Willingham Quotes & Sayings

Reluctantly he realized some forces could not be conquered and some vengeances can never be sated. — Bill Willingham

My goals have always been to inspire people to be the best they could be, on and off the field. — Tyrone Willingham

What can I say your honor? Life is neither fair nor easy. — Bill Willingham

Hope without direction can all too easily turn into despair. — Bill Willingham

We must understand how we responded to formative trauma and how that response is perpetuated today. Otherwise, we will remain stuck in self-defeating attitudes and behaviors, all the while blaming them on someone else. — Russell Willingham

We live through the belief of children ... Regicide is suicide, citizens. Inscribe that in your hearts. The Great Pretend is a fragile construct. — Bill Willingham

Whether you struggle to remember a client's name, aspire to learn a new language, or are a student battling to prepare for the next test, this book is a must. I know of no other source that pulls together so much of what we know about the science of memory and couples it with practical, practicable advice. — Daniel T. Willingham

The turtle stands on a turtle, which stands on a turtle. That's the universe in whole, boy. It's turtles all the way down. — Bill Willingham

Murderers don't get forgiven just because we promise to be good from now on. We have to earn our way back. One hundred is the price. One hundred lives for each we took. That seems fair. That's how we get whole again and that's our work, from now until as long as it takes. — Bill Willingham

It's certainly a loss for us here at the University of Washington, because Jeff Compher has been a wonderful friend and administrator. Jeff is a football man first, but he has the compassion and desire to make all of Northern Illinois' programs successful. He's one heck of a guy. — Tyrone Willingham

If Todd [Willingham] was guilty of anything, it was just his self-preservation. He got up and ran out of the house and then thought about the children after the fact. — Elizabeth Gilbert

Name the eight men who made the final out in games that sent the Mets to the playoffs. Joe Torre, September 24, 1969. Glenn Beckert, October 1, 1973. Chico Walker, September 17, 1986. Lance Parrish, September 22, 1988. Dmitri Young, October 4, 1999. Keith Lockhart, September 27, 2000. Josh Willingham, September 18, 2006. Jay Bruce, September 26, 2015. — Greg W. Prince

Sometimes impossible things are entirely possible, if there's magic enough in the world. — Bill Willingham

I can see how the authorities could not like Todd [ Willingham], because he's not a person who is going to give you respect if you don't deserve it just because you say something. — Elizabeth Gilbert

You have the power to change your thoughts and your thoughts have the power to change your life. — Ron Willingham

[My friend and I] decided, we'll go to Corsicana, and we'll see what the people in Corsicana say ... We just started meeting people and talking to them, and the more I heard the stories, the more red flags kept popping up. There was this disconnect between this person [Todd Willingham] that I'm reading in the court records, the prosecutor's statements, and this person that I'm learning about. — Elizabeth Gilbert

People are naturally curious, but we are not naturally good thinkers; unless the cognitive conditions are right, we will avoid thinking. — Daniel T. Willingham

Who can gauge all the ways in which the Gods who've created you craft your life? — Bill Willingham

Acquiring true wisdom is always a greater burden than transient pain. — Bill Willingham

Everything seems impossible until you see success. — Ron Willingham

We have to harden our hearts and think of the greater good."
"The plan is, our exposure to her is supposed to purify us. But it seems more like her exposure to us is diminishing her. — Bill Willingham

Every road and every step along it begins with a story. — Bill Willingham

While he lived, entire worlds weren't enough to contain him. Now six good feet of earth are sufficient. — Bill Willingham

I very much use Bill Willingham's approach on 'Fables,' which is that rather than having an end point to a series, I have an end point for the various story lines. — Chris Roberson

It is my fondest desire to bust a host of caps into multitudes of fleshy personages. — Bill Willingham

He's every adventure I ever want to be on — Bill Willingham

I love you, Snow, and have since the hour we first met. Hell, I wanted you even before then. Since before we existed. As if every movement of every star and planet, every tick of creation's clock occurred only so that we could someday find each other. — Bill Willingham

I'm here because all fairy tales take place in the woods, King Cole, even those that don't. — Bill Willingham

Baba Yaga: " ... What are his powers"
Mirror on the wall: "He reads — Bill Willingham

Memory is the residue of thought — Daniel T. Willingham

If they've managed to bring more firepower than us, we deserve to lose. But we aren't going to lose, because we're the Page sisters and we're librarians. — Bill Willingham

No thanks. This is a lovely dream, but it's a child's dream. I know some who'd argue the point, but I grew up long ago. - Rose Red (Fables: Vol.21, Happily Ever After) — Bill Willingham

I have observed several hundred salespeople who were taught to use deceptive practices like 'bait and switch' and encouraged to play negotiation games with customers. They were so stressed by this behavior that they suffered from a high incidence of alcohol and substance abuse, divorce, job-jumping, and low productivity. In the same industry, I have observed countless people who had been taught to sell with high integrity. Ironically, their customer satisfaction, profit margins, and salesperson retention were significantly higher. — Ron Willingham

Todd's mother had several children by different fathers, and Todd [Willingham] had been abandoned in California ... He's a good-looking man. He was a witty man, you know? Funny, caring. He wasn't arrogant, but he was kind of set in his ways. If he thought something, it was one way. You could show him an alternative, but he was still going to stick by his particular view. But I could see how to women he could be a very charming, good-looking guy, especially when he was younger. — Elizabeth Gilbert

Mr Cricket: So what are you going to do?
Rose Red: Fight like a motherfucker, of course. Fight like I've got a chance. Hell if I'm just going to roll over and show throat. — Bill Willingham

When I read the article [in The New Yorker] by David Grann, I was very struck by people responding to the article, of people thinking I was such a hero and what a wonderful person I was, and I didn't feel that at all. I felt like I had very much, like Todd [Willingham], taken a path of self-preservation. — Elizabeth Gilbert

Perhaps only that revenge is ultimately unsatisfying. It cant make up for the evil done to you, but it can destroy the remaining good in your life. — Bill Willingham

I give you real world-changers like Homer, Jack Kirby, and the aforementioned Shakespeare as the archangels of pure story. — Bill Willingham

You might be a wallflower," he agreed, "but there's more to you, isn't there?"
"Why would you say that?"
"In my experience, the quietest women tend to be the most adventurous. There's a wildness that they let no one see. — Michelle Willingham

What are your thoughts on finding Rose a husband? She said something about a Lord Burkham." Her smile faded. "The viscount is not right for Rose." With a dismissive gesture, she added, "He would bore her within a year." Good, Iain thought. He was glad to hear it. Though he supposed he had no right to feel possessive of Rose, he couldn't deny that her kiss had affected him. It had been an impulse, misguided by the need to touch a beautiful woman. The moment he'd tasted her lips, he'd known how forbidden this was. And perhaps that was why the memory lingered. But more than that, he liked Rose. She had wit and humor that made her easy to be around. He genuinely wanted to help her walk again, though he knew how difficult it would be. Every time she stood, her face brightened with such joy and wonder, he felt the echo of pride in her accomplishment. Being around her made him feel that he could have a purpose, and she had never once made him feel inferior. "What — Michelle Willingham

Freedom is sloppy. But since tyranny's the only guaranteed byproduct of those who insist on a perfect world, freedom will have to do. — Bill Willingham

You get paid consistent with your ability to solve problems. — Ron Willingham

Stories create stories, create stories, create stories, or nothing gets done. — Bill Willingham

Our fictions move us to do great things, things worth doing for no better reason than there's poetry in us. We dream before we do. — Bill Willingham

Just having walked into a prison environment, sat there for two hours, the effect that it had on me ... I couldn't imagine the effect it would have on a person 24 hours a day. So then I became more intrigued, and we began a correspondence, and I began visiting [Todd Willingham]. — Elizabeth Gilbert

As you understand the game of football, you understand that it is about wins and losses. — Tyrone Willingham

Yes, and our kid brother Superhero has died so many times that the readers barely even notice anymore. — Bill Willingham

I promised Todd [Willingham] that I would attend the execution ... It was impossible for me to go. I was incapable of that sort of travel. Sitting in a chair that long, driving to Huntsville just wouldn't have happened ... I'm sure I would have been there. It's something I know. I would not have denied him that, but the accident kept me from being there. At some level, the universe was giving me the excuse for not being there ... The universe was like, "Oh, you don't have to watch this." ... It would have been a horrible thing, but I'm sure I would have gone. — Elizabeth Gilbert

It took 17 years to get 'Rambling Rose' made from the time Calder Willingham wrote the script adapted from his novel. Ed Scherick, the producer, was interested in it. Martha Coolidge was interested in directing it. — Diane Ladd

One thing I have finally gotten through my thick skull: Anyone looking for love is also looking for trouble. — Bill Willingham

I will not rule out anything. I don't speculate on my own future. I'll wait and see what happens. — Tyrone Willingham

As a matter of fact, there is still a lot of light at the end of the tunnel. We just have to find a way to get to it. — Tyrone Willingham

Years ago, when I was (at Stanford), you had maybe one or two teams
at one time I was part of one of those teams
you didn't have to worry about, ... Now it's not that way in the conference. A lot of the teams that were once at the bottom kind of have their games together and are making their way to the top. — Tyrone Willingham

It's a tough thing having to step aside for a friend, when your heart's breaking and your nether parts are still tangled up in their base desires. — Bill Willingham

Hope isn't destiny. Left passive its nothing more than disappointment deferred — Bill Willingham

I was just really appalled, and I really kept quiet until I saw the governor [Rick Perry] get on and repeat the same words that the prosecution had used in the penalty phase: that he [Todd Willingham] was a monster. And that got me to get on to the computer and connect with some of the media and say: "I have his letters. He wasn't a monster. He was a caring individual." Let them see another side. — Elizabeth Gilbert

But sometimes a giant heart can live in a tiny body. — Bill Willingham

A salesperson's ethics and values contribute more to sales success than do techniques or strategies. — Ron Willingham

I'm about to start reading it again, because what good is a story you only want to read once? — Bill Willingham

Hope has power only when married to personal action. — Bill Willingham

Someone asked me if I would like to write a man on death row, be a pen pal, and I was like, sure. I volunteered. I had been in a place in my life - a relationship had ended; my parents were getting elderly - I was kind of adrift. The name that was given to me, just randomly, was Todd Willingham. And he wrote me a letter, and in this letter, he thanked me for writing him and [said that] if I would like to visit, he would put me on his visitor list ... I was just really struck by the letter from Todd. It was very polite; it was very kind. — Elizabeth Gilbert

One of the advantages of
of this
is that dying men are allowed complete and brutal candor. — Bill Willingham

When it seemed like I was going to really have to be there at Todd's [Willingham] execution, I don't think I could have done it. I think I began to distance myself. I didn't visit as often; I didn't write as often. This was kind of after my conversation with [fire science expert] Gerald Hurst. And the [car] accident made sure that I didn't have to go up there. But I think he and I both shared that. — Elizabeth Gilbert

We tell stories to live, to love, to prosper and to fail. — Bill Willingham

Nothing like a good war to forget a night of exquisite soul-killing humiliation. — Bill Willingham

Oh, don't mind Humpty. He's inhaled a hell of a lot of super-glue. — Bill Willingham

Writers never really like each other anyway. Our insecurities get in the way. — Bill Willingham

Though Women's Studies was supposed to give a voice to "silenced" women, all too many women who dissent from its orthodoxy have themselves felt silenced by intolerant professors - and students, too. Indeed, while some (generally tenured) older professors like Willingham do dare to challenge Women's Studies dogma, younger initiates, whether students or greenhorn instructors, often act as fierce enforcers of dogma, reiterating it (as did Tholen and Alder at the Beijing +15 session) with all the zeal of fresh converts to a fundamentalist faith and bristling at any violation of Holy Writ. Patai and Koertge quote professors who complain about students being "zombified" by Women's Studies, turned into "ideologically inflamed Stepford Wives" who "utter ... stock phrases" and are plainly "terrified of a thought because if they ever had a serious thought, they might start reflecting on this stuff they're taught to repeat. — Bruce Bawer

Baba Yaga: I've never heard of such a creature. What are his powers?
Magic Mirror: He reads. He reads everything. — Bill Willingham

The fact that I let you back into my bed is the proof that I've hit rock bottom. — Bill Willingham

Those who can really do what they promise don't first pause to promise what they can do. — Bill Willingham

Different rules apply to those who shake the worlds. — Bill Willingham

Isn't there a statute of limitation on playing the poor abused victim? — Bill Willingham

The story he [Todd Willingham] told me was this: He woke up to a fire. He ran out of the house and couldn't run back in to save his children, and that was enough to get me interested ... There's a writer in me that's like, ... this is a great story ... I have a good friend, who was my neighbor at the time, and I told her about it ... She had been a reporter, and she was like, "Let's go investigate it." — Elizabeth Gilbert

Only silly Dorothys arrive in a magical land and want to go home. You don't want to be a silly stinking Dorothy, do you? They're reviled throughout every wondrous land. Did you know the name Dorothy translates as "squandered opportunity"? — Bill Willingham