Cate Marvin Quotes

When asked what I'd be if I weren't a writer, I'm tempted to respond with one of father's favorite phrases, one I despised while growing up: "I hate 'what-ifs.'" ~ Cate Marvin

Place is extremely important to my work because I am always pulling landscape imagery into my poems. ~ Cate Marvin

I am like a table
that eats its own legs off
because it's fallen
in love with the floor. ~ Cate Marvin

Confessional poetry is, to my mind, more slippery than poems that are sloppily autobiographical; I find the confessional mode much more akin to dramatic monologue. ~ Cate Marvin

I place a lot of emphasis on process and revision because I believe that all of my students can become better writers through hard work. ~ Cate Marvin

We lay our words like tenuous plats, build a bridge over its
unsinkable depth: Not a sea of longing,
but the brack of wanting what's physical
to help us forget we are physical. ~ Cate Marvin

Some poems take two to three years to finish. Rarely, a poem will arrive whole. It's nice when that happens. However, process has become so grueling for me over the past few years that when one of my students uses the word "inspiration" I practically shriek with laughter. ~ Cate Marvin

I encourage my students to be honest in their assessment of both the published work we read and the work of their classmates. I think there's always the occasion for discussing elements of craft, whether the student's poem is terrible or quite wonderful. ~ Cate Marvin

One of the reasons poetry is such an amazing genre to work with is because it constantly reinvents itself and re-negotiates its terms with the reader. ~ Cate Marvin

I prefer poems that occupy an imaginative sphere. When I lived in Cincinnati, I was occasionally referred to as an "Ohio Poet;" this made me uneasy, not only because I think of myself as a generally American poet but also because I like to think I write out of the country of my own mind. ~ Cate Marvin

I've just always loved animals. So I've often thought that if I weren't a writer I'd work for some nonprofit organization that does something positive for animals. ~ Cate Marvin

Because I wake up late, my day is often short. I'm much more active in the evenings, during which I alternately read, write, needle-point, smoke, email, and despair over my decision last June to put my television and DVD player out on the street because I wasn't getting enough work done. ~ Cate Marvin

When fiction writers like my poems I feel like I've hit the jackpot. ~ Cate Marvin

To think of writing poetry as a "career" is not only ridiculous, it's dangerous. To the imagination. To the way one thinks of art. The reason poetry as a genre is so special is because it cannot be made a commodity. ~ Cate Marvin

I like it when poems are challenging, when they concern matters important and personal to the author. ~ Cate Marvin

The cool thing about having a book is that it takes on its own life. Once it's in the world, you can't follow it. You'd have to have a pretty fantastic surveillance system to track its migration. ~ Cate Marvin

I love teaching poetry writing. Students come into the class thinking poetry has to be one way, then leave having created pieces that are wholly original, that have - quite literally - never been made before. ~ Cate Marvin

I think that's what I love about my life. There's no maniacal master plan. It's just unfolding before me. ~ Cate Blanchett

When somebody wants to write an article attacking a scoring system or the influence of wine writers, who's right in the cross hairs? It's not Steve Tanzer, it's not Marvin Shanken, it's me. These other people, it's not like they don't have some influence, and I'm more than happy to share it. ~ Robert M. Parker, Jr.

Satan is ever present, trying to destroy our glory and remove our crown. One of his most powerful tools is discouragement. Don't let your discouragement make Satan rejoice. ~ Marvin J. Ashton

LOUIS SACHAR is the author of the New York Times #1 bestseller Holes, winner of the Newbery Medal, the National Book Award, and the Christopher Award. He is also the author of Stanley Yelnats' Survival Guide to Camp Green Lake; Small Steps, winner of the Schneider Family Book Award; and The Cardturner, a Publishers Weekly Best Book, a Parents' Choice Gold Award recipient, and an ALA-YALSA Best Fiction for Young Adults book. His books for younger readers include There's a Boy in the Girls' Bathroom, The Boy Who Lost His Face, Dogs Don't Tell Jokes, and the Marvin Redpost series, among many others. ~ Louis Sachar

'Marvin Gaye' came about my first day in L.A. It was kind of crazy that that's my first song that I wrote and it blew up that much. What's crazy is the next day I wrote 'See You Again,' so that's pretty interesting. I was trying to prove myself as a songwriter. ~ Charlie Puth

Epidemics historically have tended to kill the very young and the very old, but AIDS is different: Those ages 20 to 40 are most affected, which means that so far over 12 million African children have been orphaned because of AIDS. ~ Marvin Olasky

What?" I wanted to climb him like a tree. ~ Cate Tiernan

War is not the answer, for only love can conquer hate ~ Marvin Gaye

I started out doing commercials, like Diet Coke and Pizza Hut. And I started to find there was a different life for me, in a different field. From there, I got a call from a director in Italy, and we did 'Indio' I and II, and that's where it started. ~ Marvin Hagler

more second of her life to revenge. He was nothing to her now. "Are we really going to do this?" Saskia asked, getting excited. ~ Cate Farren

Charter hired me - which, to be honest, took some humility on its part, since I have helped lead public campaigns against cable companies like Charter - to advise it in crafting its commitment to network neutrality. ~ Marvin Ammori

Marvin bongo drums and a piano and some grass ~ Charles Bukowski

Marvin Miller, I suspect, is the most effective union organizer since John L. Lewis. ~ Studs Terkel

I have a policy about that word "soul." It is strictly prohibited except in cases of converstations having to do with okra recipes or Marvin Gaye. ~ Sarah Vowell

The difference between those who are committed and those who are not is the difference between the words want and will. ~ Marvin J. Ashton

I turned off the griddle and shoved the heavy platter at Ottavio. "Carry these in for me, willya, Ott? And the ones on top are for you."
[ ... ]
The pancakes on top had been shaped like a certain part of the male anatomy that seemed synonymous with Ottavio, to my way of thinking. ~ Cate Tiernan

It would be as useless to perceive how things 'actually look' as it would be to watch the random dots on untuned television screens. ~ Marvin Minsky

Some of us are inclined to look to the weaknesses and shortcomings of others in order to expand our own comfort zone. ~ Marvin J. Ashton

Experience has shown that science frequently develops most fruitfully once we learn to examine the things that seem the simplest, instead of those that seem the most mysterious. ~ Marvin Minsky

Undoubtedly our Heavenly Father tires of expressions of love in words only. He has made it clear through his prophets and his word that his ways are ways of commitment, and not conversation. He prefers performance over lip service. We show our true love for him in proportion to our keeping his words ... ~ Marvin J. Ashton

Yes, word had gotten around about my amusing little defeathering trick (note: made the chicken naked). Apparently we couldn't just eat the poor thing and be done with it. Apparently we had to knit cunning lil' sweaters for it so it could squawk around the yard, feeling fancy. ~ Cate Tiernan

What happens a lot in film, though not so much in the theatre, is that you get stroked and sort of massaged, like a little guinea pig. ~ Cate Blanchett

Marvin Gaye is one of my favorite revolutionaries. He spoke from his heart, his mind. That's what I want to do. ~ Erykah Badu

I cannot articulate enough to express my dislike to people who think that understanding spoils your experience ... How would they know? ~ Marvin Minsky

I love dressing up, although that doesn't mean necessarily on the school run. ~ Cate Blanchett

Imagine what it would be like if TV actually were good. It would be the end of everything we know. ~ Marvin Minsky

What magical trick makes us intelligent? The trick is that there is no trick. The power of intelligence stems from our vast diversity, not from any single, perfect principle. ~ Marvin Minsky

According to the dictionary, knock has two definitions: "to strike something with a sharp blow," and "to find fault with, a harsh and often petty criticism." Perhaps in human relationships both of these meanings could apply. Almost all men will respond to sincere praise and rebel at harsh and cutting criticisms. ~ Marvin J. Ashton

There are very important and practical issues raised by following this alternative route which says, let's look to material conditions, to the systems of production, to the needs that human beings have, and to competing alternative solutions to the satisfaction of those needs. ~ Marvin Harris

I have been singing gospel music since I was four years old. ~ Marvin Sapp

Well, we have got to understand, for example, Russia is an orthodox Christian nation. So is Ukraine. That happened in 988 in Crimea, a place called Kievan Rus, which was the Russia around Kiev at that time. It's 1,000 years ago, but, to a Russian, it's yesterday. ~ Marvin Kalb

Kubrick's vision seemed to be that humans are doomed, whereas Clarke's is that humans are moving on to a better stage of evolution. ~ Marvin Minsky

General fiction is pretty much about ways that people get into problems and screw their lives up. Science fiction is about everything else. ~ Marvin Minsky

I would love to play Janis Gaye in the Marvin Gaye story. If they ever do the Marvin Gaye story, I would love to play Janis - just throwing that out there. ~ Lauren London

A willingness to practice patience. Patience in communication is that certain ingredient of conduct we hope others will exhibit toward us when we fail to measure up. Our own patience is developed when we are patient with others. ~ Marvin J. Ashton

Perhaps the greatest charity comes when we are kind to each other, when we don't judge or categorize someone else, when we simply give each other the benefit of the doubt or remain quiet. Charity is accepting someone's differences, weaknesses, and shortcomings; having patience with someone who has let us down; or resisting the impulse to become offended when someone doesn't handle something the way we might have hoped. Charity is refusing to take advantage of another's weakness and being willing to forgive someone who has hurt us. Charity is expecting the best of each other.

None of us need one more person bashing or pointing out where we have failed or fallen short. Most of us are already well aware of the areas in which we are weak. What each of us does need is family, friends, employers, and brothers and sisters who support us, who have the patience to teach us, who believe in us, and who believe we're trying to do the best we can, in spite of our weaknesses. What ever happened to giving each other the benefit of the doubt? What ever happened to hoping that another person would succeed or achieve? What ever happened to rooting for each other? ~ Marvin J. Ashton

We as preachers/teachers/pastors have to figure out things to do in order to garner the attention of individuals and also keep them at our churches by making sure that we reinvent ourselves on a consistent basis. ~ Marvin Sapp

He had also jinxed my telescope so that every time I looked at Mars, Marvin the Martian popped up and threatened to destroy the Earth with an explosive space-modulator. ~ Jim C. Hines

Blessed is he or she who avoids being offended. ~ Marvin J. Ashton

I was always a fan of the great old spaghetti Westerns, the Sergio Leone films. But the one that always sticks with me, that I just thought was brilliant and perfect is "Cat Ballou." Lee Marvin in "Cat Ballou." ~ Johnny Depp

There's very little reason in politics these days. ~ Cate Blanchett

I hate that door," continued Marvin. "I'm not getting you down at all, am I? ~ Douglas Adams

When you're directing something, you absolutely have to be involved in all layers of the process. ~ Cate Blanchett

Look, I live in the modern world as much as anyone else. ~ Cate Blanchett

God grant to all of us the power and strength to be people of integrity, and the insight and wisdom to avoid being led into the snares of the dishonest. ~ Marvin J. Ashton

Planning cities is a necessary but risky business. ~ Cate Blanchett

War is not the answer, because only love can conquer hate. ~ Marvin Gaye

We've enshrined the purity, sanctity, value, and importance of bringing children into the world, yet we don't discuss death. There used to be an enshrined period where mourning was a necessary part of going through the process of grieving; death wasn't considered morbid or antisocial. But that's totally gone. ~ Cate Blanchett

Adversity will surface in some form in every life. How we prepare for it, how we meet it, makes the difference. We can be broken by adversity, or we can become stronger. The final result is up to the individual'. ~ Marvin J. Ashton