Quotations

"When wheat is ripening properly, when the wind is blowing across the field, you can hear the beards of the wheat rubbing together. They sound like the pine needles in a forest. It is a sweet, whispering music that once you hear, you never forget."

— Norman Borlaug, American agronomist, born 1914

"And from the crew of Apollo 8, we close with good night, good luck, a Merry Christmas, and God bless all of you — all of you on the good Earth."

— Frank Borman, American astronaut, born 1928

"I am a composer in search of oblivion; and I'm always slightly ashamed to admit that I compose."

— Alexander Borodin, Russian composer, born 1833

"God is never closer than when the space between two hearts narrows."

— Joan Borysenko, Pioneer in integrative medicine, born 1945

"My popularity has to do with the divorce between modern art, where everything is obscure, and the viewer who often feels he needs a professor to tell them whether it's good or not. I believe a painting has to talk directly to the viewer, with composition, color and design, without a professor to explain it."

— Fernando Botero, Colombian painter, born 1932

"All my life, my girlfriends are always skinny. Beauty in art has nothing to do with beauty in reality. Why do you like primitive art? Because there is beauty in the deformity. Sometimes paintings that people consider realistic are not at all. Raphael figures look realistic, but in real life, they were deformed."

— Fernando Botero, Colombian painter, born 1932

"Art should be an oasis: a place or refuge from the hardness of life."

— Fernando Botero, Colombian painter, born 1932

"I had wanted to be a sculptor throughout life, but to do so, I had to stop painting."

— Fernando Botero, Colombian painter, born 1932

"There's nothing more superficial to do than to paint a beautiful woman. The most beautiful portraits in art were of ugly women."

— Fernando Botero, Colombian painter, born 1932

"An artist is born like a priest is born. If they are born an artist, I would tell them art is not a game: it is something very serious which completely requires everything you have to give."

— Fernando Botero, Colombian painter, born 1932

"The next time you see someone driving a Ferrari, don't think this is someone who is greedy, think this is someone who is vulnerable and in need of love."

— Alain de Botton, Swiss-English philosopher, born 1969

"The wandering photographer sees the same show that everyone else sees. He, however, stops to watch it."

— Edouard Boubat, French photographer, born 1923

"There are certain pictures I can never take. We turn on the TV and are smothered with cruelty and suffering and I don't need to add to it. So I just photograph peaceful things. A vase of flowers, a beautiful girl. Sometimes, through a peaceful face, I can bring something important into the world."

— Edouard Boubat, French photographer, born 1923

"The most important thing is to go out and see the stars, not to see them in books."

— Edouard Boubat, French photographer, born 1923