Focals Smart Quotes & Sayings

The people really are what make New York City great. — David Dinkins

What New England is, is a state of mind, a place where dry humor and perpetual disappointment blend to produce an ironic pessimism that folks from away find most perplexing — Willem Lange

Where is the stretch? Where is the perfect fit? Where does it make sense? You have to be a Baryshnikov. — Marcus Samuelsson

Girls are supposed to be feminine and demure. Comedy isn't about that, so you just have to unlearn it. Certain women are so pretty, they can't go weird enough to be funny. You have to be willing to be ugly. I'm lucky my face can look so hideous. — Jennifer Coolidge

Life is the best party I've ever been invited to. — Arlene Francis

An artist without ideas is a mendicant; barren, he goes begging among the hours. — Irving Stone

I think about this, not like someone thinking, but like someone breathing,
And I look at flowers and I smile...
I don't know if they understand me
Or if I understand them,
But I know the truth is in them and in me
And in our common divinity
Of letting ourselves go and live on the Earth
And carrying us in our arms through the contented Seasons
And letting the wind sing us to sleep
And not have dreams in our sleep. — Alberto Caeiro

In the pale evening gloom, when the soft fragrance of magnolias hung in the air, my heart would swell without warning, and tremble, and lurch with a stab of pain. I would try clamping my eyes shut and gritting my teeth, and wait for it to pass. And it would pass
but slowly, taking its own time, and leaving a dull ache in its path. — Haruki Murakami

Yes, my name is Seamus - pronounced SHAY-mus - Rafael Goldberg. Try being five with that name. — Bill Konigsberg

Well, girls always love assholes," said Platt, not bothering to dispute this. "Haven't you noticed?" No, I thought bleakly, untrue. Else why didn't Pippa love me? — Donna Tartt