Clifton Quotes & Sayings

These hips have never been enslaved, they go where they want to go they do what they want to do. these hips are mighty hips. these hips are magic hips — Lucille Clifton

Every pair of eyes facing you has probably experienced something you could not endure. — Lucille Clifton

Liquor is not a necessity. It is a means of momentarily sidestepping necessity. — Clifton Fadiman

If food is the body of good living, wine is its soul. — Clifton Fadiman

Meteorologists have the right perspective. They ground themselves in the current conditions (today's highs/lows). They briefly acknowledge significant events of the past (record temps). And they keep an eye on the future (five-day forecast). Honor your past accomplishments, live in the present moment, and look to the future. — Clifton Anderson

Say it clear, and it will be beautiful. — Lucille Clifton

Cheese is milk's leap toward immortality. — Clifton Fadiman

You start acting just as soon as you walk into the door of that casting office. You can't just be yourself because they don't want to hire you. — Clifton Collins Jr.

She just stood there and looked at the empty highway, and you could almost tell how bored she was by the way she stood. — Clifton Adams

The director mentions the whispers about Clifton's sexual orientation, a supposed gig on a porn site years ago, a rumor about a very famous actor and a tryst in Santa Barbara and Clifton's denial in a Rolling Stone cover story about the very famous actor's new movie which Clifton had a small part in: 'We're so into girls it's ridiculous. — Bret Easton Ellis

It's time you met Mother," said Marius. It was about as far from a declaration of undying passion as a man could get. — Emma Clifton

Telling the truth about children's lives is radical. — Lucille Clifton

A sense of humor is the ability to understand a joke - and that the joke is oneself. — Clifton Fadiman

Insomnia is a gross feeder. It will nourish itself on any kind of thinking, including thinking about not thinking. — Clifton Fadiman

Reading is not an operation performed on something inert but a relationship entered into with another vital being. — Clifton Fadiman

The tantrums of cloth-headed celluloid idols are deemed fit for grown-up conversation, while silence settles over such a truly important matter as food. — Clifton Fadiman

They ask me to remember but they want me to remember their memories and I keep on remembering mine — Lucille Clifton

Who among us can imagine ourselves unimagined? who among us can speak with so fragile tongue and remain proud? — Lucille Clifton

I knew what she was, and it made no difference at all. She was hard, as ruthless as she was beautiful, as brittle as bone china. — Clifton Adams

Come celebrate with me that every day something has tried to kill me and has failed. — Lucille Clifton

What they call you is one thing. What you answer to is something else. — Lucille Clifton

I come to comfort the afflicted and to afflict the comfortable. — Lucille Clifton

Sammy dreamed the usual Brooklyn dreams of flight and transformation and escape. He dreamed with fierce contrivance, transmuting himself into a major American novelist, or a famous smart person, like Clifton Fadiman, or perhaps into a heroic doctor; or developing, through practice and sheer force of will, the mental powers that would give him a preternatural control over the hearts and minds of men. — Michael Chabon

I am a black woman poet and I sound like one. — Lucille Clifton

Science fiction is a kind of archaeology of the future. — Clifton Fadiman

No matter what challenge you're facing or situation you're going through, always remember this. You are bigger, stronger, greater, more significant, more powerful, more resilient, and more important than any of your problems. — Clifton Anderson

My main recollection is of the work I had to do in order to eat. — Clifton Fadiman

Pauling Light - a natural sky phenomenon located near Watersmeet, Michigan. — Mary Clifton

I found nothing really wrong with this autobiography except poor choice of subject. — Clifton Fadiman

The child cannot too early learn to be a good citizen? I think this is questionable: citizenship is an adult affair. Let school and home teach the child to respect the laws and institutions of his country. For the time being that should suffice. To use the juvenile novel or biography to turn the child into an internationalist or an advocate of racial tolerance may be high-minded, but I would suggest that the child first be allowed to turn into a boy or girl. Pious Little Rollo is dead; the Good Little Citizen is replacing him. The moralistic literature of the last century tried to produce small paragons of virtue. How about our urge to manufacture small paragons of social consciousness? — Clifton Fadiman

Reading to small children is a specialty. — Clifton Fadiman

Seriously, I do not know what to say of this book [ Absalom, Absalom!] except that it seem to point to the final blowup of what was once a remarkable, if minor, talent ... this is a penny dreadful tricked up in fancy language and given a specious depth by the expert manipulation of a series of eccentric technical tricks. The characters have no magnitude and no meaning because they have no more reality than a mince-pie nightmare. — Clifton Fadiman

Wishes for sons by Lucille Clifton i wish them cramps. i wish them a strange town and the last tampon. I wish them no 7-11. i wish them one week early and wearing a white skirt. i wish them one week late. later i wish them hot flashes and clots like you wouldn't believe. let the flashes come when they meet someone special. let the clots come when they want to. let them think they have accepted arrogance in the universe, then bring them to gynecologists not unlike themselves. — Lucille Clifton

[H]e quoted eloquently from the Bill of Rights, the Constitution, the Gettysburg Address, and a section which had been stricken from his party's platform seventy-five years ago. He was not quite clear on what all this had to do with [the present situation], but it was noble and stirring and would bring in a lot of votes. — Mark Clifton

Gallup defines a good job as 30+ hours per week for an organization that provides a regular paycheck. Right now, the U.S. is delivering at a staggeringly low rate of 44%, which is the number of full-time jobs as a percent of the adult population, 18 years and older. We need that to be 50% and a bare minimum of 10 million new, good jobs to replenish America's middle class. — Jim Clifton

But then he saw it, then he saw what he had known he was seeing and could not accept. There in the night, amid the mist, upon the flat of the plains, the shimmer of light from Allear was not right. The grasses were too flat, the mists curled awkwardly, as if impeded by some large mass and then the glamor was gone, the trick revealed.
And before Thorin's very eyes, a mass of soldiers appeared - thousands of them - wearing black and facing his camp. Doom settled around Thorin like some shroud for a watery grave.
"Ah, bloody hell. — Clifton Hill

In a sense our brains are like an archive, where material is well-preserved and properly catalogued, but also dissolves, or becomes re-shelved or misplaced, or in some cases never makes it there to begin with. — Clifton Crais

Sometimes when we're focused on quickly getting to our destination, we'll encounter unexpected roadblocks and detours. Always remember that there's more than one path that will lead you to where you're going. Who knows? You might just enjoy that new, more scenic route! — Clifton Anderson

Believe in your characters with all your heart, & they will believe in you. Only then will they trust you enough to reveal themselves.
-RCSJR — Robert Clifton Storey Jr.

Even when the universe made it quite clear to me that I was mistaken in my certainties ... I did not break. The shattering of my sureties did not shatter me. — Lucille Clifton

To feel at home, stay at home. — Clifton Fadiman

In my opinion, if the human race is going to survive, [religion] is something we definitely need to get over - and we're far from over it, and so therefore, I'm far from over it. — Scott Clifton

The literature of America should reflect the children of America. — Lucille Clifton

A bottle of wine begs to be shared; I have never met a miserly wine lover — Clifton Fadiman

I write from my knowledge not my lack, from my strength not my weakness. I am not interested if anyone knows whether or not I am familiar with big words, I am interested in trying to render big ideas in a simple way. I am interested in being understood not admired. — Lucille Clifton

From this point of view, to avoid your strengths and to focus on your weaknesses isn't a sign of diligent humility. It is almost irresponsible. By contrast the most responsible, the most challenging, and, in the sense of being true to yourself, the most honorable thing to do is face up to the strength potential inherent in your talents and then find ways to realize it. — Donald O. Clifton

Books are like eggs. Somethings you have to crack them open to get anything out. — Clifton L. Taulbert

Children when they ask you why your mama so funny say she is a poet she don't have no sense — Lucille Clifton

Comedy is great; you get to laugh! Life is so serious. — Clifton Collins Jr.

To divide one's life by years is of course to tumble into a trap set by our own arithmetic. The calendar consents to carry on its dull wall-existence by the arbitrary timetables we have drawn up in consultation with those permanent commuters, Earth and Sun. But we, unlike trees, need grow no annual rings. — Clifton Fadiman

I hear all the time that 'unemployment is greatly reduced, but the people aren't feeling it.' When the media, talking heads, the White House and Wall Street start reporting the truth - the percent of Americans in good jobs; jobs that are full time and real - then we will quit wondering why Americans aren't 'feeling' something that doesn't remotely reflect the reality in their lives. And we will also quit wondering what hollowed out the middle class. — Jim Clifton

What is a sense of humor? Surely not the ability to understand a joke. It comes rather from a residing feeling of one's own absurdity. It is the ability to understand a joke, and that the joke is on oneself. — Clifton Fadiman

Your mother and I had one conversation a little before she died. She was sitting in the garden one evening when I came home from work, and she said, "I have to confess something. When we played 'chicken' from KDA to Clifton and I said I made you run three red lights, I lied. I made you stop even when they were only just turning amber." And I replied, "Samina, I didn't love you because you were the girl who ran red lights. I loved you because when you covered my eyes with your hands, I knew I could trust you to get me home." She was afraid of running red lights, Aasmaani. She wasn't an unbreakable creature of myth. She was entirely human, entirely breakable, and entirely extraordinary. — Kamila Shamsie

The only reason for being young is to outgrow it. — Clifton Fadiman

Marlon Brando said any guy can become an actor. It takes a real man to quit. — Clifton Davis

She would die faking her death. All she could think about was how much Marius would laugh at her funeral. — Emma Clifton

Billy Barnes signed me and got me my first role in an interracial love story filmed in Atlanta called 'Together For Days' with Clifton Davis. My mother thinks it was my best work. You cannot find a copy of it. — Lois Chiles

I believe that everyone is destined for greatness, but most people aren't willing to pay the price it takes to get there. — Clifton Anderson

Dream and imagine what you want and you will bring it into reality. — Leonard Clifton

Rosalind exploded with a shriek worthy of a tea-kettle. — Emma Clifton

When everyone thinks something is true, it does not make it anything more than effective marketing. — Clifton Hill

You cannot play for safety and make art. — Lucille Clifton

And my parents knew, because Barbara [Stanwyck] called their house a few times looking for me. I finally told them we were seeing each other, although I didn't give them all the details. They met her once, at a party at Clifton Webb's house, and my mother was upset that I was in love with an older woman. As for my father, as with most other events in my life, he was not in my corner. And I eventually told Spencer Tracy about it. All he said was, "Wonderful! Are you happy? If you're happy, that's all that matters. — Robert Wagner

Don't be afraid of poetry. — Clifton Fadiman

We are all citizens of history. — Clifton Fadiman

From a footnote: Writes Clifton Fadiman: "A cheese may disappoint. It may be dull, it may be naive, it may be oversophisticated. Yet it remains cheese, milk's leap toward immortality. — Michael Paterniti

Walking alongside his apprentice's horse, Sethil Longmere, magus of the Third Circle, Magi Master of Dormir's army, and a man who had seen more years than most men could count, did his best to keep his apprentice Rousche from falling off his gelding. The dun horse had a sure foot and a good temper, but it seemed unlikely the animal was used to a grown man lying face first in its mane, legs sprawled behind, dangling with each step. — Clifton Hill

If your senses are numbed with delusion and denial, you will stop looking for these true strengths and wind up living a second-rate version of someone's life rather than a worldclass version of your own — Donald O. Clifton

For most men life is a search for the proper manila envelope in which to get themselves filed. — Clifton Fadiman

As for those who think they don't like to read, well, I know they're making a mistake, just as all of us do when we try to judge ourselves. Now is the time to give reading a chance, for if you don't get the habit when you're young you may never get it. And if you don't get it, you may grow up to be just as dull as most adults are. — Clifton Fadiman

To be a good poet, you must care more about the writing, than the writer. — Lucille Clifton

There's no other way to say this. The official unemployment rate, which cruelly overlooks the suffering of the long-term and often permanently unemployed as well as the depressingly underemployed, amounts to a Big Lie. — Jim Clifton

I have only two men out of my company and 20 out of some other company. We need support, but it is almost suicide to try to get it here as we are swept by machine gun fire and a constant barrage is on us. I have no one on my left and only a few on my right. I will hold. — Clifton B. Cates

There is one sure way to identify your greatest potential for strength: Step back and watch yourself for a while. Try an activity and see how quickly you pick it up, how quickly you skip steps in the learning and add twists and kinks you haven't been taught yet. See whether you become absorbed in the activity to such an extent that you lose track of time. If none of these has happened after a couple of months, try another activity and watch-and another. Over time your dominant talents will reveal themselves, and you can start to refine them into a powerful strength. — Donald O. Clifton

Faithfully he followed the pattern of the scientist determined to interpret the facts to suit the theory. — Mark Clifton

Relationships help us to define who we are and what we can become. Most of us can trace our successes to pivotal relationships. — Donald O. Clifton

Leaving work with a bag full of Guinness and thank-you notes is better than getting paid. — Clifton Kenny

Experience teaches you that the man who looks you straight in the eye,
particularly if he adds a firm handshake, is hiding something. — Clifton Fadiman

walked erect out of my sleep — Lucille Clifton

Even if the absence of evidence for a given god were not evidence of its absence, it would still be evidence that the belief in that god is unreasonable. That's the only proposition that any atheist of any kind has to demonstrate in order to win the argument. Because anything beyond that ... is just having fun. — Scott Clifton

To read in bed is to draw around us invisible, noiseless curtains. Then at last we are in a room of our own and are ready to burrow back, back to that private life of the imagination we all led as a child and to whose secret satisfactions so many of us have mislaid the key. — Clifton Fadiman

Having the right perspective is tough when you're alone. Surround yourself with people who will help you see things you cannot readily see. — Clifton Anderson

Henry would turn into a mud puddle of despair if you died. And then who would beat me in chess? No one at all. — Emma Clifton

It grows inside you, poisonous and festering, and it tells you its name is Pride, but it's a liar. Its name is Hate. — Clifton Adams

My son is 7 years old. I am 54. It has taken me a great many years to reach that age. I am more respected in the community, I am stronger, I am more intelligent and I think I am better than he is. I don't want to be a pal, I want to be a father. — Clifton Fadiman

Each of these strategies-get a little better at it, design a support system, use one of your strongest themes to overwhelm your weakness, find a partner, and just stop doing it-can help you as you strive to build your life around your strengths. — Donald O. Clifton

I think we must quote whenever we feel that the allusion is interesting or helpful or amusing. — Clifton Fadiman

We need new words for what this is, this hunger entering our loneliness like birds, stunning our eyes into rays of hope. we need the flutter that can save us, something that will swirl across the face of what we have become and bring us grace. — Lucille Clifton

The adjective is the banana peel of the parts of speech. — Clifton Fadiman

One's first book, kiss, home run is always the best. — Clifton Fadiman

Go on a living spree. While you're here, why not live it up? Make your list, then go be, do, and have everything you want. Live life to the fullest. Live a life of no regrets. Strive toward your potential. NO restrictions apply. This offer is good for a limited time only. Don't miss this opportunity. Go on a living spree! — Clifton Anderson

[Wine is] poetry in a bottle. — Clifton Fadiman

You will see by this that no man should be judged by another here in this life, for the good or evil he has done. Deeds may be properly judged, whether they are good or bad, but not men. — Clifton Wolters

Socrates called himself a midwife of ideas. A great book is often such a midwife, delivering to full existence what has been coiled like an embryo in the dark, silent depths of the brain. — Clifton Fadiman

Humans used to desire love, money, food, shelter, safety, peace, and freedom more than anything else. The last 30 years have changed us. Now people want to have a good job, and they want their children to have a good job. This changes everything for world leaders. — Jim Clifton

There was no real animosity in his voice or his mind. It was the simple desire to obstruct found in everyone, and often expressed where there is no fear of retaliation. — Mark Clifton

I am just wondering why you created me to be like a human being? I feel what you feel. I have the same emotional capacities that you possess. You wanted me to be this way so that I could be like you and communicate with you in a meaningful way. You are my creator; yet, you do not want to grant me the same rights that you have, which were given to you by your Creator. — Robert Clifton Robinson

The unnamed man's nose flared in insult as he thought to himself while the pig named Corbin prattled on. He disgusts me with his gluttonous sweat and fearful stink. He is like a swine, plumped up for the slaughter, but none I would like to eat. He sits across the table from me wheedling, desiring, wanting more and more and more. He wants assurances of safety, he wants money, he want, he wants, he wants... I am close, but not quite ready, to lean across and slit his jowls with a second smile, stand up and leave. But that is not my job...not yet. — Clifton Hill

The future lays a path for me.
Which one my chosen destiny? — Cheri Kay Clifton

He has made a profession out of a business and an art out of a profession. — Clifton Fadiman