Quotations

"Days pass when I forget the mystery. Problems insoluble and problems offering their own ignored solutions jostle for my attention, they crowd its antechamber along with a host of diversions, my courtiers, wearing their colored clothes; caps and bells. And then once more the quiet mystery is present to me, the throng's clamor recedes: the mystery that there is anything, anything at all, let alone cosmos, joy, memory, everything, rather than void: and that, 0 Lord, Creator, Hallowed one, You still, hour by hour sustain it."

— Denise Levertov, American poet, born 1923

"You have come to the shore. There are no instructions."

— Denise Levertov, American poet, born 1923

"I'm not very good at praying, but what I experience when I'm writing a poem is close to prayer."

— Denise Levertov, American poet, born 1923

"Now I think poetry will save nothing from oblivion, but I keep writing about the ordinary because for me it's the home of the extraordinary, the only home."

— Philip Levine, American poet, born 1928

"Every Friday I used to have about fifty, sixty kids who would wait for me on Sunset Boulevard and I'd take them all to dinner. All runaways."

— Al Lewis, American actor, born 1923

"If the whole universe has no meaning, we should never have found out that it has no meaning: just as, if there were no light in the universe and therefore no creatures with eyes, we should never know it was dark. Dark would be without meaning."

— C. S. Lewis, Irish-English author, born 1898

"It may be hard for an egg to turn into a bird: it would be a jolly sight harder for it to learn to fly while remaining an egg. We are like eggs at present. And you cannot go on indefinitely being just an ordinary, decent egg. We must be hatched or go bad."

— C. S. Lewis, Irish-English author, born 1898

"There are two kinds of people: those who say to God: 'Thy will be done,' and those to whom God says: All right, then, have it your way."

— C. S. Lewis, Irish-English author, born 1898

"Scientists have proven that it's impossible to long-jump 30 feet, but I don't listen to that kind of talk. Thoughts like that have a way of sinking into your feet."

— Carl Lewis, American runner, born 1961

"When they look back on me I want 'em to remember me not for all my wives, although I've had a few, and certainly not for any mansions or high livin' money I made and spent. I want 'em to remember me simply for my music."

— Jerry Lee Lewis, American singer, born 1935

"If I'm going to Hell, I'm going there playing the piano."

— Jerry Lee Lewis, American singer, born 1935

"My manager called me once during one of my vacations and said, "I have a fantastic offer for you. Just hear me out. Don't say no yet." And it was fantastic offer but I said, "Seymour, I'd love to do it, but I really can't. My orchid trees are in bloom. I never leave when my orchid trees are in bloom." He thought it was crazy, but I am very into certain things. If a dog is sick I won't work."

— Liberace, American pianist, born 1919

"Nakedness makes us democratic, adornment makes us individuals."

— Liberace, American pianist, born 1919

"And you have to remember that I came to America as an immigrant. You know, on a ship, through the Statue of Liberty. And I saw that skyline, not just as a representation of steel and concrete and glass, but as really the substance of the American Dream."

— Daniel Libeskind, American architect, born 1946