When I'm on stage, it's really intense. My mind is going a million miles an hour, trying to remember my act, trying to say it all the right way. It's funny how different it looks and how it's happening. There are three Fellini circuses in my head, and outwardly it looks like I'm going to get a bagel. Steven Wright It doesn't matter what temperature the room is, it's always room temperature. Steven Wright I went down the street to the 24-hour grocery. When I got there, the guy was locking the front door. I said, 'Hey, the sign says you're open 24 hours.' He said, 'Yes, but not in a row.' Steven Wright I had some eyeglasses. I was walking down the street when suddenly the prescription ran out. Steven Wright When I was on TV in the '80s, I wasn't thinking, 'There's a 10-year-old kid watching this and in 15 years, he's gonna be doing stuff that was influenced by me.' I was trying to get my five minutes together. So now that those people are comedians and they're influenced by me - it's bizarre. Steven Wright One day a guy tried to rob me on the street, and I had no money. So I charged him. Steven Wright I love eating chocolate cake and ice cream after a show. I almost justify it in my mind as, 'You were a good boy onstage and you did your show, so now you can have some cake and ice cream.' Steven Wright I was born. When I was 23 I started telling jokes. Then I started going on television and doing films. That's still what I am doing. The end. Steven Wright Very rarely do I talk off the top of my head on stage. I'm not an improv guy. I'm a writer-guy who presents what he's written. Steven Wright My act is an exaggeration of a part of me. I'm much more expressive off stage. Steven Wright I think God's going to come down and pull civilization over for speeding. Steven Wright To me, comedy is just twisting reality. It's commenting or observing or twisting life. Steven Wright I didn't tell any of my friends that I wanted to be a comedian, because I was superstitious. I thought if I told people, it wouldn't happen. So I kept it all in my head for years and years. Steven Wright Don't you hate when your hand falls asleep and you know it will be up all night. Steven Wright I don't like politicians, and I don't like politics. I definitely don't want to be associated with any of them. Steven Wright I met this wonderful girl at Macy's. She was buying clothes and I was putting Slinkies on the escalator. Steven Wright In a lot of ways, success is much harder than I thought it would be. I figured that you'd get here and then everything would be happily ever after. But, it's hard work, almost harder once you're successful because you've got to maintain it. Steven Wright Only one in four jokes ever works, and I still can't predict what people will laugh at. Steven Wright I'm writing an unauthorized autobiography. Steven Wright George is a radio announcer, and when he walks under a bridge... you can't hear him talk. Steven Wright Real life? Well, I just hope mine isn't investigated. They might find that I don't really exist - that I'm just a hologram. Steven Wright I got this powdered water - now I don't know what to add. Steven Wright It seems like we wake up and it's a race until you get to bed. It gets to you after a while and you think, 'What the hell am I doing?' Steven Wright I went to the bank and asked to borrow a cup of money. They said, 'What for?' I said, 'I'm going to buy some sugar.' Steven Wright I feel lucky that I can have people laugh solidly for a whole hour by just saying what I think and getting paid for it. Steven Wright My favorite book is anything by Kurt Vonnegut - he's my literary hero. I got to meet him several times, which was a great thrill for me. I don't really remember what we talked about. Steven Wright I like to talk about lint and coasters, the expansion of the universe and maybe McDonald's. I'm completely turned off by the idea of politics. Steven Wright If you shoot at mimes, should you use a silencer? Steven Wright When I was a kid, I went to the store and asked the guy, Do you have any toy train schedules? Steven Wright You know those things that you throw the twigs into and it spits them out? That's what I do. The branches are like life, and I throw them into my head and some of it comes out as humor. Steven Wright George Carlin's album, 'Class Clown,' came out when I was in high school. I memorized a lot of that album. I'd come home from school, put it on, and listen over and over. I started memorizing it. I don't even know why. I loved it so much I memorized it. Steven Wright People may think I'm trying something new by telling stories, but they're just jokes connected to give the illusion of stories. But really, I just continue using my imagination and creating. That's what I do. Steven Wright When I die, I'm gonna leave my body to science fiction. Steven Wright I haven't changed at all. I'm the same as when I was 11. Steven Wright I was always making my friends laugh, but I never wanted the attention of the whole classroom. Steven Wright Doing stand-up is like running across a frozen pond with the ice breaking behind you. I love it because it's dangerous. Steven Wright I've been thinking of humorous things since I was... I can't remember when. All the way through elementary school, all the way through junior high, all the way through high school, through college and after college, I was thinking of the same kinds of things that I say in front of an audience now. Steven Wright I laugh all the time - at things, people, stuff, whatever. But, I don't laugh onstage because then it's serious business. Steven Wright Like other kids wanted to become firemen or astronauts, I wanted to make people laugh. Steven Wright I always thought Johnny Carson was just brilliant, and I used to watch him and all the comics that would be on the show every night - and I'd dream about it being me. Steven Wright I thought I would be a guy on the radio. Steven Wright At one point he decided enough was enough. Steven Wright I don't get up, get dressed, go out, and think, 'Okay, I gotta find eight jokes.' Steven Wright

Love and don't the Susanna Moore quotes about the threatened wildlife in Hawaii. Seems every year the list of the threatened species is growing

Emily Dickinson Quotes American - Poet December 10, 1830 - May 15, 1886 Saying nothing... sometimes says the most. Emily Dickinson Morning without you is a dwindled dawn. Emily Dickinson Hope is the thing with feathers that perches in the soul - and sings the tunes without the words - and never stops at all. Emily Dickinson If I can stop one heart from breaking, I shall not live in vain. Emily Dickinson The soul should always stand ajar, ready to welcome the ecstatic experience. Emily Dickinson Unable are the loved to die, for love is immortality. Emily Dickinson My friends are my estate. Emily Dickinson I dwell in possibility. Emily Dickinson Where thou art, that is home. Emily Dickinson Dogs are better than human beings because they know but do not tell. Emily Dickinson Truth is so rare that it is delightful to tell it. Emily Dickinson That it will never come again is what makes life sweet. Emily Dickinson Behavior is what a man does, not what he thinks, feels, or believes. Emily Dickinson Forever is composed of nows. Emily Dickinson Finite to fail, but infinite to venture. Emily Dickinson Find ecstasy in life; the mere sense of living is joy enough. Emily Dickinson Not knowing when the dawn will come I open every door. Emily Dickinson They might not need me; but they might. I'll let my head be just in sight; a smile as small as mine might be precisely their necessity. Emily Dickinson I am growing handsome very fast indeed! I expect I shall be the belle of Amherst when I reach my 17th year. I don't doubt that I shall have perfect crowds of admirers at that age. Then how I shall delight to make them await my bidding, and with what delight shall I witness their suspense while I make my final decision. Emily Dickinson A wounded deer leaps the highest. Emily Dickinson I hope you love birds too. It is economical. It saves going to heaven. Emily Dickinson Fame is a fickle food upon a shifting plate. Emily Dickinson Beauty is not caused. It is. Emily Dickinson The brain is wider than the sky. Emily Dickinson A word is dead when it is said, some say. I say it just begins to live that day. Emily Dickinson If I read a book and it makes my whole body so cold no fire can ever warm me, I know that is poetry. Emily Dickinson Old age comes on suddenly, and not gradually as is thought. Emily Dickinson Luck is not chance, it's toil; fortune's expensive smile is earned. Emily Dickinson How strange that nature does not knock, and yet does not intrude! Emily Dickinson To make a prairie it takes a clover and one bee, One clover, and a bee, And revery. The revery alone will do, If bees are few. Emily Dickinson Because I could not stop for death, He kindly stopped for me; The carriage held but just ourselves and immortality. Emily Dickinson Parting is all we know of heaven, and all we need of hell. Emily Dickinson Fortune befriends the bold. Emily Dickinson Whenever a thing is done for the first time, it releases a little demon. Emily Dickinson I'm nobody, who are you? Emily Dickinson Dying is a wild night and a new road. Emily Dickinson Sisters are brittle things. God was penurious with me, which makes me shrewd with Him. One is a dainty sum! One bird, one cage, one flight; one song in those far woods, as yet suspected by faith only! Emily Dickinson We were never intimate mother and children while she was our mother - but... when she became our child, the affection came. Emily Dickinson Love is anterior to life, posterior to death, initial of creation, and the exponent of breath. Emily Dickinson People need hard times and oppression to develop psychic muscles. Emily Dickinson To live is so startling it leaves little time for anything else. Emily Dickinson Nature is our eldest mother; she will do no harm. Emily Dickinson I argue thee that love is life. And life hath immortality. Emily Dickinson To love is so startling it leaves little time for anything else. Emily Dickinson If I feel physically as if the top of my head were taken off, I know that is poetry. Emily Dickinson It is better to be the hammer than the anvil. Emily Dickinson If fame belonged to me, I could not escape her; if she did not, the longest day would pass me on the chase, and the approbation of my dog would forsake me then. My barefoot rank is better. Emily Dickinson God is not so wary as we, else He would give us no friends, lest we forget Him! The charms of the heaven in the bush are superseded, I fear, by the heaven in the hand, occasionally. Emily Dickinson There is no Frigate like a book to take us lands away nor any coursers like a page of prancing Poetry. Emily Dickinson He ate and drank the precious Words, his Spirit grew robust; He knew no more that he was poor, nor that his frame was Dust. Emily Dickinson I never had a mother. I suppose a mother is one to whom you hurry when you are troubled. Emily Dickinson Success is counted sweetest by those who never succeed. Emily Dickinson Tell the truth, but tell it slant. Emily Dickinson Celebrity is the chastisement of merit and the punishment of talent. Emily Dickinson I have a brother and sister; my mother does not care for thought, and father, too busy with his briefs to notice what we do. He buys me many books, but begs me not to read them, because he fears they joggle the mind. Emily Dickinson I do not like the man who squanders life for fame; give me the man who living makes a name. Emily Dickinson After great pain, a formal feeling comes. The Nerves sit ceremonious, like tombs. Emily Dickinson In such a porcelain life, one likes to be sure that all is well lest one stumble upon one's hopes in a pile of broken crockery. Emily Dickinson I had no portrait, now, but am small, like the wren; and my hair is bold, like the chestnut bur; and my eyes, like the sherry in the glass, that the guest leaves. Emily Dickinson They say that God is everywhere, and yet we always think of Him as somewhat of a recluse. Emily Dickinson Carolyn Kizer Quotes American - Poet December 10, 1925 - October 9, 2014 I didn't learn much about writing at Sarah Lawrence, but I learned a lot about the sources of poems - dreams, myth, history - from the really great teachers, Joseph Campbell, Charles Trinkhaus, Bert Loewenberg, and a young Australian anthropologist named Harry Hawthorne. Carolyn Kizer Environmental concerns and feminism are locked together. Generally, women have closer connections to the organic nature of our lives. Carolyn Kizer I began writing poems when I was about eight, with a heavy assist from my mother. She read me Arthur Waley's translations and Whitman and Robinson Jeffers, who have been lifelong influences on me. My father read Keats to me, and then he read more Keats while I was lying on the sofa struggling with asthma. Carolyn Kizer No matter how brief an encounter you have with anybody, you both change. Carolyn Kizer As I remember, the first real poem I wrote was about the wheat fields between Spokane and Pullman, to the south. Carolyn Kizer I tell people I never got to hear Dylan Thomas read because my husband wouldn't let me, because he thought it would be a sort of bad influence. People say, 'And you didn't go?' They're so surprised because the me they know would have gone. And I say I was very much a 'yes, dear' wife. Carolyn Kizer I wrote poetry off and on in high school, when I could manage to get out of gym classes and sports - using my allergies as an excuse - and climb the hill behind school till I found a nice place to settle down with a notebook and look at Spokane spread out below. Carolyn Kizer I've been enormously fortunate. People say, 'How do you feel about your reputation?' My real belief is that I have exactly the reputation I deserve... on the whole, I feel comfortable with myself. Carolyn Kizer I used to get so many letters from students about the ending of 'Pro Femina.' So I had a stamp made that said 'irony, irony, irony' to put on a postcard and mail it back. Carolyn Kizer I was raised to be a girl Michelangelo. Carolyn Kizer I discovered it was easier to carry around a pen than a piano. Carolyn Kizer

I think it's being thrown at the wolves, we call it in our business. Dick Van Dyke One day in '61, I was looking in the Santa Monica phone book for a number, and there it was: Stan Laurel, Ocean Avenue in Santa Monica. I went over there and spent the afternoon with them. And pumped him with questions. I must have driven him crazy. I spent a lot of happy hours at Stan's house on Sundays just talking about comedy. Dick Van Dyke No, I did night clubs right here in Los Angeles. My partner, Phil Erickson, put me in the business, a guy from my home town, a dear friend who we just lost a couple of months ago. Dick Van Dyke I'm really in retirement. My career is over. I'm just playing now and having a great time. I like to keep busy, and I'm doing what's fun for me. Dick Van Dyke Pandering to the scandal hungry public is a total lack of responsible journalism. Dick Van Dyke I've retired so many times now it's getting to be a habit. Dick Van Dyke When I was a kid, I had ambitions for being a television announcer, which was before television took off, you know, in the late '40s. And just through necessity, going out looking for work, I was starting to sing, and dance, and act, and I never expected to do that, nor to have any success at it at least. Dick Van Dyke I have a lot of friends who say that one of the freedoms of being older is you don't care what other people think, which I don't think is right. You care what other people think, but if you're comfortable in your own skin, that doesn't bother you. Dick Van Dyke I was a 'Laurel and Hardy' nut. I got to know Laurel at the end of his life, and it was a great thrill for me. He left me his bow tie and derby and told me that if they ever made a movie about him, he'd want me to play him. Dick Van Dyke L I went from my mother to my wife. And to this day, I can't bear to be alone. Dick Van Dyke I'm always announcing my retirement. I'm still not retired. Dick Van Dyke Bob Hope, like Mark Twain, had a sense of humor that was uniquely American, and like Twain, we'll likely not see another like him. Dick Van Dyke So at 16 I got a job at the local radio station. And I was working after school and weekends. I did the news; I did everything. I did - played records. Dick Van Dyke I've always wanted to learn kick boxing. Dick Van Dyke Today, if you're not an alcoholic, you're nobody. Dick Van Dyke I think the saddest moment in my life just happened two months ago. My old nightclub partner passed away, Phil Erickson down in Atlanta. He - I owe him everything. He put me in the business and taught me about everything I know. Dick Van Dyke No, no, it was the relationships. That was that group. People believed that Rob and Laura were really married in real life. You know, a lot of people believed that. Dick Van Dyke Oh, I had an idea for a pilot of my own at the time, and then Carl sent me about eight scripts and simply I threw my idea out the window because the writing was just so good. Dick Van Dyke We had all week to rehearse. An audience would come in at the end of the week and we'd our little show. Most of the ad- libbing happened during the week on the show. Dick Van Dyke I can't work with my brother without laughing. Dick Van Dyke I asked Fred Astaire once when he was about my age if he still danced, and he said 'Yes, but it hurts now.' That's exactly it. I can still dance, too, but it hurts now! Dick Van Dyke Somebody asked what I wanted on my gravestone. I'm just going to put: 'Glad I Could Help.' Dick Van Dyke I think, the 'Van Dyke Show' and 'Mary Poppins' are two of the best periods of my life. I had so much fun, I didn't want it to end. Dick Van Dyke Put me on solid ground and I'll start tapping! At my age they say to keep moving. Dick Van Dyke When I was a kid, I loved all the silent comedians - Buster Keaton, Laurel and Hardy, Chaplin. And I used to imitate them. I'd go to see a Buster Keaton movie and come home and try things out I'd seen. I learned to do pratfalls when I was very young. Dick Van Dyke I love musicals, but I find it's just so deadening. You know, 30 takes, you do a little piece here and a little piece there. There's hours and hours of waiting. And to me, that's as far away from real performance as you can get. Dick Van Dyke The years have been just full of surprises for me, and a lot of fun. Dick Van Dyke But once we got on the air, everybody except Morey Amsterdam pretty much stuck to the script. Dick Van Dyke I don't think we've got much of a chance to tell you the truth. But our main problem is our audience skews a little older than most shows, and I don't think our people can stay up that late. I certainly can't. Dick Van Dyke Probably one of the happiest moments, outside the birth of all of my kids, was the first time we won an Emmy, that the show won an Emmy. That was a big night. Dick Van Dyke So I think we're kind of an alternate choice for people who have had it with sex and violence. Dick Van Dyke I have four kids, seven grandkids, and four great-grandkids. Maybe I can become a great-great-grandfather if I hang on! Dick Van Dyke They did ask me to do 'Dancing With The Stars;' I said I can do one show, but on that show you have to come up with a new number every week, and I told them that I think I'm a little past that stage. Dick Van Dyke I sing and dance. That's my job. Dick Van Dyke All of us involved say 'The Dick Van Dyke Show' was the best five years of our lives. We were like otters at play. Dick Van Dyke There's a lot of very funny people I'd love to work with that I've never met, of course. I love Steve Martin and Jim Carrey. Dick Van Dyke Jon Stewart kills me. I love him. And Bill Maher. He does an hour on HBO. But entirely political. It is awfully rough, but he does make me laugh. Dick Van Dyke It's more in my nature to be optimistic, I think. I'm one of those people who gets up on the right side of the bed in the morning. Dick Van Dyke I have a beautiful, young wife who sings and dances, so there's a lot of duetting going on at my house. Dick Van Dyke Once you're dead, your worries are over. Dick Van Dyke Working with my son was like falling off a log. I had so much fun doing it. Dick Van Dyke The thing I'm most proud of is my family, the way they've turned out. Dick Van Dyke I'm kind of proud of being a love child. Dick Van Dyke My wife didn't like Hollywood or its stars, but she made an exception when, in 1972, we were invited to dinner - cooked by Frank Sinatra. Dick Van Dyke When I was a kid, I had ambitions for being a television announcer, which was before television took off, you know, in the late '40s. Dick Van Dyke I'm an old, white-haired guy. If I'm not recognized, I'm treated pretty much like every other elderly. But if people recognize me, it's a whole different thing. Dick Van Dyke I learned everything that I know about comedy and about show business and a lot about life from Carl. Dick Van Dyke A lot of violence, a lot of gore in it, and I just didn't want to do that kind of thing. Dick Van Dyke I cannot tell you what it means when children recognize. This is about the third generation for me. And when kids that small recognize me, it really pleases me, very gratifying. Dick Van Dyke I don't have any children; I have four middle-aged people. Dick Van Dyke I grew up in Danville, Illinois, right in the middle of the state. Dick Van Dyke I have four children and I have seven grandkids. Dick Van Dyke I loved to fall down. Dick Van Dyke I never made a good movie. Dick Van Dyke I think most people will tell you that. They can go along and, while they're denying that they are addicted, say it's stress this, it's this, it's that. But I - it's - I think - I really believe there is a gene. Some people become addicted and others don't. Dick Van Dyke I turned down some movies that were quite good. mainly on the basis of taste. Dick Van Dyke I wanted to be a radio announcer. Dick Van Dyke I was always in show business but in many ways was not really of show business. I didn't move in show business circles, particularly, still don't do it. Dick Van Dyke My kids are so much better parent than I was. Dick Van Dyke My son Barry, of course, has been on from the beginning. And his son Shane is playing now a med student regularly on the show. And at one point or another, I've had all four of his kids on the show. Dick Van Dyke Oh, well, my first love is comedy or singing and dancing. Dick Van Dyke So as my kids will tell you, they had a pretty normal life. Dick Van Dyke Stan said he used to keep Hardy late, make him miss his golf game, and really get him mad. Dick Van Dyke You know, I'm almost out of the habit of watching episodic television now. Dick Van Dyke I like 'The Office.' I particularly like the British version with Ricky Gervais. Of course, I liked the 'Seinfeld' show a lot. I thought that was an awfully good show. Dick Van Dyke I did a 'Golden Girls' once, which shot in front of an audience, and that went well. I had a good time. But I need an audience, for comedy at least. Dick Van Dyke When I started having kids, I thought, 'I don't want to do anything they can't watch.' Dick Van Dyke I've had a lot of writers, in particular, who said they got into writing because of the 'Van Dyke Show.' They said it looked like fun. Dick Van Dyke I played a killer twice. Once on 'Matlock,' on Andy Griffith's show, I got to play the killer. Dick Van Dyke I've won several Emmys, a Tony and a Grammy, so maybe somebody will let me have an Oscar, and then I'll have a full set. Dick Van Dyke My favorite unknown movie is 'The Comic.' Dick Van Dyke I was the worst game show host that ever lived, and I knew it. Dick Van Dyke When I auditioned for 'Bye Bye Birdie' on Broadway, Gower Champion said, 'You've got the job!' I said, 'Mr. Champion, I can't dance.' He said, 'We'll teach you what you need to know.' Dick Van Dyke I do miss the rhythms of comedy. And I've never been able to perform very well without an audience. The sitcoms I've done had them. It was like doing a little play. Dick Van Dyke Rob Petrie is who I really am - in personality and general ineffectiveness. Dick Van Dyke I worked nightclubs all through my 20s, and I was a teetotaler. Dick Van Dyke When I get some budding young comic who'll come up to me and say, 'What was it like to do it in those days?' I try to be as gracious to him as Stan Laurel was to me. Dick Van Dyke Do you know that I was the anchor on the 'CBS Morning Show?' And my newsman was Walter Cronkite. Dick Van Dyke I watch 'Al Jazeera.' They have news that you can't find anywhere else. They do great documentaries, too. Dick Van Dyke I get little kids who recognize me from 'Mary Poppins,' and it just delights me because it's our third generation. Dick Van Dyke I don't play golf. I have more fun singing and dancing. Dick Van Dyke My wife, as proud as she was of me, hated show business for good reasons. There was something about the spouse always being pushed out of the way, shoved aside. She wanted to get away from it. Dick Van Dyke I got into a Broadway show before I ever sang and danced. I learned how after I got in the show. Dick Van Dyke I married somebody half my age, and everybody thought I was crazy, but she is just an absolute angel. Dick Van Dyke Emotionally, I'm about 13. Dick Van Dyke My career is over. I'm just playing now and having a great time. I like to keep busy, and I'm doing what's fun for me. Dick Van Dyke In the best of all worlds, the producers would take some responsibility for the kinds of things they're putting out. Unfortunately, they don't. Dick Van Dyke I didn't even start dancing until I was in my thirties, and it was like flying. Dick Van Dyke Everyone should dance. And everyone should sing. People say, 'Well, I can't sing.' Everybody can sing. That you do it badly is no reason not to sing. Dick Van Dyke A lot of actors seem to dislike typecasting these days. The funny thing is, that's a fairly recent development. It used to be that actors wanted to be typecast so audiences could remember them and identify with them. Dick Van Dyke I cannot live alone. Dick Van Dyke All that nipping and tucking doesn't make you look younger - only stranger. Dick Van Dyke If I'd known I was going to live this long, I would have taken better care of myself. Dick Van Dyke Unfortunately, the spouses of performers have a terrible, terrible life. They get shunted aside, pushed aside, ignored. Dick Van Dyke I'm a very neat person. Dick Van Dyke My memory's not too good. Dick Van Dyke I'm the Steven Spielberg of Malibu. Dick Van Dyke I swim, go to the gym, and do a little dancing every day and a little singing. Dick Van Dyke I never had a lot of confidence in myself. Dick Van Dyke I don't think parents can protect their kids in this media-nut culture. Dick Van Dyke There are no more Walt Disneys anymore. Dick Van Dyke Dick Martin was a good buddy, and he was always a lot of fun to have around. Dick Van Dyke I've always thought if I could pick my interviewer, it'd be Charlie Rose, who I think is the best. Dick Van Dyke I'm not cantankerous. Dick Van Dyke I was born in the Coolidge administration. Can you believe that? So I've seen a lot of politics. Dick Van Dyke My father made about $25 a week. We always lived just on the edge. Dick Van Dyke The first time I met Mary Tyler Moore, I thought she was just beautiful, but I thought she was a little young. Dick Van Dyke That rule about having to act one's age? I just don't buy it. Dick Van Dyke Every morning I have something to do, I'm better off. It's bad to get up and not have something to do. Dick Van Dyke My maternal grandfather owned a grocery store that also sold kosher meat. He did well. Dick Van Dyke I love to harmonize. Dick Van Dyke It's quite hard to act yourself all the time. Dick Van Dyke I'm crazy about Judi Dench. Dick Van Dyke