Quotations

"If there is a God, the phrase that must disgust him is - holy war."

— Steve Allen, American comedian, born 1921

"Life is full of misery, loneliness, and suffering - and it's all over much too soon."

— Woody Allen, American actor, born 1935

"Show up, show up, show up, and after a while the muse shows up, too."

— Isabel Allende, Chilean writer, born 1942

"Life is only noise between two abysmal silences. Silence before birth, silence after death."

— Isabel Allende, Chilean writer, born 1942

"Beauty is a fact, and it can change with time. Something ugly in the morning can become beautiful in the evening."

— Will Alsop, English architect, born 1947

"Power built on totalitarian principles cannot admit its mistakes. To admit a mistake is to show weakness, to back down. To lose. This power sees conspiracy everywhere behind its back, so it lives with its head turned backwards, checking that no one is following it, that no one is dreaming up a revolution. This power must always be on its guard, it claims supreme power, is invincible to itself, the absolute made flesh."

— Maria Alyokhina, Russian activist, born 1988

"Forget about the precious sight of my lover’s face that steals away my heart. Just seeing the borders of the fields on the borders of her village gives me instant joy."

— Amaru of Kashmir, Indian King

"And as we stray further from love, we multiply the words. Had we remained together we could have become a silence."

— Yehuda Amichai, Israeli poet, born 1924

"The soul inside me is the last foreign language I'm learning."

— Yehuda Amichai, Israeli poet, born 1924

"Behind all this, some great happiness is hiding."

— Yehuda Amichai, Israeli poet, born 1924

"True life is led between dark and light."

— Yehuda Amichai, Israeli poet, born 1924

"I think the end is endless. It's either a big black hole or a big white light or both together."

— Yehuda Amichai, Israeli poet, born 1924

"Anything looked at closely becomes wonderful."

— A. R. Ammons, American poet, born 1926

"Once every five hundred years or so, a summary statement about poetry comes along that we can't imagine ourselves living without."

— A. R. Ammons, American poet, born 1926