Giannina Quotes & Sayings

Poetry must find ways of breaking distance ... all languages are dialects that are made to break new grounds. — Giannina Braschi

I have nothing against the smell of rot but something against what hides the smell of rot in the United States of America. — Giannina Braschi

Solitude goes wherever you go, traveler. — Giannina Braschi

The world no doubt is the best or most serviceable schoolmaster; but the world's curriculum does not include Latin and Greek. — E. V. Lucas

If you just analyze, historically, the chances of getting two quarters of more than a 5 percent gain in the dollar index, it has happened only two times since the '70s, so it's very rare. — Jens Nordvig

Worry is discounting possible future sorrows so that the individual may have present misery. — William George Jordan

Big, sweeping life changes really boil down to small, everyday decisions. — Ali Vincent

As a dialectical teacher, I have had many lives where I have taught Zen and Tibetan Buddhism and mysticism. I teach in many different modalites. But the theme that unites them - is love. — Frederick Lenz

What is liberty? The measure of dignity. — Giannina Braschi

We were fighting for them in wars against people that we had more in common with than with the United States of Banana. — Giannina Braschi

A baby is expected. A trip is expected. News is expected. Forgetfulness is expected. An invitation is expected. Hope is expected. But memories are not expected. They just come. — Giannina Braschi

It's true that things are beautiful when they work. Art is function. — Giannina Braschi

Money has been the most serious handicap that we have ever met. There are times when poverty is fortunate — Clarence Darrow

Only what is fated to die is capable of living. Only what dies lives. — Giannina Braschi

I love hiccups and I love sneezes and I love blinks and I love belches and I love gluttons. I love hair. I love bears. For me, the round. For me, the world. — Giannina Braschi

Metaphors and Similes are the beginning of the democratic system of envy. — Giannina Braschi

My legitimate kids are Dalma and Giannina. The rest are a product of my money and mistakes. — Diego Maradona

The president, the secretary of state, the businessman, the preacher, the vendor, the spies, the clients and managers - all walking around Wall Street like chickens with their heads cut off - rushing to escape bankruptcy - plotting to melt down the Statue of Liberty - to press more copper pennies - to breed more headless chickens - to put more feathers in their caps - medals, diplomas, stock certificates, honorary doctorates - eggs and eggs of headless chickens - multitaskers - system hackers - who never know where they're heading
northward, backward, eastward, forward, and never homeward - (where is home) - home is in the head - (but the head is cut off) - and the nest is full of banking forms and Easter eggs with coins inside. Beheaded chickens, how do you breed chickens with their heads cut off? By teaching them how to bankrupt creativity. — Giannina Braschi

Wanting nothing more than for it to unravel, unbind. — John Southcross

Banks are the temples of America. This is a holy war. Our economy is our religion. — Giannina Braschi

Nativity is the enemy of prophecy. — Giannina Braschi

If you want to know what love is, have a child. If you want to know what pain is, bury him. — Giannina Braschi

I am the flower child who will not wilt. You couldn't have asked for anything more. — Annie Golden

Questions don't change the truth. But they give it motion. — Giannina Braschi

Martin Sloan, age thirty-six, vice-president in charge of media. Successful in most things but not in the one effort that all men try at some time in their lives - trying to go home again. And also like all men perhaps there'll be an occasion, maybe a summer night sometime, when he'll look up from what he's doing and listen to the distant music of a calliope, and hear the voices and the laughter of the people and the places of his past. And perhaps across his mind there'll flit a little errant wish, that a man might not have to become old, never outgrow the parks and the merry-go-rounds of his youth. And he'll smile then too because he'll know it is just an errant wish, some wisp of memory not too important really, some laughing ghosts that cross a man's mind, that are a part of the Twilight Zone. — Rod Serling

Marketers keep inventing desires, necessities for you and for me. I need this. I need that. I need. I need. It's the need of a smoking fit. If you don't smoke that cigarette now, you'll die-when in reality you die because you succumb to the rage and rattle of the needy greed that keeps you busy needing more and more things. Is this the American Dream-the greedy need? — Giannina Braschi

Ambulances always come with clouds of smoke. And then they disappear in a whistle. But what they bring is fear. Not freedom. Feardom is what they bring. And they bring fire and smoke. Oh, my nerves are bad tonight, yes, bad. I fear freedom. I, above all, fear the freedom that is above all feardom. — Giannina Braschi

Zarathustra: Do you have words? Do your words belong to you?
Giannina: No, my answer is no. I have no property in the dictionary. Words are anonymous like the disenfranchised masses that haven't been weighed - or named - or framed. My words belong to those who don't belong. — Giannina Braschi