Vian Quotes & Sayings

By the time Christmas came around, while all the other kids made cards, she had me sit in a corner and face the wall because I wasn't a "believer." (27) — Eddie Huang

Procrastination is a prelude in a minor key. — Boris Vian

Every New Year people get you some presents but your best present you get never changes: Your own existence! It is also your best present to others! — Mehmet Murat Ildan

It's not their fault. It's because they've been taught that 'Work is holy, good and beautiful. It counts above everything else, and the workers alone will inherit the earth.' Only things have been arranged so that they have to spend all their time working and there's no time left for the rest of it to come true. — Boris Vian

Most merciful God, accept these two poor sinners into your arms. And keep the doors ajar for
the coming of the rest of us, because you are witnessing the end, the absolute, irrevocable, fantastic
end. I've finally realized what is happening. It is our last fling. We are doomed henceforth. Must
screw our courage to the sticking point and face up to our impending fate. We [255] shall be all of us
shot at dawn. One hundred cc's apiece. Miss Ratched shall line us all against the wall, where we,,,
face the terrible maw of a muzzle-loading shotgun which she has loaded with Miltowns! Thorazines!
Libriums! Stelazines! And with a wave of her sword, blooie! Tranquilize all of us completely out of
existence. — Ken Kesey

May Knowledge reshape your lives so that your greater destiny may come into view — Marshall Vian Summers

The problem is the following, black music is increasing encumbered by white elements, often pleasant but always superfluous, easily and advantageously replaced with black elements. — Boris Vian

Your giving and searching for ways to give is Love in action. This is the evidence of Spirit at work. — Marshall Vian Summers

You must learn to live with the big questions and wait for the next steps to arise. Only with this patience and perseverance, can Heaven really trust you and rely upon you in the world. Oh my, I have had to wait for so many things! — Marshall Vian Summers

The crews that are going to be self-produced are going to make the great albums, as opposed to making these mix-tapes, these compilations - "Me over this guy" It sounds good individually, but the art of the record is something that is lost. It gets to the point where it's just vocalists and producers coming in and piecing things together. — El-P

There are only two things: love, all sorts of love, with pretty girls, and the music of New Orleans or Duke Ellington. Everything else ought to go, because everything else is ugly. — Boris Vian

Rainy day savings are incredibly important, because from time to time, bad things happen. And if you're not prepared for that, it's going to be really terrible. — Dan Ariely

People don't change. Things do. — Boris Vian

You control an unruly dog with a chain ... or a cage. Never underestimate fear" - Heinrich gestured angrily at Roosevelt - "or the men who would capitalize on it to get what they want." "You are such a pessimist. This is America. Nothing like that could ever happen here. — Larry Correia

To Americans Boris Vian has long been one of the hidden glories of French literature. In I Spit on Your Graves, he wrote an utterly untypical work, a blast from his Id that may well have killed him. Even now, with misogyny disguised as racial justice, its venom remains potent and disturbing, in equal parts appalling and riveting. It is a singular book, not for the squeamish, and not to be passed by. — Jim Krusoe

I've always tried to be conscious of how I represent women in my work. They don't have to be good or strong women, but they have to be complex. — Molly Parker

Les femmes et les hommes ne vivent pas sur le me me plan. Women and men do not live according to the same design. — Boris Vian

Heaven smiles upon those who share its gifts. — Marshall Vian Summers

Husbands and wives fight, and when the wife is packing up, the husband says, 'Don't leave! I'm gonna change!' Marriages stay together because people promise to change. — Jerry Della Femina

I played the trumpet a bit like a porker, I think. — Boris Vian

One ends up relying on pure musical inspiration, and failing that, the music won't lead to anything good, or it will alienate all but the most die-hard fans. — Boris Vian

I can't think of another writer who can move me as surreptitiously as Vian does — Julio Cortazar

We are here for the world, not for our comfort only. — Marshall Vian Summers

Through prayer, charity and humility before God, people receive a heart which is firm and merciful, attentive and generous, a heart which is not closed, indifferent or prey to the globalization of indifference. — Pope Francis

Rien n'est plus parfait, plus acheve qu'un cadavre. Nothing is more perfect, more complete than a corpse. — Boris Vian

Our society has come to adopt many of the draconian measures Orwell
tried to warn us about. Cameras monitor citizens from nearly every street
corner in the United Kingdom, and there are a steadily growing number
of them mounted on traffic lights in America. The fact that Orwell's 1984
remains a part of the required reading curriculum in many high schools
across the country is laughably ironic. What is truly sad is how many readers
acknowledge the brilliant foresight of Orwell yet fail to grasp how closely
present-day America (and England) resemble Winston Smith's Oceania. — Donald Jeffries

I considered the difference between the careful and the spineless, as well as their near equal association to number-jockeys. — B.V. Larson

The three great moments of my life had to be the concerts of Ellington in 1938, Dizzy in '48, and Ella in '52. — Boris Vian

Humor is the politeness of despair. — Boris Vian

- Is it their fault if they think that it's good to work?
- No, said Colin, it's not their fault. It's because they've been told : work is sacred, it's good, it's nice, it's what counts before anything, and only those who work have the right to everything. The only thing is, it's been set up so that they work all the time so they can't take advantage of it.
- But then they're stupid, said Chloe.
- Yes, they're stupid, said Colin. That's why they agree with those that made them believe that work is the best thing there is. That saves them from thinking and finding a way to progress and to no longer work. — Boris Vian

She didn't see him at first. She was watching the dancers. Her color was high, and there were deep dimples at the corners of her mouth. She looked nine miles out of place, but he had never loved her more. This was Willa on the edge of a smile. — Stephen King

Look at The Rock's competition! Look at him! It looks like a big monkey came down here, took a crap, and out came Mankind! — Dwayne Johnson

The first jazz musician was a trumpeter, Buddy Bolden, and the last will be a trumpeter, the archangel Gabriel. — Wynton Marsalis

I'm not interested in the happiness of all men, but only in the happiness of each. — Boris Vian

Faith can move mountains but let them happily fall down on the heads of other people. What's the point in moving mountains when it's so simple to climb over them? — Boris Vian

Of course, it's fun to play with Blacks. — Boris Vian

Nobody knew me at Buckton. Clem had chosen the town because of that; and besides, even if I had wimp out, there was not enough gas to help me going further north. - I spit on your graves , — Boris Vian

Heaven will ask things of you at some point, perhaps small things at first. You must be ready. — Marshall Vian Summers

Les masses ont tort et les individus toujours raison. The masses are wrong; individuals are always right. — Boris Vian

I'm a writer. That's who I am, at my core. I'm a writer, and then I learned production and administration, along the way. I feel like most people can learn it because production and the administration part is all about logic, and it's all about learning rules and budgets. — Ronald D. Moore

You become great aligning yourself to what is great. The reverse is also true. — Marshall Vian Summers