Rita Mae Brown, a prolific American author of mysteries and other novels, poetry, screen plays and non-fiction, is also know as a women’s rights spokesperson, feminist, gay and lesbian activist as well as a fox hunting and polo enthusiast. Although she was expelled from the University of Florida in the 1960’s for participation in a civil rights rally, she went on to earn her English degree from New York University, a degree in cinematography from New York School of Visual Arts and a doctorate in Political science from the Institute of Policy Studies located in Washington, DC.
“Art is moral passion married to entertainment. Moral passion without entertainment is propaganda, and entertainment without moral passion is television.”
“A deadline is negative inspiration. Still, it's better than no inspiration at all.”
“About all you can do in life is be who you are. Some people will love you for you. Most will love you for what you can do for them, and some won’t like you at all.”
“I believe you are your work. Don’t trade the stuff of your life, time, for nothing more than dollars. That’s a rotten bargain.”
“Writers will happen in the best of families.”
- Rita Mae Brown (1944- )
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Robin Williams starred in this movie that honored poetry...
“We don’t read and write poetry because it’s cute. We read and write poetry because we are members of the human race. And the human race is filled with passion. And medicine, law, business, engineering, these are noble pursuits and necessary to sustain life. But poetry, beauty, romance, love, these are what we stay alive for.”
- From 'Dead Poet’s Society' Movie
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Robin Williams also said this:
“No matter what people tell you, words and ideas can change the world.”
Robin Williams (1951- )
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While Prince and Jesse Ventura called attention to our mostly ‘fair state of Minnesota’ a while back and every so often once in a while yet, Garrison Keillor is kind of a week-in-week-out P-R man for Minnesotans pretty much nonstop. So we’re pretty much OK then when he exaggerates the way we talk here even though we know that its not quite so much of a Minnesota way of talking as he makes out like it is.
“Some luck lies in not getting what you thought you wanted but getting what you have, which once you have got it you may be smart enough to see is what you would have wanted had you known.”
“This is a great country, and it wasn't made so by angry people. We have a sacred duty to bequeath it to our grandchildren in better shape than however we found it. We have a long way to go and we're not getting any younger. Dante said that the hottest place in Hell is reserved for those who in time of crisis remain neutral, so I have spoken my piece, and thank you, dear reader.”
“I think the most un-American thing you can say is, ‘You can't say that.’
It's a shallow life that doesn’t give a person a few scars.”
“Sometimes you have to look reality in the eye, and deny it.”
- Garrison Keillor (1942- )
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As a teenager, Steve Martin began developing his talent at The Magic Shop at Disneyland. He continued on to write for such popular 70’s television shows as The Smothers Brothers Comedy Hour and The Dick Van Dyke Show. Known for his off kilter and ironic stand-up comedy, Martin is also a talented fiction writer and art collector.
“The real joy is in constructing a sentence. But I see myself as an actor first because writing is what you do when you are ready and acting is what you do when someone else is ready.
“Boy, those French: they have a different word for everything!”
“How to make a million dollars: First, get a million dollars.”
- Steve Martin (1945- )
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Maya Angelou is an American poet, actress, playwright and civil rights activist. She is known for autobiographical novels such as ‘I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings’, which was a critical and commercial success. Here is an interesting quote from Angelou.
“Music was my refuge. I could crawl into the space between the notes and curl my back to loneliness.”
- Maya Angelou (1928- )
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Henry Miller was an American writer, journalist and painter known for writing novels, which were unique for the mid-1900’s, in that they used a combination of autobiography, philosophical, mystical and social commentary elements and free association and more explicit sexual description. The supreme court of 1961 overturned a lower court ban declaring Miller’s novels to be literature.
“Confusion is a word we have invented for an order which is not understood.”
- Henry Miller (1891-1980)
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Heine was a German Romantic poet whose lyric poetry was often set to music by such composers as Schumann, Schubert, Strauss, and Wagner.
“I fell asleep reading a dull book and dreamed I kept on reading, so I awoke from sheer boredom.”
- Heinrich Heine (1777-1856)
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Born of Swedish parents, the American poet Carl Sandburg had a long and successful career, receiving two Pulitzer Prizes. A high school was dedicated to him in Illinois in 1954. Once he showed up at the school unannounced and without identification. Sandburg was called a bum and thrown out. The embarrassed principal cancelled school for the rest of the day and held an assembly in Sandberg’s honor.
“The deepest American dream is not the hunger for money or fame; it is the dream of settling down, in peace and freedom and cooperation, in the promised land.”
- Carl Sandberg (1878-1967)
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Florida Scott-Maxwell was a writer, psychologist, playwright and actor. In the age of the Internet, she is best known today for her poignant quotations.
“Age puzzles me. I thought it was a quiet time. My seventies were interesting and fairly serene, but my eighties are passionate. I grow more intense as I age.”
- Florida Scott-Maxwell (1883-1979)
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Ray Bradbury is one of America’s most creative and prolific authors. Now in his late 80’s, he continues to write for publication.
“If we listened to our intellect, we'd never have a love affair. We'd never have a friendship. We'd never go into business, because we'd be too cynical. Well, that's nonsense. You've got to jump off cliffs all the time and build your wings on the way down.”
- Ray Bradbury (1920- )
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