"I prayed for twenty years but received no answer until I prayed with my legs." — Frederick Douglass, American activist, born 1818
"Going to the library was the one place we got to go without asking for permission. And they let us choose what we wanted to read. It was a feeling of having a book be mine entirely." — Rita Dove, American poet, born 1952
"Mediocrity knows nothing higher than itself, but talent instantly recognizes genius." — Arthur Conan Doyle, Scottish author, born 1859
"The bad guy always gets the best scene and the best lines in the film, and they usually get the most days off." — Richard Dreyfuss, American actor, born 1947
"You cannot see the Milky Way in New York City any more. We risk the loss of our sensual perception. And if you lose those, naturally, you try to compensate by other stimulations, by very loud noises, or by bright lights or drugs." — Rene Dubos, French-born American biologist, born 1901
"Personally, I believe very much in values of savagery; I mean: instinct, passion, mood, violence, madness." — Jean Dubuffet, French painter, born 1901
"Man's need for art is absolutely primordial, as strong as, and perhaps stronger than, our need for bread. Without bread, we die of hunger, but without art we die of boredom." — Jean Dubuffet, French sculptor, born 1901
"The poem is a form of texting... it's the original text. It's a perfecting of a feeling in language - it's a way of saying more with less, just as texting is." — Carol Ann Duffy, Scottish poet, born 1955
"I see the shape of the poem before I start writing, and the writing is just the process of arriving at the shape." — Carol Ann Duffy, Scottish poet, born 1955
"The subject itself is of no account; what matters is the way it is presented." — Raoul Dufy, French painter, born 1877
"I don't follow any system. All the laws you can lay down are only so many props to be cast aside when the hour of creation arrives." — Raoul Dufy, French painter, born 1877
"Blue is the only color which maintains its own character in all its tones it will always stay blue; whereas yellow is blackened in its shades, and fades away when lightened; red when darkened becomes brown, and diluted with white is no longer red, but another color – pink." — Raoul Dufy, French painter, born 1877
"From the moment we walk out the door until we come back home, our sensibilities are so assaulted by the world that we have to soak up as much love as we can get, simply to arm ourselves." — Patty Duke, American actress, born 1946