Gunn Quotes & Sayings

What's interesting about textiles is that they are determined about three seasons in advance, that's why when you walk into a store you think "Gee, everything looks about the same." — Tim Gunn

Being in the moment is everything. So being in the moment for me is just letting the narrative play out, listening to the designers and giving them helpful feedback about what they're doing. — Tim Gunn

We can wear whatever we want and get away with it. Just be confident about being who you are and dressing for that person. — Tim Gunn

An odd thing occurs in the minds of Americans when Indian civilization in mentioned: little or nothing. — Paula Gunn Allen

She averted his eyes, but not before he recognized the pain in them, a tormented and languished gaze, a stare preserved for people who were able to love deeply enough that they could be destroyed by it. For a moment, he knew that gaze intimately, remembering it from a time long gone. The ache of a shattered belief once known. He knew that feeling. — Jacqueline Simon Gunn

To remember a man's name is to give him eternal life — Bill Gunn

It was difficult being a teacher and out of the closet in the '50s. By the time I retired, the English department was proud of having a gay poet of a certain minor fame. It was a very satisfactory change! — Thom Gunn

I love the word 'fashion.' That's why I'm using it in the title of this book. Fashion is about change and about creating clothes within a historical context. To me, dismissing fashion as silly or unimportant seems like a denial of history and frequently a show of sexism
as if something that's traditionally a concern of women isn't valid as a field of academic inquiry. When the Parsons fashion department was founded in 1906, it was called 'costume design,' because fashion was then a verb: to fashion. But the word 'fashion' has evolved to mean something much more profound, and those who resist it seem to me to be on the wrong side of history. — Tim Gunn

The way she'd whispered this told him she was thinking about some of her less favorite attributes and how she could never see herself viewing them as assets. Women were so fucking hard on themselves. Bailey, you are who you are, like no other. Embrace it. — Riley Murphy

My brain has always been wired in such a way that I'd rather communicate to a smaller audience who really get turned on by what I do than meet a wider audience and give them milk. — James Gunn

I deliberately wrote a poem in my last book where I was suggesting that there are other passions as great as or more important than the passion of sex. — Thom Gunn

I was much influenced by Jean-Paul Sartre. — Thom Gunn

Life is not a solo act. It's a huge collaboration, and we all need to assemble around us the people who care about us and support us in times of strife. — Tim Gunn

I, too, have had my revelation. I do not compare it with yours. It has no identifiable source. It is an inner conviction that has grown from a small thought to a large certainty that there is other life in the universe, that to prove its existence is the most gloriously human thing man can do, that to communicate with it would make this vast, incomprehensible place in which man lives, this unexplored forest of the night, a friendlier, happier, more wonderful, more exciting, holier place in which to be. — James Edwin Gunn

I always like to think that I make movies that are like Nirvana songs. They have a slow verse and then they pop into high gear and then they go back into slow and then they pop into high gear again. — James Gunn

All the magazines contradict each other because it is so diverse. Know what you like, know what looks good on you and keep doing it, no reason to chase trends. — Tim Gunn

Now we get to the Karma thing: You make yourself so vulnerable by not tipping well or treating people in the service industry with respect. Not only is it wrong to treat another human being like that, but there's a practical consideration: They're standing between you and eating. Without waiters, nothing comes to your table and nothing goes away. Aren't you worried that they'll put rat poison in your food, or at least spit in it? pages 86-87 — Tim Gunn

Perhaps you like to torture yourself by trying on some jeans from a few years ago to see if you can button them. Clothes do not exist to humiliate their owners. Please do not force garments into performing psychological tasks for which they were not designed. — Tim Gunn

A man is what a man is; he recognises his deficiencies and tries to conquer them or plans around them. — James Edwin Gunn

If you want to, you can share my teaching refrain: I can't want you to succeed more than you do. — Tim Gunn

She would not have another man push her aside like some appetizer, there to wet his whistle only to be left once the main dish arrived.

No more. She pushed her thumb into his throat a little harder. — Jacqueline Simon Gunn

The truth, a truth, and reality are not always the same. — Jacqueline Simon Gunn

Just the way it never rains when you have an umbrella, you'll never run into people if you look fantastic. But go outside in pajamas, and you'll run into every ex you have. — Tim Gunn

And I'm the first one to tell people to break the rules. But you can only break the rules once you know what the rules are. The other thing is, fashion is the last design discipline to actually have academic texts and historical analysis. — Tim Gunn

I would certainly rather the industry not go broke, but if that's what it takes for everyone to acquire some values and lose that sense of entitlement, maybe a little belt-tightening wouldn't be so tragic. — Tim Gunn

Mood has a scuba section? Who knew? — Tim Gunn

I work best in rhyme and meter. I was most confident of myself in that way. — Thom Gunn

The pervasive idea is that if you're a man in the fashion industry, you're gay until proven otherwise. And of course there are lots of men who aren't. But people make certain assumptions. — Tim Gunn

Everyone has a best feature, so find clothes and accessories to accentuate those, whether it's your shoulders or your long legs! — Tim Gunn

Logic is our assurance," MacDonald said calmly. "The only thing worth sending from star to star is information, and the certain profit from such an exchange far outweighs the uncertain advantage from any other kind of behavior. The first benefit is the knowledge of other intelligent creatures in the universe - this alone gives us strength and courage. Then comes information from an alien world; it is like having our own instruments there, even our own scientists, to measure and record, only with the additional advantage of a breadth and duration of measurements under a variety of conditions. Finally comes the cultural and scientific knowledge and development of another race, and the treasure to be gained from this kind of exchange is beyond calculation. — James Edwin Gunn

The clothes we wear send a message about how the world perceives us. — Tim Gunn

The bulky caveman boot certainly has a modern heir: Uggs. I feel they are aptly named and don't belong in this millennium, but I realize I'm in the minority on that. — Tim Gunn

Learn to make peace with the mysteries of surrender, submission, endurance. The promise is based on God's grace. The promise comes by faith. All of Abraham's children will certainly receive the promise. And it is not only for those who are ruled by the law. Those who have the same faith that Abraham had are also included. He is the father of us all. - Romans 4:16 NIrV — Robin Jones Gunn

the best answers to prayers are the ones God doesn't answer. — Robin Jones Gunn

Looking back, retrospectively on the events of that evening, I can see the irony - the shrink whose cat ate his own tail. At the time of the incident, however, humor was not in my emotional repertoire; it was the furthest thing from my mind. — Jacqueline Simon Gunn

The world ceased to exist.
She was not a gunn, and he was not a MacKay. They were man and woman. Her thoughts spun. Her emotions whirled... — Victoria Roberts

You have no control over other people's taste, so focus on staying true to your own. — Tim Gunn

I learned early on in teaching how easy it is to hurt a young person and that's never my intention. — Tim Gunn

To cheer myself up, I try to remember the difference between short-term and long-term success. Living a good life and making a real mark on society is a marathon, not a sprint. — Tim Gunn

I believe women do the best womenswear. — Tim Gunn

We learned in the university to consider Wordsworth and Keats as Romantics. They were only a generation apart, but Wordsworth didn't even read Keats's book when he gave him a copy. — Thom Gunn

Empty Spaces

I wanted to feel less.
To not be burdened by emotion,
To not feel sadness,
To not know loss.
I envied the inanimate,
The trees that stand proudly in winter,
Not missing their leaves.
I wanted to be weightless,
To not experience limitation.
I didn't want time to pass,
The blur of days, months, years.
It moved too quickly,
I wanted to grasp on,
Hold it.
It eluded me,
Intangible,
Like light.
I wanted to preserve life before you were gone.
I didn't want to know grief.

But the pain kept me connected.
It meant that I loved you,
It meant that I would always be a little broken,
It meant that our love filled all of the empty spaces.
It meant that you would be with me... forever. — Jacqueline Simon Gunn

Do they think the same way we think - in terms of advantage and disadvantage, in terms of profit and loss, in terms of victory and defeat, in terms of what's in it for me?" MacDonald looked at White much, White thought, as he had been looking at the picture. He shook his head. "They seem very peaceful to me. All of us don't think in terms of advantage, of conflict. Increasingly, I think we become more uncompetitive. And birds always have been a symbol of peace. — James Edwin Gunn

Gunn, like me, has a James Bond obsession. He would love to be James Bond, and it's a great role that I would love to be, someday. — J. August Richards

If you had pockets, you were associated with a labor force. It meant you had things to carry yourself. Otherwise, your lady's maid or your manservant would have done it for you. — Tim Gunn

Life is a big collaboration - and when you're tackling something that is painful and troubling and is causing you such desperate grief that you think life's not worth living - you need to reach out. To people who will reach back. — Tim Gunn

Borrowing from cultures without understanding the fundamentals can yield some pretty weird and wholly illogical perversions. — Tim Gunn

A couple of things for the not-so-diminutive man: avoid any prints that are large scale, because you will look like the print is wearing you, as opposed to you wearing the print. — Tim Gunn

I told them that when you were born, God was so delighted that He sent a hundred angels to kiss you while you were in your mother's arms. Every place where the angels kissed you, they left a tiny dot. That way, if you ever forget how greatly you are loved by God, all you have to do is look at your skin, and you will remember. — Robin Jones Gunn

When the devil comes knocking on your door simply say Jesus, it's for you. — Robin Jones Gunn

They continued to run together for the next thirty minutes. Not a word between them, only the unspoken pulse of the run. Jacob believed runners shared an implicit doctrine: push through the pain to hit a point where it doesn't hurt anymore. — Jacqueline Simon Gunn

Within my heart a garden grows,
wild with violets and fragrant rose.
bright daffodils line the narrow path,
my footsteps silent as i pass.
sweet tulips nod their heads in rest;
i kneel in prayer to seek gods best.
for round my garden a fence stands firm
to guard my heart so i can learn
who should enter, and who should wait
on the other side of my locked gate.
i clasp the key around my neck
and wonder if the time is yet.
if i unlocked the gate today,
would you come in? or run away? — Robin Jones Gunn

We must have tranquillity." "In a technological world," MacDonald said, "change is inevitable. What you must have for tranquillity is reasonable change, manageable change. — James Edwin Gunn

I really cherish having my private time and being alone and being able to decompress. It's my own version of meditating. — Tim Gunn

I believe that it's very important to get to know people with whom you can have a substantive dialogue about design and its development. In addition, read everything about fashion that you can get your hands on. A palpable point of view is what makes a designer, so you need to be confident about yours. — Tim Gunn

America does not seem to remember that it derived its wealth, its values, its food, much of its medicine, and a large part of its "dream" from Native Americans. — Paula Gunn Allen

I really like people who can do both drama and comedy and not some like middle of the road do both drama and comedy. I'm not talking about some guy who does these bland dramedies all the time. I'm talking about people that have done heavy drama and who have done heavy comedy. — James Gunn

I do things like hem a pair of pants, I do my own tailoring but I wouldn't attempt a jacket. — Tim Gunn

Between the time I was 16 until I was about 20, the books I read were by people like Thomas Mann, James Baldwin, Thom Gunn, Elizabeth Bishop. All gay, of course, although I swear I didn't know that at the time. Yet all of them, it turned out, had had a parent who died during their childhood. Sexuality is nothing compared to that. — Colm Toibin

I think most men, heterosexual and homosexual, enjoy being considered sexual objects. — Thom Gunn

Sometimes we have to get out of our own way. — Jacqueline Simon Gunn

When I first started teaching at Berkeley in 1958, I could not announce that I was gay to anybody, though probably quite a few of my fellow teachers knew. — Thom Gunn

It's a little-known linguistic curiosity that the name Jehovah or Jaweh is the same name as Eve; Havva, the counterpart name in Farsi, the language spoken by the Persians, means either Jaweh or Eve. — Paula Gunn Allen

Ginsberg's Collected Poems contains a wonderful poem about making it with Neal Cassady. — Thom Gunn

For many years, Sierra had compared the Holy Spirit to the wind, as it said the the Bible, noting that it was always there, no matter how faint the breeze. The wind went where it wanted to go, and its path was easy to detect because it moved objects and people. But no one had ever seen the wind. — Robin Jones Gunn

Christ! He thought we even have a male stripper. What's he going to do, throw his thong at the vampires? — Derek Gunn

Life is messy. No matter how hard we try to create order, something happens to cause the structure we created to falter. Maybe that's the only way for us to learn. If everything stayed neat and orderly, then we would never be forced to grow and change. We need something unexpected to help us make sense of where we are and to guide us to where we need to go. — Jacqueline Simon Gunn

When I was a kid, I was obsessed with different planets in the solar system, and I used to create, for every single planet, a different alien race with a certain kind of pet, a certain kind of house, a certain kind of water system, and everything. — James Gunn

Love isn't about holding on. It's about letting go. — Jacqueline Simon Gunn

Man is the only animal that strikes his women-folk. — Jeannie Gunn

Hoop Dancer is a rendering of my understanding of the process by which one enters into timelessness
that place where one is whole. — Paula Gunn Allen

The message sent by this policy is that if women are to be accepted into the exclusive ranks of men, then they have to look like men: buttoned up, stuffy, and no-nonsense. As if to show a little cleavage, to highlight a curvaceous figure, or to in any way appear feminine would discount, discredit, and disqualify them.
I strongly disagree with this idea. I feel that women should wear clothes that suit their bodies rather than forcing themselves into unflattering men's suits and that it is feminist to to make a wide range of women's clothes acceptable business attire. — Tim Gunn

Life is a collaboration, it's not a solo act. — Tim Gunn

Gunn would be an important figure-rewarding, delightful, accomplished, enduring-in the history of English-language poetry even were his life not as fascinating as it now seems; he would be an important figure in the history of gay writing and in the history of transatlantic literary relations even were his poetry not so good as it is. With his life as it was and his works as they are, he's an obvious candidate for a volume of retrospective and critical essays, and this one is first-rate. — Stephen Burt

I don't know why I've always been so captivated by architecture. — Tim Gunn

Part of what was in the ether all around me growing up, until I was between 19 and 20, was a terrible, debilitating stutter. It was part of what made me very reclusive as a kid. — Tim Gunn

I try not to observe myself in the process of composing a poem because I don't want to come up with a formula, which I would then be unscrupulous in using. — Thom Gunn

Then Circled by the golden light of God's Presence and His promise, Paul and Sierra walked side by side along the trail that lead tward the campus and on tward their Future — Robin Jones Gunn

Don't get so holy, Pearce. Life isn't holy. — James Edwin Gunn

Whenever people tell me they don't know how to get inspired, I say "What's the matter with you?! I could stay in my apartment and be inspired!" — Tim Gunn

Fred: "Is that brick wall your boyfriend?"
Doug: "Only in my dreams."
Fred: "Oh, you too? I'm Fred."
Doug: "Doug. I should mention, in all fairness though that Christy's boyfriend is my best friend. He's the brick wall you should be worried about. — Robin Jones Gunn

My mom and dad, you're my heart, thank you for keeping me going all these years and never letting me give up. — Anna Gunn

I take it that's where you met Todd.'
'Yep. Almost five years ago. Can you believe it?'
'Five years! You and Todd should be the poster couple for the 'Love Waits' campaign.'
Christy laughed. 'It didn't seem that long. A lot has happened during those five years. But I do agree that true love is worth the wait. I'd wait another five years for Todd if I had to. He's the only man for me. Ever. — Robin Jones Gunn

I've never told anyone this, in an effort to run from my past and disguise it, I got rid of all of the scrapbooks my mother kept going back to when I was a baby. Truly. So that's why whenever talk show hosts or a producer asks for these pictures, there are barely any. My sister had a few, but that's it, and this was before digital. I've never told anyone that, but that's the truth. — Tim Gunn

Trying to figure out a person that you don't know is like foreplay
with no consummation. — Jacqueline Simon Gunn

As kids do, they're smart, and even if parents try to keep things away from them, conflict and issues and whatnot, kids pick up on what's happening. — Anna Gunn

Does a man need to know what a peplum is? Probably not. — Tim Gunn

[T]he one indispensable ingredient of science fiction [is] a belief in a world being changed by man's intellect, a conviction that what was being written could really happen. — James Gunn

Doing as many makeovers as I do, I've learned a few things about what makes women feel better about themselves. The starting point is usually getting a new haircut. I don't want to generalize, because every case is different, but I think it's best to err on the side of styling your hair shorter the older you get. In my opinion, it's generally not a good look for women over thirty to have hair way below their shoulders. — Tim Gunn

Christy said. "It's just weird, your seeing him like that. What are you going to do?"
"Nothing. What can I do?"
"Maybe he'll call you to see if you're okay," Katie said.
"No," Christy said, "in the movies he would have told his friend to stop the car, and he would have run back to you with an umbrella and walked you the rest of the way hoe, and you would have made him a pot of tea."
Sierra laughed. "I am drinking tea right now," she said. "Maybe my life is a low budget 'B' movie, and all I get is the tea. No hero. No umbrella."
"Yeah, well then my life is a class 'Z' movie," Katie said. "No tea. No hero. No umbrella. No plot
"
"Yours is more of a mystery," Christy interrupted cheerfully. "The ending will surprise all of us. — Robin Jones Gunn

If God gave us everything we asked for, we'd be in chaos. — Robin Jones Gunn

But if you, as an independent filmmaker or a 'serious' filmmaker, think you put more love into your characters than the Russo Brothers do Captain America, or Joss Whedon does the Hulk, or I do a talking raccoon, you are simply mistaken. — James Gunn

When someone dies, it's good to mail a note. Don't send an e-mail. You have to send a card. Everyone should have cards and stamps kicking around. I have some very simple stationery, just nice card stock with my name at the top. When the news is happy, e-mail is fine. You can e-mail congratulations about babies, weddings, anything. But when it's not? If it's a death or other bad news, you have to be more formal. — Tim Gunn

I think it's possible to realize you love someone as deeply as you know how to love and not end up spending the rest of your life with him. — Robin Jones Gunn

A literary influence is never just a literary influence. It's also an influence in the way you see everything - in the way you feel your life. — Thom Gunn

Don't give up! You're too talented. You're too good! — Tim Gunn

When it comes to my vocabulary, I felt a responsibility when I was teaching to raise the bar of conversation in my classroom. And with my own students, I refused to let them use the phrase "I like" or "I don't like" when we were engaged in a critique. — Tim Gunn

Nobody's all good or bad, and nobody's all light or dark. Every human being has so many different aspects and facets to them. And there can be something noble and something really dark and dangerous going on in a person all at the same time. — Anna Gunn

I can't imagine a more aesthetically offensive item of footwear than Crocs. That little strap! I shudder.
... I know Crocs are affordable. Well, so are Converse and lots of other brands that don't look like hooves. — Tim Gunn

God giving man life and taking it away is not nearly so bad as God taking away childhood and giving him life. — James Gunn