Durham Quotes

Miscommunication is the scandal that motivates the very concept of communication in the first place. ~ John Durham Peters

She sat, rediscovering the fullness of her first tongue in one long submersion. Again and again she would pause on a word Melio uttered. She would roll it around in her mind, feeling the contours of it. At times her mouth gaped open, her lips moving as if she were drinking in his words instead of breathing. ~ David Anthony Durham

I did a show called 'Wonderland' a few years back, and I was fortunate enough to spend a full-on two weeks - I'm talking 13-15 hours a day - with the doctors and patients at Bellevue in New York. That served me well for 'Durham County.' ~ Michelle Forbes

Who can explain just how he became the person he is? It does not happen this day or that one. It is a gradual evolution that happens largely unheralded. He simply was who he now was. ~ David Anthony Durham

My family's support and the negative environment of the day toward blacks in South Carolina became the forces that led me out of the South - first to New York, then to Philadelphia, where I found opportunity in the form of a PAL gym and my trainer, Yank Durham. ~ Joe Frazier

To fatten a pig, a farmer will feed him well. The pig must think his life a paradise, never knowing he gorges himself so that he will be fatter for the knife later on. ~ David Anthony Durham

One of the greatest gifts that God has given us is free will. Even though it's free, we don't take advantage of it as much as we could when it comes to matters of the heart. ~ Niecy Nash

Sometimes a strikeout means that the slugger's girlfriend just ran off with the UPS driver. Sometimes a muffed ground ball means that the shortstop's baby daughter has a pain in her head that won't go away. And handicapping is for amateur golfers, not ballplayers. Pitchers don't ease off on the cleanup hitter because of the lumps just discovered in his wife's breast. Baseball is not life. It is a fiction, a metaphor. And a ballplayer is a man who agrees to uphold that metaphor as though lives were at stake.

Perhaps they are. I cherish a theory I once heard propounded by G.Q. Durham that professional baseball is inherently antiwar. The most overlooked cause of war, his theory runs, is that it's so damned interesting. It takes hard effort, skill, love and a little luck to make times of peace consistently interesting. About all it takes to make war interesting is a life. The appeal of trying to kill others without being killed yourself, according to Gale, is that it brings suspense, terror, honor, disgrace, rage, tragedy, treachery and occasionally even heroism within range of guys who, in times of peace, might lead lives of unmitigated blandness. But baseball, he says, is one activity that is able to generate suspense and excitement on a national scale, just like war. And baseball can only be played in peace. Hence G.Q.'s thesis that pro ball-players - little as some of them may want to hear it - are basically just a bunch of unusually well-coordinated guys working ~ David James Duncan

Observe the great Advantage and Benefit, the Privilege and Prerogative that Christ's Servants have beyond all others; Christ writes his Letters to them; there is not a word written to Kings and great Men; but it is to shew his Servants things to come to pass ~ James Durham

Courtney Durham was molested in a cake shop today. ~ Eric Bishop-Potter

Very little of what he learned of people's actions began or ended with either the noble ideals or the fiendish wickedness he had been taught lay behind all great struggles. There was something comforting in this. ~ David Anthony Durham

Scourge of the Betrayer is as harsh and profane as anything RichardK Morgan or Joe Abercrombie serves up. Fortunately, Saylards has the skills -and the humor - to pull it off. Snappy dialogue, political intrigue, shadycharacters, gripping action sequences, a poor guy that has no idea what he'sgotten himself into ... Yeah, there's a lot to like about this debut. ~ David Anthony Durham

Sometimes when I've got a baseball player alone, I'll just read Emily Dickinson or Walt Whitman to him. And the guys are so sweet, they always stay and listen. Course, a guy'll listen to anything if he thinks its foreplay. ~ Ron Shelton

Schopenhauer remarked that buying books would be better if you could also buy the time to read them. Books are different from natural objects in that they can overwhelm us in a way that nature's abundance rarely does. There has always been too much to know; the universe is thoroughly baffling. When we walk into a bookstore, it is easy to feel oppressed by the amount of knowledge on tap. Why don't we have the same feeling in a forest, at the beach, in a big city, or simply in breathing? There is more going on in our body every second than we will ever understand, and yet we rarely feel bothered by our inability to know it all. Books, however, are designed to make demands on our attention and time: they hail us in ways that nature rarely does. A thing is what Heidegger calls zunichtsgedrängt, relaxed and bothered about nothing. A plant or stone is as self-sufficient as the Aristotelian god or Heidegger's slacker things, but books are needy. They cry out for readers as devils hunger for souls. ~ John Durham Peters

I'm very, very lucky to be a working actor, but I've also been careful. I don't just take anything. 'Durham County' came to me. You have to look at the quality of work you do, and 'Durham' set the standard. I wait for things that keep me really interested. ~ Hugh Dillon

The moment you begin to consider having more than someone else, you begin to fear you might end up with less than someone else. ~ David Anthony Durham

When she spread her wings and leaped screeching into the air she had not the slightest doubt that every hand below her would stretch to catch her. And if one could leap from a height with no fear of falling, could one not be said to possess the secret of flight? Just like a bird, just like a god. ~ David Anthony Durham

I have been known on occasion to howl at the moon. ~ Crash Davis

They are strewn with the wreckage of dead Empires-past Powers only the Albanian "goes on for ever." ~ Edith Durham

The happiest moments of my childhood were spent on my grandmother's front porch in Durham, N.C., or at her sister's farmhouse in Orange County, where chickens paraded outside the kitchen's screen door and hams were cured in the smokehouse. ~ Andre Leon Talley

For the past thirty-nine years since I had graduated from college, I had called my parents on Sundays. They had expected and looked forward to the ritual. After Dad died, I still called Mom on Sundays. Most of the time I dreaded the call because she had become more and more insular and was full of complaints about the assisted living facility, the other residents, her health, everything. She had become narrow in her interests in life, more negative, more critical, and unhappier. I was reminded of something I had heard from a psychologist about what happens as we age. He said we become more of who we are, not less. Our energy to fight back the negative attributes we all possess is not as strong as we get older. So we can become more cantankerous, more irritable. I also remembered what my father had often said: "There but for the grace of God go I." That Sunday I placed the ~ Janis Heaphy Durham

What's this thing?" The boss looked at the package with rolling eyes.

"We don't know. It was left in the bin outside."

"We answered a call on the desk phone and we were told to go look outside in the bin, the voice said."

The boss looked at the shit standing by the chair.

"You answering calls now? Thought you two should be working along side Ritterman?" He looked at Ritterman.

"I told them to man the phone." Said Ritterman.

" Ritterman. These two are new detectives who need experience. I said take `em with you, always."

"First they need to learn the basics of handling strange objects." Ritterman held up his hands.

"Don't do anything without a pair of these." He waived his hands like a singer on stage. The two shit heads looked embarrassed.

"Anyway, what? Who's gonna open this and find out what's inside? Ritterman?" Asked the boss.

"Boss, maybe we should hand it over to forensic first and they can test it for substance. Before any of us get some horrible shit on our hands. ~ Sean P. Durham

In his Kingly Office, The Prince of the Kings of the Earth: which Title sets out Christ not only to be God, equal with the Father, but as Mediator, King of his Kirk. He is called, Prince of the Kings of the Earth; not as if Kings, and all great Men, or others, were in the same Manner Subjects to him in the Relation that Believers are, (in which respect his Kingly Office extendeth no further, nor his Priestly and Prophetical Office) but though so he have not such a near Relation to them, nor they to him; yet he is King over them, to refrain them that they prejudge not his Kirk; and to judge them for any Wrongs or Prejudice they do to them, and to inflict temporal Judgments on them here, and eternal hereafter, when he shall be their Judge, and the Books shall be opened at the great Day. ~ James Durham

The economic hardship of my family and of many others, a century ago, was caused by a monopoly, the American Tobacco Company, which had eliminated all competitors and thus was able to reduce as it pleased the prices it paid to farmers. The American Tobacco Company was the work of James B. Duke of Durham, North Carolina, and New York City, who, disregarding any other consideration, followed a capitalist logic to absolute control of his industry and, incidentally, of the economic fate of thousands of families such as my own. ~ Wendell Berry

We have come to this earth upon a mission ... that we may have power to go forth and warn the nations of the earth ... As elders of Israel, very few of us fully comprehend our position, our calling, our relationship to God, our responsibility, or work the Lord requires at our hands ~ G. Homer Durham

No one stops to question why boys are never the objects of the gaze; why, if being on display is so empowering, males don't embrace this form of sexual expression, too. ~ Meenakshi Gigi Durham

Revenge is the easiest of emotions to understand and to manipulate. ~ David Anthony Durham

He wrote: 'We make ourselves real by telling the truth ~ Geoffrey Durham

This really isn't fair," Mena said. "What is 'fair'?" asked one of the watchers called Devoth. "I don't know this word. ~ David Anthony Durham

House Rule Number One: Don't stop, talk or questions ask, beware of men wearing masks.

House Rule Number Two: He may run and he may hide, but Shady must never go outside.

House Rule Number Three: Lock your door with the Black Moon's rise, don't come out until morning shines.

House Rule Number Four: Worn under sun and under moon, never remove the O'Chanters' rune.

House Rule Number Five: If four fails and the bogs again crawl, don't break one, break them all. ~ Paul Durham

Durham Cathedral, like all great buildings of antiquity, is essentially just a giant pile of rubble held in place by two thin layers of dressed stone. But - and here is the truly remarkable thing - because that gloopy mortar was contained between two impermeable outer layers, air couldn't get to it, so it took a very long time - forty years to be precise - to dry out. As it dried, the whole structure gently settled, which meant that the cathedral masons had to build doorjambs, lintels, and the like at slightly acute angles so that they would ease over time into the correct alignments. And that's exactly what happened. After forty years of slow-motion sagging, the building settled into a position of impeccable horizontality, which it has maintained ever since. To me, that is just amazing - the idea that people would have the foresight and dedication to ensure a perfection that they themselves might never live to see. ~ Bill Bryson

She said, A king is the best and worst of men. Of course. Of course. ~ David Anthony Durham

He never even thought of tenderness and emotion; his considerations about Durham remained cold. Durham didn't dislike him, he was sure. That was all he wanted. One thing at a time. He didn't so much as have hopes, for hope distracts, and he had a great deal to see to. ~ E. M. Forster

I've been out on the book tour going through Pittsburgh, St Louis and Cleveland, Dayton and Orlando, Raleigh-Durham. I sign many books for people. ~ Jamie Farr

John's bearing record, points out his faithfulness according to the Charge and Commission given him; what is given him to deliver, he keeps not up; what he receives in charge, he discharges. ~ James Durham

It would have been fun to have played Tim Robbins' role in Bull Durham. ~ Garth Brooks

Zachary Jernigan can't write a bad story. He couldn't even if he tried. Each and every time I start one of his inventive, carefully crafted, thoughtful and mind-bending tales I know I'm in for a treat. This collection is sci-fi at its intelligent best. ~ David Anthony Durham

I knew you read the Symposium in the vac," he said in a low voice.
Maurice felt uneasy.
"Then you understand - without me saying more - "
"How do you mean?"
Durham could not wait. People were all around them, but with eyes that had gone intensely blue he whispered, "I love you. ~ E. M. Forster

long, pointed nose jutted forth from its cheeks, its face more leather than stone. Like a mask. Rye did not come from a home with many rules, but the ones she lived by were absolute and unbreakable. The first House Rule flashed through her mind. HOUSE ~ Paul Durham

Do not underestimate me. If you wish to stop, then stop, but you committed yourself to blows when you made your way into the room." ~Serra Bloodmoon, Never Trust a Sorcerer ~ L.R. Barrett-Durham

She would never be caught unprepared again, she swore to herself. She would never trust. Never love. Never put faith in other human beings again. She would learn all she could of the shape and substance of the world, and she would find a way to survive in it. ~ David Anthony Durham

It is a paradox that men will gladly devote time every day for many years to learn a science or an art; yet will expect to win a knowledge of the gospel, which comprehends all sciences and arts, through perfunctory glances at books or occasional listening to sermons. The gospel should be studied more intensively than any school or college subject. They who pass opinion on the gospel without having given it intimate and careful study are not lovers of truth, and their opinions are worthless. ~ G. Homer Durham

Before her, with sharp blue eyes and perfectly coiffed blond hair, was Josephine Marie Elizabeth Cavendish, Her Grace, the Duchess of Durham, widow of the fifth duke, and aunt to the Cavendish siblings.
One did not call her Josie. Amelia had asked. ~ Maya Rodale

And as for other men, who worked in tank-rooms full of steam, and in some of which there were open vats near the level of the floor, their peculiar trouble was that they fell into the vats; and when they were fished out, there was never enough of them left to be worth exhibiting,-sometimes they would be overlooked for days, till all but the bones of them had gone out into the world as Durham's Pure Leaf Lard! This contributed to the passing of the Pure Food Act of 1906. ~ Upton Sinclair

Now here we are, smiling, all that stuff behind us, slates clean, fresh air, ready to laugh over new jokes. ~ Gabe Durham

It's a mass agitation of ambitious cocks! ~ David Anthony Durham

Did you know that more than 65% of the people who label themselves "born again Christians" seldom or never read the Bible? Of those who do read the Bible, did you know that the majority only read it during church or organized group Bible studies? ~ James A. Durham

Respect flows two ways and can mean as much to the giver as to the one receiving. ~ David Anthony Durham

A woman's greatest knack is how well she can hide how much sleep she's been missing. There's a little tally board inside each of us labeled, "Number of days since someone has told me I look tired" that resets itself whenever we make the mistake of looking like we feel. And the alternative? Even if you fulfill obligations, party like you mean it, and somehow get your sleep, your decisions will be too well-informed to be spontaneous. You'll never be susceptible to life. ~ Gabe Durham

I played the cello from when I was ten, and then I bought a guitar from the father of some friends of mine and played that for a while. And then when I was fourteen or so, I bought a guitar - a real nice one - in Durham, North Carolina, that I worked with up until I was about twenty-five. ~ James Taylor

She realized that she had naïvely believed that the workings of the world revolved around her and her family. Never before had she acknowledged that somebody else's life might alter hers. ~ David Anthony Durham

I assure you, Miss Durham, there is always recourse. Consequence is a faithful companion in all deeds, whether good or bad, and it can teach us like nothing can to change our ways when we have done wrong. Besides, if there is no repentance, then what was the point of God's great sacrifice?" "I do not know," she answered ~ V.R. Christensen

She was a nightmare of beauty and menace living right there above them, a being part raptor, part human, part divine. She knew without question that she could sweep down on them and inflict upon all of them a terrible vengeance if she wished. She had the capacity for violence within her, residing beside her heart. ~ David Anthony Durham

Dwarves are sequential hermaphroditic parthenogens," Ruby said, anticipating his question.

"What?"

"They can change back and forth from male to female and are capable of fertilizing themselves to make more dwarves. They exhibit what we regard as male characteristics, typically, but some favor a more feminine approach."

Durham sat with his mouth hanging open. Ruby poked him in the tongue with her quill feather making him gag and sputter.

"So, Ginny is, what, short for Regina? Virginia?"

"I rather think it's long to 'Gin'," Ruby answered. "She's head of hazard team and Thud's second."

"So, the changing sex thing. How does that work? Does it take a while or is it the sort of thing that might happen in the middle of a conversation?"

"Hard to say," Ruby said. "Does she need to clear her throat or did she just become a male? Is he just pausing for thought or did he just impregnate himself mid-sentence?" She shrugged. "Dwarf physiology isn't really my field."

"Is there an easy way to tell?"

"Which sex a dwarf is at the moment? Not that I'm aware of but I haven't managed to think of a situation where it would matter, either, so I've not dwelt on it much. ~ Jeffery Russell

If you can find a man sold out to God, you can rest assured he'll always treat you with the dignity, respect, and love you deserve. ~ Cassandra Durham

Peter Lucas and I live in Durham but spend a great of time in North Wales, where we have a cottage in the mountains, and in Vermont, USA, with my sister - who is a children's writer married to a poet. ~ Anne Stevenson

Imagine, they said, living an existence where the words out of your mouth changed the very fabric of the world around you. ~ David Anthony Durham

If only we were angels, with transparent bodies and transparent thoughts ... ~ John Durham Peters

They fed him a diet made up entirely of knowledge. ~ David Anthony Durham

Everyone always wants to talk about 'True Blood' and 'Battlestar Galactica' - no one's even interested in 'Durham County.' It blew my mind when I came to Canada and no one asked me about the show. So many people didn't even know about it. They didn't even know it was on the air! It's very curious to me. ~ Michelle Forbes

We really are 15 countries, and it's remarkable that each of us thinks we represent the real America. The Midwesterner in Kansas, the black American in Durham - both are certain they are the real American. ~ Maya Angelou

Nor could I fail to recall my friendship with Howard K. Beale, professor of American History at the University of North Carolina. There he was, one day in 1940, standing just outside my room in the men's dormitory at St. Augustine's, in his chesterfield topcoat, white silk scarf, and bowler hat, with his calling card in hand, perhaps looking for a silver tray in which to drop it. Paul Buck, whom he knew at Harvard, had told him to look me up. He wanted to invite me to his home in Chapel Hill to have lunch or dinner and to meet his family. From that point on we saw each other regularly.
After I moved to Durham, he invited me each year to give a lecture on "The Negro in American Social Thought" in one of his classes. One day when I was en route to Beale's class, I encountered one of his colleagues, who greeted me and inquired where I was going. I returned the greeting and told him that I was going to Howard Beale's class to give a lecture. After I began the lecture I noticed that Howard was called out of the class. He returned shortly, and I did not give it another thought. Some years later, after we both had left North Carolina, Howard told me that he had been called out to answer a long-distance phone call from a trustee of the university who had heard that a Negro was lecturing in his class. The trustee ordered Beale to remove me immediately. In recounting this story, Beale told me that he had said that he was not in the habit of letting trustees plan his courses, and h ~ John Hope Franklin

I believe that if you speak from your heart each time you open your mouth, you cannot go wrong. ~ David Anthony Durham

I sleep lightly and tread to keep my head out of the sea of dreams. ~ David Anthony Durham

She realized that the world was a dance of a million fates. In this dance she was but a single soul. ~ David Anthony Durham

This magnificent poem [Exodus 15:1-21] has been much analyzed, dissected, scanned, and compared with an array of supposed precedent and counterpart works. It has been variously attributed and dated, and forced into a wide variety of forms and Sitze im Leben. There have been attempts to determine some parts of it as early and some parts as late, and to describe therefrom an evolution of both its form and its content. None of these attempts has been entirely successful. The best of them have amounted to no more than helpful suggestions, while the worst of them have been fiction bordering fantasy. ~ John I. Durham

If he don' get us killed on this little trip, I'll eat me beard." Captain Gnarl Knottytrunk, Never Trust a Sorcerer ~ L.R. Barrett-Durham

The world was not to be trusted. Loved persons were always stolen. Dreams always squashed. That was life as she understood it. ~ David Anthony Durham

You're not going to die in a rickshaw in Durham. ~ Kyle Miller

Again he thought of his own losses, and he wondered why it was that the things a person had lost - or might lose - defined him more than the things he yet possessed. ~ David Anthony Durham

Your shower shoes have fungus on them. You'll never make it to the bigs with fungus on your shower shoes. Think classy, you'll be classy. If you win 20 in the show, you can let the fungus grow back and the press'll think you're colorful. Until you win 20 in the show, however, it means you are a slob. ~ Crash Davis