Dawkins photo
Steven Crowder photo
Steve Jobs photo

“The hard part of what we're up against now is that people ask you about specifics and you can't tell them. A hundred years ago, if somebody had asked Alexander Graham Bell, "What are you going to be able to do with a telephone?"”

Steve Jobs (1955–2011) American entrepreneur and co-founder of Apple Inc.

he wouldn't have been able to tell him the ways the telephone would affect the world. He didn't know that people would use the telephone to call up and find out what movies were playing that night or to order some groceries or call a relative on the other side of the globe. But remember that first the public telegraph was inaugurated, in 1844. It was an amazing breakthrough in communications. You could actually send messages from New York to San Francisco in an afternoon. People talked about putting a telegraph on every desk in America to improve productivity. But it wouldn't have worked. It required that people learn this whole sequence of strange incantations, Morse code, dots and dashes, to use the telegraph. It took about 40 hours to learn. The majority of people would never learn how to use it. So, fortunately, in the 1870s, Bell filed the patents for the telephone. It performed basically the same function as the telegraph, but people already knew how to use it. Also, the neatest thing about it was that besides allowing you to communicate with just words, it allowed you to sing. … It allowed you to intone your words with meaning beyond the simple linguistics. And we're in the same situation today. Some people are saying that we ought to put an IBM PC on every desk in America to improve productivity. It won't work. The special incantations you have to learn this time are "slash q-zs" and things like that. The manual for WordStar, the most popular word-processing program, is 400 pages thick. To write a novel, you have to read a novel—one that reads like a mystery to most people. They're not going to learn slash q-z any more than they're going to learn Morse code. That is what Macintosh is all about. It's the first "telephone" of our industry. And, besides that, the neatest thing about it, to me, is that the Macintosh lets you sing the way the telephone did. You don't simply communicate words, you have special print styles and the ability to draw and add pictures to express yourself.
1980s, Playboy interview (1985)

“I can only answer that I tried to tell the truth and, if not be objective, at least be fair; history is not served when reporters prize trepidation and propriety over the robust journalistic duty to tell the whole story.”

Randy Shilts (1951–1994) American journalist

The Life and Times of Harvey Milk Randy Shilts, Chronicler of AIDS Epidemic, Dies at 42; Journalism: Author of 'And the Band Played On' is credited with awakening nation to the health crisis http://articles.latimes.com/1994-02-18/news/mn-24467_1_randy-shilts
Quote

Daniel Abraham photo

“You can tell you’ve found a really interesting question when nobody wants you to answer it.”

Daniel Abraham (1969) speculative fiction writer from the United States

Source: Nemesis Games (2015), Chapter 8 (p. 92)

Daniel Abraham photo

“Holden couldn’t tell if she was melancholy or solving a complex engineering problem in her head. Those looks were confusingly similar.”

Daniel Abraham (1969) speculative fiction writer from the United States

Source: Nemesis Games (2015), Chapter 5 (p. 56)

Steven Crowder photo

“At our first rehearsal, I remember our director telling me “You know, Steven… You don’t have to do a Gene Wilder impression.” I asked “Why not?!””

Steven Crowder (1987) American actor

To this day, the answer to that question is simple: because nobody could do it better.

Dr. Seuss photo
James McBride (writer) photo

“I tell them that a simple story is the best story, and that time and place is really crucial to good storytelling. Establish your stories in a specific time and place and get your characters set solidly within that framework before you let them start moving from one room to the next...”

James McBride (writer) (1957) American journalist

On the writing advice he gives to his students in "James McBride's Advice For New Writers: 'A Simple Story Is The Best Story'" https://www.npr.org/2020/02/29/810052791/james-mcbrides-advice-for-new-writers-a-simple-story-is-the-best-story in NPR (2020 Feb 29)

Aaron Sorkin photo

“The worst crime you can commit is telling the audience something they already know, in any fashion, even for a moment.”

Aaron Sorkin (1961) American screenwriter, producer, playwright

[David Marchese, https://www.nytimes.com/interactive/2020/03/02/magazine/aaron-sorkin-interview.html?fbclid=IwAR3oNlfDJVpKDH4pjapLoSHjdT1kiW2Pa2sUhq_7qR5priCrjz7SSydwk0I, Aaron Sorkin on how he would write the Democratic primary for ‘The West Wing.’, New York Times, March 1, 2020, March 2, 2020]

David Sedaris photo

“I Photo Elfed all day for a variety of Santas and it struck me that many of the parents don't allow their children to speak at all. A child sits upon Santa's lap and the parents say, 'All right now, Amber, tell Santa what you want. Tell him you want a Baby Alive and My Pretty Ballerina and that winter coat you saw in the catalog.'
The parents name the gifts they have already bought. They don't want to hear the word 'pony' or 'television set,' so they talk through the entire visit, placing words in the child's mouth. When the child hops off the lap, the parents address their children, each and every time, with, 'What do you say to Santa?'
The child says, 'Thank you, Santa.'”

It is sad because you would like to believe that everyone is unique and then they disappoint you every time by being exactly the same, asking for the same things, reciting the exact same lines as though they have been handed a script.
All of us take pride and pleasure in the fact that we are unique, but I'm afraid that when all is said and done the police are right: it all comes down to the fingerprints.
Essay, "Santaland diaries" - p.233-234, 235
Barrel Fever (1994)

Bernie Sanders photo
Rush Limbaugh photo

“This coronavirus, they're just — all of this panic is just not warranted. This, I'm telling you, when I tell you — when I've told you that this virus is the common cold. When I said that, it was based on the number of cases. It's also based on the kind of virus this is.”

Rush Limbaugh (1951) U.S. radio talk show host, Commentator, author, and television personality

The Rush Limbaugh Show, , quoted in " Rush Limbaugh: Coronavirus is like the common cold, and “all of this panic is just not warranted” https://www.mediamatters.org/coronavirus-covid-19/rush-limbaugh-coronavirus-common-cold-and-all-panic-just-not-warranted", Media Matters (
2020s

Neil Gaiman photo
David Sedaris photo
Philip Roth photo
Thomas Hylland Eriksen photo
Nigel Farage photo
Townes Van Zandt photo
Townes Van Zandt photo
William Lloyd Garrison photo

“The theory of the nature of mathematics is extremely reactionary. We do not subscribe to the fairly recent notion that mathematics is an abstract language based, say, on set theory. In many ways, it is unfortunate that philosophers and mathematicians like Russell and Hilbert were able to tell such a convincing story about the meaning-free formalism of mathematics. In Greek, mathematics simply meant learning, and we have adapted this... to define the term as "learing to decide."”

C. West Churchman (1913–2004) American philosopher and systems scientist

Mathematics is a way of preparing for decisions through thinking. Sets and classes provide one way to subdivide a problem for decision preparation; a set derives its meaning from decision making, and not vice versa.

C. West Churchman, Leonard Auerbach, Simcha Sadan, Thinking for Decisions: Deductive Quantitative Methods (1975) Preface.
1960s - 1970s

Chief Joseph photo
Jason Reynolds photo
Céline Sciamma photo

“It’s a very bourgeois industry. There’s resistance to radicalism, and also less youth in charge. ‘A film can be feminist?’ They don’t know this concept. They don’t read the book. They don’t even know about the fact that ‘male gaze’ exists. You can tell it’s a country where there’s a lot of sexism, and a strong culture of patriarchy.”

Céline Sciamma (1978) French director and screenwriter

On the tepid reception of her film Portrait of a Lady on Fire in France in “Céline Sciamma: 'In France, they don’t find the film hot. They think it lacks flesh, it’s not erotic'” https://www.theguardian.com/film/2020/feb/21/celine-sciamma-portrait-of-a-lady-on-fire in The Guardian (2020 Feb 21)

Ram Prasad Bismil photo
Donald J. Trump photo
Donald J. Trump photo

“But you know what this does show you? Things happen. Whoever thought of this two weeks ago? Who would’ve thought this could be going on four weeks ago? You wouldn’t. But things happen in life and you have to be prepared and you have to be flexible and you have to be able to go out and get it. And my guys that we have the best professionals in the world, the best in the world and we are so ready. At the same time that I initiated the first federally mandated quarantine in over 50 years. We had a quarantine some people. They weren’t happy, they weren’t happy about it. I want to tell you there are a lot of people that not so happy, but after two weeks they got happy. You know who got happy? The people around them got happy. That’s who got happy.”

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

Luciana Borio, former director of Medical and Biodefense Preparedness Policy at the National Security Council, said at a symposium at Emory University in Atlanta in 2018: "The threat of pandemic flu is the number one health security concern, are we ready to respond? I fear the answer is no." As quoted in Contrary to Trump’s Claim, A Pandemic Was Widely Expected at Some Point https://www.factcheck.org/2020/03/contrary-to-trumps-claim-a-pandemic-was-widely-expected-at-some-point/ (March 20, 2020) by Rem Rieder, FactCheck.org.
2020s, 2020, February, Donald Trump Charleston, South Carolina Rally (February 28, 2020)

Bhimrao Ramji Ambedkar photo
Billy Ray Cyrus photo

“Don't tell my heart, my achy breaky heart.
I just don't think it'd understand.
And if you tell my heart, my achy breaky heart, he might blow up and kill this man.”

Billy Ray Cyrus (1961) American singer-songwriter, actor and film producer

Achy Breaky Heart
Song lyrics, Some Gave All (1992)

Joe Biden photo

“When I argued that we should freeze federal spending, I meant Social Security as well. I meant Medicare and Medicaid. I meant veterans' benefits. I meant every single, solitary thing in the government. And I not only tried it once, I tried it twice, I tried it a third time and I tried it a fourth time. Somebody has to tell me in here, how we're going to do this hard work without dealing with any of those sacred cows.”

Joe Biden (1942) 47th Vice President of the United States (in office from 2009 to 2017)

Senate, , quoted with video in * 2019-05-20

Watch: Joe Biden Once Boasted About Wanting to Cut Social Security, Medicare, Medicaid, and Veterans’ Benefits

Walker Bragman

Paste Magazine

https://www.pastemagazine.com/politics/joe-biden/watch-joe-biden-boasts-about-wanting-to-cut-social/
1990s

Joe Biden photo

“Let me tell you what is in the bill, and I'll let you all decide whether or not this is "weak."”

Joe Biden (1942) 47th Vice President of the United States (in office from 2009 to 2017)

[...] It provides 53 death penalty offenses. Weak as can be, you know? We do everything but hang people for jaywalking in this bill. That's weak stuff.

Regarding the Violent Crime Control and Law Enforcement Act, which he wrote

Senate, , quoted in * 2019-07-23

Biden Walks Back His Previous Tough On Crime Stance Now That Criminal Justice Reform Is Popular

Beth Baumann

Town Hall

https://townhall.com/tipsheet/bethbaumann/2019/07/23/biden-walks-back-his-previous-toughoncrime-stance-now-that-criminal-justice-reform-is-popular-n2550504
1990s

Céline Sciamma photo

“The last scene came really, really early, disconnected from even the idea of a woman painter…I wanted to write a love story and I thought, ‘What do I want to tell?’ And that scene came up really, really quickly, alone, by itself. The weird compass of the film was its last scene. That’s a compass, but it’s a high pressure one.”

Céline Sciamma (1978) French director and screenwriter

On her creative process for Portrait of a Lady on Fire in “‘Portrait of a Lady on Fire’ Filmmaker Céline Sciamma Is Trying to Break Your Heart” https://www.indiewire.com/2019/12/portrait-of-a-lady-on-fire-filmmaker-celine-sciamma-interview-1202193537/ in IndieWire (2019 Dec 05)

“I tell ya, man, your cat is officially out of control. He really gives new meaning to the term tempest in a teapot.”

Darby Conley (1970) American cartoonist

Daily strip for July 19, 2002
Joe Doman

Hou You-yi photo

“There is (currently) indeed a shortage of surgical masks (in New Taipei due to COVID-19 outbreak). There is a lack of transparency on information about mask manufacturers and distribution. The (Republic of China) central government should clearly tell people how many masks each person can purchase.”

Hou You-yi (1957) Taiwanese politician

Hou You-yi (2020) cited in " Virus Outbreak: NHI cards required to purchase masks http://www.taipeitimes.com/News/front/archives/2020/02/04/2003730320" on Taipei Times, 4 February 2020.

P.G. Wodehouse photo
Kofi Annan photo

“I arrived there straight from Africa - and I can tell you, Minnesota soon taught me the value of a thick overcoat, a warm scarf and even ear-muffs!”

Kofi Annan (1938–2018) 7th Secretary-General of the United Nations

Farewell Speech (2006)

Goldie Hawn photo
Bernie Sanders photo

“I will never tell you how to vote. If I do, don't listen to me.”

Bernie Sanders (1941) American politician, senator for Vermont

Snopes.com found no record of Sanders saying those words. https://www.snopes.com/fact-check/bernie-sanders-told-supporters-hed-never-tell-them-how-to-vote/ May be derived from a statement during an MSNBC town hall in April 2016:

We are not a movement where I can snap my fingers and say to you or to anybody else what you should do, because you won't listen to me. You shouldn't. You'll make these decisions yourself.
Misattributed

Fyodor Dostoyevsky photo
Ekta Kapoor photo

“I could actually tell stories and narratives which were little alternative and radical. For whatever its worth, you can support imperfection.”

Ekta Kapoor (1975) TV and film producer

as an answer to the evolving tastes of the Indian Audience and the rise of the Digital Streaming Platforms

CNN News18 - Ekta Kapoor Interview with Rajeev Masand - 4 Oct 2019, at 14 Min 48 Sec https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tX-C4jRzxM4
From interview with Rajeev Masand

Shaun Chamberlin photo
Donald J. Trump photo

“We had a great event yesterday, an event that was so beautiful, young African American leaders. One of the things I asked them, and I’ve been thinking about this for a long time… And great people, great people. Some of them are here tonight. Do you like the name African American or Black? And they said, “Black!” all at the same time. No, true. I tell you. Because you say, “African American or Black?” And they said almost immediately, “Black.””

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

But we had an incredible group of people and what happened is NBC… It was such a love fest. It was so incredible. It went on for 45 minutes. It was a love fest. It was incredible. NBC turned down… There they are right there. They turned down… Comcast, which owns NBC… Actually NBC, I think, we call it MSDNC, right? MSDNC. But NBC I think is worse than CNN. I actually do. And Comcast, a company that spends millions and millions of dollars on their image… I’ll do everything possible to destroy their image because they are terrible. They are terrible. They’re a terrible group of people. And they paid me a fortune for years for the Apprentice. They paid me a fortune. And when I left the show, it was doing great. When I left the show, 14 seasons, think of that, they got a big movie star. I won’t tell you his name. Nobody would know. Actually nobody will know his name because he was on for such a short period of time. But the show went down the tubes very quickly after they had Trump. But the country in five years from now, of course you want to upset them, five years or nine years or 13 years. Or 18 years! 10 more years. Nah. Oh, they go crazy when you say it. When you say to them five more years, so it’s five, but you then say maybe nine, maybe 13, maybe 17, maybe 21, or not, maybe 21. Let’s do this. Let’s term limit ourselves at 25 years. No more than 25 years. No more. Okay. They’ll pass something in the Senate. Tim, pass it in the Senate with Lindsey, a 25 year term limit please.
2020s, 2020, February, Donald Trump Charleston, South Carolina Rally (February 28, 2020)

“There are side effects to hydroxychloroquine. It causes psychiatric symptoms, cardiac problems and a host of other bad side effects. [...] There may be a role for it for some people, but to tell Americans ‘you don’t have anything to lose,’ that’s not true. People certainly have something to lose by taking it indiscriminately.”

Megan Ranney emergency physician

In response to Donald Trump's statement on using the drug as treatment for coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19). Quoted in Ignoring Expert Opinion, Trump Again Promotes Use of Hydroxychloroquine https://www.nytimes.com/2020/04/05/us/politics/trump-hydroxychloroquine-coronavirus.html (April 5, 2020) by Michael Crowley, Katie Thomas and Maggie Haberman, The New York Times.

Alastair Reynolds photo

“Even if my place of work or the nature of my titles change, what I show won’t change and I don’t want it to. I’m a game fan at heart; I tell dirty jokes and make irresponsible comments (laughs), but I’ll work my hardest to make games.”

Kenichiro Takaki (1976) Japanese video game producer

"Kenichiro Takaki opens up about why he left Marvelous and more" https://nintendoeverything.com/kenichiro-takaki-opens-up-about-why-he-left-marvelous-and-more/, NintendoEverything.com (27 March 2019).

“…I was desperate to write a trans character for whom it wasn’t really an issue. After you come out, after the initial makeover and being on hormones for a few years, what happens next? That’s a story nobody tells…”

Juno Dawson (1981) British youth fiction author

On her novel Clean in “Juno Dawson: ‘Teenagers have seen things that would make milk curdle’” https://www.theguardian.com/books/2018/apr/01/juno-dawson-clean-interview-transgender-anorexia-drugs in The Guardian (2018 Apr 1)

Tom Watson (Labour politician) photo

“And you know, woe betide politicians that don't listen to what voters tell them. You know, I think a future Europe will have to look at things like the free movement of labour rules.”

Tom Watson (Labour politician) (1967) British politician

Labour's Tom Watson: EU free movement rules must change https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-politics-eu-referendum-36523759 BBC News (14 June 2016)
2016

Aparna Sen photo

“When you start getting into the process of writing, then the characters start coming alive. And then they tell you what to write.”

Aparna Sen (1945) Indian filmmaker, script writer and actress

Interview at the 10th Jagran Film Festival, JFF TALKIES Episode 4 - 16 Apr 2020, at 28 Min 15 Sec https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=exGQ7wUHhOI

Lois McMaster Bujold photo

“Anybody ever tell you you’re a lunatic?”

“Not in this context.”

Chapter 5 (p. 80; Vorkosigan has just proposed to Cordelia)
Vorkosigan Saga, Shards of Honor (1986)

Halldór Laxness photo
Stephen Baxter photo
Marianne Williamson photo

“I haven’t heard anybody on this stage who has talked about American foreign policy in Latin America... There is an injustice that continues to form a toxicity underneath the surface, an emotional turbulence, people heal when there’s some deep truth-telling.”

Marianne Williamson (1952) American writer

We Desperately Need Marianne Williamson’s Message. https://theintercept.com/2019/08/05/marianne-williamson-2020-presidential-campaign/ The Intercept, Jon Schwarz (5 August 2019)

Donald J. Trump photo

“Look, I could tell you about — and I’m not going to do it, because I didn’t want to bring it up — but I could tell you about events that took place. And I said things like, “You’ll never do that again” or “You’ll never do this again” or — I don’t even want to mention the events. I don’t want to mention what you’re supposed to be doing because — and you know one of them was so horrible.  I said, “A certain industry will be out of business — never happen again.””

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

Two weeks later, it was like nothing ever happened. Hopefully, we get rid of this. We have tremendous talent up here and all over, including governors, including local governments, state governments.

[https://www.whitehouse.gov/briefings-statements/remarks-president-trump-vice-president-pence-members-coronavirus-task-force-press-briefing-april-17-2020/ Remarks by President Trump, Vice President Pence, and Members of the Coronavirus Task Force in Press Briefing | April 17, 2020]
2020s, 2020, April

Haifaa al-Mansour photo
José Martí photo
Alfred de Zayas photo

“Can you tell me who is good and who is bad ? The ancient "we and they" divides us artificially.”

Alfred de Zayas (1947) American United Nations official

"Beatitudes", Sam Hamill, Poets Against the War 2003

George Carlin photo
Anthony Trollope photo
Coraline Ada Ehmke photo

“Values that are expressed but that don't change behavior are not really values, they are lies that you tell yourself.”

Coraline Ada Ehmke technologist, activist, and transgender feminist

Antisocial Coding: My Year at GitHub https://where.coraline.codes/blog/my-year-at-github/ (July 5, 2017)

Vincent Van Gogh photo

“There is no blue without yellow and without orange, and if you put in blue, then you must put in yellow, and orange too, mustn't you? Oh well, you will tell me that what I write to you are only banalities.”

Vincent Van Gogh (1853–1890) Dutch post-Impressionist painter (1853-1890)

Letter to Émile Bernard, June 1888, in 'Van Gogh's Letters'. http://www.webexhibits.org/vangogh/letter/18/B06.htm
1880s, 1888

Ursula K. Le Guin photo
H.L. Mencken photo

“I believe that religion, generally speaking, has been a curse to mankind — that its modest and greatly overestimated services on the ethical side have been more than overcome by the damage it has done to clear and honest thinking.
I believe that no discovery of fact, however trivial, can be wholly useless to the race, and that no trumpeting of falsehood, however virtuous in intent, can be anything but vicious.
I believe that all government is evil, in that all government must necessarily make war upon liberty; and the democratic form is as bad as any of the other forms.
I believe that the evidence for immortality is no better than the evidence of witches, and deserves no more respect.
I believe in the complete freedom of thought and speech — alike for the humblest man and the mightiest, and in the utmost freedom of conduct that is consistent with living in organized society.
I believe in the capacity of man to conquer his world, and to find out what it is made of, and how it is run.
I believe in the reality of progress.
I —But the whole thing, after all, may be put very simply. I believe that it is better to tell the truth than to lie. I believe that it is better to be free than to be a slave. And I believe that it is better to know than be ignorant.”

H.L. Mencken (1880–1956) American journalist and writer

"What I Believe" in The Forum 84 (September 1930), p. 139; some of these expressions were also used separately in other Mencken essays.
1930s

Donald J. Trump photo

“I can't tell you that. I'm not allowed to tell you that.”

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

Trump was answering what his basis was for claiming that the coronavirus emerged from a virology lab in the Wuhan city of China, as quoted by * 2020-05-01

'It Came Out Of China, Could Have Been Stopped': Prez Donald Trump On Coronavirus

PTI

Outlook

https://www.outlookindia.com/website/story/world-news-it-came-out-of-china-could-have-been-stopped-prez-donald-trump-on-coronavirus/351848
2020s, 2020, April

“Dreams are important. They are messengers…Characters have appeared to me. They say, ‘Here I am. Tell my story.'”

Rudolfo Anaya (1937) Novelist, poet

On how his subconscious informs his writing in “Rudolfo Anaya: Man of visions” https://www.abqjournal.com/1074636/man-of.html in Albuquerque Journal (2017 Oct 7)

“I don't say so, but my spade tells me so.”

B. B. Lal (1921) Indian archaeologist

B.B. Lal's reply to his critics (traditional Hindus). As related and quoted in Elst, Koenraad (2012). The argumentative Hindu. New Delhi : Aditya Prakashan. Chapter: Ayodhya’s three history debates.

In the 1970s, Prof. B.B. Lal's excavation campaign “Archaeology of the Ramayana sites” [Lal 2008:15-28] found a common material culture at Ayodhya, Chitrakuta and other Ramayana sites all datable to a common period. It earned him the wrath of an audience of traditional Hindu godmen, who tend to place the Ramayana events at a far greater time-depth.

Joanna Jędrzejczyk photo

“You can see the other female strawweights fighting, and c’mon. They cannot compare themselves to me. They are all are only jealous and talking too much all the time. I’m telling them, bow down. I’m the queen.”

Joanna Jędrzejczyk (1987) Polish mixed martial artist

Joanna Jedrzejczyk shocked at UFC 223 loss to Namajunas, tells other strawweights: 'Bow down', Edward Vkanty, May 14, 2017, August 25, 2017 https://mmajunkie.com/2018/04/joanna-jedrzejczyk-shocked-at-ufc-223-loss-tells-strawweights-bow-down-rose-namajunas,

Jędrzejczyk to other women's strawweight fighters, at UFC 223 post-fight press conference, after her second loss to Rose Namajunas.

Mick Jackson (director) photo

“The idea was to take a movie which was about death...and use the iconography of life to tell the story.”

Mick Jackson (director) (1943) film director

The Director of the Scariest Movie We've Ever Seen Still Fears Nuclear War the Most

Zora Neale Hurston photo
Bulleh Shah photo
Robert Graves photo
Mariko Tamaki photo

“Comics allow you to really subtly do those different perspectives without necessarily telling you explicitly what anyone is thinking, just what they’re saying or what they’re doing, which is incredibly valuable I think in storytelling.”

Mariko Tamaki (1975) Canadian writer and artist

On comic storytelling in "In Conversation with Jillian Tamaki & Mariko Tamaki" https://roommagazine.com/interview/conversation-jillian-tamaki-mariko-tamaki in Room Magazine (June 2015)

Ellen Stewart photo

“If a script ‘beeps’ to me, I do it...Audiences may hate these plays, but I believe in them. The only way I can explain my ‘beeps’ is that I’m no intellectual, but my instincts tell me automatically when a playwright has something.”

Ellen Stewart (1919–2011) American theater director and producer

Quoted in "Ellen Stewart, Off Off Broadway Pioneer, Dies at 91" by Mel Gussow and Bruce Weber, The New York Times, (January 13, 2011) https://www.nytimes.com/2011/01/14/theater/14stewart.html.

Lucy Parsons photo

“They call us Reds. I don't know that that is very bad. I do not believe that is a very bad name. We are pretty red. I tell you I am a real Red.”

Lucy Parsons (1853–1942) American communist anarchist labor organizer

"May Day Speech" (1930)

Jimi Hendrix photo

“I’m sorry, am I mumbling? Tell me when I’m mumbling. Damn … I always mumble.”

Jimi Hendrix (1942–1970) American musician, singer and songwriter

Rolling Stone Magazine interview, November 1970 https://www.rollingstone.com/music/music-news/jimi-hendrix-i-dont-want-to-be-a-clown-anymore-81451/

Ron Paul photo

“The only time they tell the truth is when they admit that they are lying.”

Ron Paul (1935) American politician and physician

Possible Iran False Flag In Gulf Of Oman, With The US Already Caught In A Lie & Israel Attacks Syria, Ryan Cristian, The Last American Vagabond, https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yAiNqq14UF4 Video: 1 hour 14 mins, 18 secs, (13 June 2019)

Know More News About War with Iran, Ron Paul and Daniel McAdams, Ron Paul Liberty Report, soundbite from the Ron Paul Liberty Report on Adam Green's Know More News https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9XDoDTYhLL4 Video: 37 mins, 34 secs, (17 June 2019)
2019

“I suspect there’s little difference between whim and inspiration at the beginning of any chain of events. It’s what happens later that tells us which is which.”

Sheri S. Tepper (1929–2016) American fiction writer

Colonel Doctor Jens Ladislav in Ch. 33 : dezmai of the drums, p. 294
The Visitor (2002)

Esperanza Spalding photo

“…There’s two sides of the coin: One where people don't expect you to do anything and won't let you do anything because they think you don't know how, and then the other side is when you're fucking up but they won't tell you because you're a girl. Then you don’t learn.”

Esperanza Spalding (1984) American jazz bassist and singer

On how recording in the studio can be a double-edged sword in “Esperanza Spalding: Insubordinate by Nature” https://pitchfork.com/features/interview/9830-esperanza-spalding-insubordinate-by-nature/ in Pitchfork (2016 Mar 8)

Louis Pasteur photo

“I have been looking for spontaneous generation for twenty years without discovering it. No, I do not judge it impossible. But what allows you to make it the origin of life? You place matter before life and you decide that matter has existed for all eternity. How do you know that the incessant progress of science will not compel scientists to consider that life has existed during eternity, and not matter? You pass from matter to life because your intelligence of today cannot conceive things otherwise. How do you know that in ten thousand years, one will not consider it more likely that matter has emerged from life? You move from matter to life because your current intelligence, so limited compared to what will be the future intelligence of the naturalist, tells you that things cannot be understood otherwise. If you want to be among the scientific minds, what only counts is that you will have to get rid of a priori reasoning and ideas, and you will have to do necessary deductions not giving more confidence than we should to deductions from wild speculation.”

Louis Pasteur (1822–1895) French chemist and microbiologist

Original: (fr) La génération spontanée, je la cherche sans la découvrir depuis vingt ans. Non, je ne la juge pas impossible. Mais quoi donc vous autorise à vouloir qu'elle ait été l'origine de la vie? Vous placez la matière avant la vie et vous faites la matière existante de toute éternité. Qui vous dit que, le progrès incessant de la science n'obligera pas les savants, qui vivront dans un siècle, dans mille ans, dans dix mille ans... à affirmer que la vie a été de toute éternité et non la matière.? Vous passez de la matière à la vie parce que votre intelligence actuelle, si bornée par rapport à ce que sera l'intelligence des naturalistes futurs, vous dit qu'elle ne peut comprendre autrement les choses. Qui m'assure que dans dix mille ans on ne considérera pas que c'est de la vie qu'on croira impossible de ne pas passer à la matière? Si vous voulez être au nombre des esprits scientifiques, s, qui seuls comptent, il faut vous débarrasser des idées et des raisonnements a priori et vous en tenir aux déductions nécessaires des faits établis et ne pas accorder plus de confiance qu'il ne faut aux déductions de pures hypothèses."

As quoted in Pasteur et la philosophie (2004), by Patrice Pinet, p. 63

Partially quoted in Louis Pasteur : Free Lance of Science (1950) by René Dubos, p 396

Antonio Fresco photo

“You are welcome in my mind
Follow me we're going deeper
To a place thats hard to find
Tell me, can you keep a secret
I know I know
Something you dont know
I know how to shake
To turn you on
Dont put on the breaks
Lemme keep it rolling
Can you keep it going?”

Antonio Fresco (1983) American DJ, music producer, and radio personality

Written by Antonio Fresco, Patricia Possollo, Lorena J'zel
Song lyrics, Rattlesnake https://genius.com/Antonio-fresco-patricia-possollo-rattlesnake-lyrics (2019)

“Why should knowledge of where I came from tell me where I am going to?”

A.J.P. Taylor (1906–1990) Historian

'Moving with the Times', The Observer, 22 October 1961

William Faulkner photo

“Now I want you to tell me just one thing more. Why do you hate the South?”

"I dont hate it," Quentin said, quickly, at once, immediately; "I dont hate it," he said. I dont hate it he thought, panting in the cold air, the iron New England dark: I dont. I dont! I dont hate it! I dont hate it!

last lines (Chapter 9)
Absalom, Absalom! (1936)

Benjamin Zephaniah photo

“…Sometimes I’ll do these things for a couple of days then suddenly one day the poem comes out, just like that, in a couple of minutes. I might rewrite it later, a kind of fine tuning, or sometimes I’ll tell the audience it’s a new poem and just perform it to see if it works.”

Benjamin Zephaniah (1958) English poet and author

On his writing process in “Interview with Benjamin Zephaniah” https://www.writersandartists.co.uk/writers/advice/37/a-writers-toolkit/interviews-with-authors/interview-with-benjamin-zephaniah in Writers & Artists

William Blake photo
David Mermin photo
Francis Bacon photo

“Dissimulations is but a faint kind of policy, or wisdom; for it asketh a strong wit, and a strong heart, to know when to tell truth, and to do it. Therefore it is the weaker sort of politics, that are the great dissemblers.”

Francis Bacon (1561–1626) English philosopher, statesman, scientist, jurist, and author

The Essays Or Counsels, Civil And Moral, Of Francis Ld. Verulam Viscount St. Albans (1625), Of Simulation And Dissimulation

Rand Paul photo

“I don't think either one of them literally want to incite violence. But they have to realize that when they tell people to get up in your face, that there are some crazy unstable people out there. There are truly people who have anger issues. The guy that shot over two hundred rounds from a semi-automatic weapon at us at the ballfield, was an angry guy. He was a guy that would go down to the city council and yell and scream and get angry and red in the face. He once hit a neighbor with the butt of his gun. He had all of these anger issues. But then when people stoke that and say "get up in their face", "go to Washington."”

Rand Paul (1963) American politician, ophthalmologist, and United States Senator from Kentucky

He showed up at the ballfield that day, and as he started shooting at us he yelled "This is for healthcare!", and then when they were finally able to kill him in his pocket was a list of five or six conservative republicans that he came there intending to kill. So instead of saying "get up in their face", we should say let's have constructive dialog. Let's forcefully present our position in a verbal way and in an intellectual way.
2018-10-10
Rand Paul: There Will Be an 'Assassination' If Left Doesn't Ratchet Down the Rhetoric
Discussion on Fox and Friends
http://insider.foxnews.com/2018/10/10/rand-paul-there-will-be-assassination-if-left-doesnt-ratchet-down-rhetoric https://video.foxnews.com/v/5847225479001/?#sp=show-clips

Jerry Seinfeld photo

“I'll tell you the greatest thing that I've ever achieved in my career: I was on the cover of Mad magazine. And of course, I'm saying "Hello Neuman."”

Jerry Seinfeld (1954) American comedian and actor

Comedians in Cars Getting Coffee (2012 — Present), Season 3 (2014)