Thornton Quotes

Wherever you come near the human race there's layers and layers of nonsense. ~ Thornton Wilder

Douglas Thornton [an English Christian missionary to Cairo, Egypt with the Church Missionary Society from 1898-1907] was often more amusing than he tried to be. He had a delightful way of mixing up two kindred proverbs or idioms. Once he told his companions that he always had two strings up his sleeve. They then asked him if he had another card to his bow. Such exchanges enliven heavy committee eetings and create wholesome laughter. ~ J. Oswald Sanders

He divided the inhabitants of this world into two groups, into those who had loved and those who had not. It was a horrible aristocracy, apparently, for those who had no capacity for love (or rather for suffering in love) could not be said to be alive and certainly would not live again after their death. They were a kind of straw population, filling the world with their meaningless laughter and tears and chatter and disappearing still lovable and vain into thin air. For this distinction he cultivated his own definition of love that was like no other and that had gathered all its bitterness and pride from his odd life. He regarded love as a sort of cruel malady through which the elect are required to pass in their late youth and from which they emerge, pale and wrung, but ready for the business of living. There was (he believed) a great repertory of errors mercifully impossible to human beings who had recovered from this illness. Unfortunately there remained to them a host of failings, but at least (from among many illustrations) they never mistook a protracted amiability for the whole conduct of life, they never again regarded any human being, from a prince to a servant, as a mechanical object. ~ Thornton Wilder

I found an online knife store. I'd rather go and pick one up so that I had it today, but then I noticed they had a category called. California Legal. Apparently, I lived in a state that had really solid knife control-but still allowed you to own a machine gun. Logical. ~ Marshall Thornton

Knowledge and personality make doubt possible, but knowledge is also the cure of doubt; and when we get a full and adequate sense of personality we are lifted into a region where doubt is almost impossible, for no man can know himself as he is, and all fullness of his nature, without also knowing God. ~ Thornton T. Munger

( ... ) contemporary art has become a kind of alternative religion for atheists. ( ... ) For many art world insiders and art aficionados of other kinds, concept-driven art is a kind of existencial channel through which they bring meaning to their lives. It demands leaps of faith, but it rewards the believer with a sense of consequence. Moreover, just as churches and other ritualistic meeting places serve a social function, so art events generate a sense of community around shared interests ~ Sarah Thornton

If you look out for the sunny side of the street, the sunny side of the street will look out for you. ~ Marshall Thornton

There are rules in movies. I did a movie playing a bad cop who was a heroin addict but they wouldn't let me smoke in a movie. ~ Billy Bob Thornton

Curiously enough, though, it was Jeanette who came home one day with a C on a test. Prior to that, B was the lowest grade any of us had gotten, and even a B caused Mommy to shake her head and ask, 'Did anyone in the class get an A? Then you can get an A, too. You just have to study harder.' But this time she looked at the C on Jeanette's paper and said nothing. Wasn't she going to lay into Jeanette? Was Doc so special that she could get away with anything? The rest of us were stunned. I, for one, resolved that if that's the way it was going to be, I was darned if I was going to work so hard at studying from then on.
Then Saturday came. Mommy roused Jeanette at 6:00 A.M., told her to dress in old clothes, and ordered her to the kitchen, where she handed Jeanette a bucket and scrub clothes. 'You and I are going to clean the kitchen from top to bottom,' Mommy announced. 'I'm going to teach you how to do it and do every bit of it right because that's what you're going to be doing for a living when you grow up'.
Jeanette was outraged. 'I'm going to be a doctor'!
'Anybody who gets a C on a test is either too dumb or too lazy to be a doctor. You're going to end up working in somebody's kitchen, so you'd better know how to do it. Now, start by scouring the oven. And I want it spotless'. ~ Yvonne S. Thornton

There is no road to success but through a clear strong purpose. Nothing can take its place. A purpose underlies character, culture, position, attainment of every part. ~ Thornton T. Munger

Tower Records is like a temple to me. I'll stay there for hours. Nobody can shop for records with me. It drives them out of their minds. ~ Billy Bob Thornton

My grief had become a thick scab; I picked at it from time to time, but mostly I left it alone. I didn't want to know what was underneath. ~ Marshall Thornton

We love, while knowing that someday our love might be lost forever. We laugh as we stride along, even while recognising that doom lies at the end of the road. We give, while comprehending that in the end 'twill all be taken away. we are nothing less then heroes. ~ Cecilia Dart-Thornton

The theatre is supremely fitted to say: 'Behold! These things are.' Yet most dramatists employ it to say: 'This moral truth can be learned from beholding this action.' ~ Thornton Wilder

I've really dreamed of doing television. All of us do television, coming up. But when I was coming up, television was a black hole for actors. Now, television has a certain cache. Now everybody wants to be on TV because they're doing adult dramas. If you're an actor, it's like, "Well, get me on television," because it's the only place you can do it and also make a living at it. If my kids need shoes, I better do a TV show because I damn sure don't make any money with independent films. ~ Billy Bob Thornton

If you are animated by right principles, and are fully awakened to the true dignity of life, the subject of amusements may be left to settle itself. ~ Thornton T. Munger

No one ever could, until they did. We all woke up each morning, unprepared, unable, the world against us. And then we did; moment by moment, we did. And when the heart of someone we loved was on the line, there was never a question. We did. No matter what. ~ Marshall Thornton

I'm an atheist, but I believe in art. I go to galleries like my mother went to church. It helps me understand the way I live. ~ Sarah Thornton

I fell in love. Why can't I fall out of it?" He got a look on his face, which I knew meant he was making a mental note of that line too. ~ Marshall Thornton

A lot of kids, when they go to church, they don't really pay much attention to what they're saying or whatever. ~ Billy Bob Thornton

Didn't having AIDS mean everyone had to always be nice to you? Except someone like Pastor Randy who actually seemed to hate people with AIDS even more than he hated regular gay people. ~ Marshall Thornton

Since I was pretty sure he was just an asshole and not a murdering asshole, I told him to suck my dick. ~ Marshall Thornton

When people wear shoes that don't fit them, it says something about their soul. Generally, I think it means they are good people. ~ Billy Bob Thornton

The stuff of which masterpieces are made drifts about the world waiting to be clothed in words. ~ Thornton Wilder

The habit of saving is itself an education; it fosters every virtue, teaches self-denial, cultivates the sense of order, trains to forethought, and so broadens the mind. ~ Thornton T. Munger

True influence over another comes not from a moments eloquence nor from any happily chosen word, but from the accumulation of a lifetime's thoughts stored up in the eyes ... the secret smile in the eyes of a friend ~ Thornton Wilder

I got in drama class in high school and I only got in there because there were girls and I thought maybe I could make a grade above a C in something. ~ Billy Bob Thornton

Man, I was drowning in sadness. And Angelina, she lifted me right up out of there. ~ Billy Bob Thornton

a man who whipped out a double-headed dildo on a first date was probably not the romantic type. ~ Marshall Thornton

Objective leaders identify their unproductive mental models and tweak them for greater effectiveness. ~ Elizabeth Thornton

I have never loved any woman before. Now I love, and will love. ~ John Thornton

Directing takes a good chunk of your life out. It's a very hard thing. As an actor, you go in for a couple of months and do your job, and then you move onto another one. As a director, it's with you for quite some time and you're responsible for the entire thing, whether the results are good or bad, or whether people throw darts at you or put you on a pedestal. ~ Billy Bob Thornton

Mr Thornton sighed as he took in all this with one of his sudden comprehensive glances. And then he turned his back to the young ladies, and threw himself, with an effort, but with all his heart and soul, into a conversation with Mr Hale. ~ Elizabeth Gaskell

The thing about a motion picture is that look of film on a big screen takes you into a magical. ~ Billy Bob Thornton

She had a bracelet on one taper arm, which would fall down over her round wrist. Mr. Thornton watched the replacing of this troublesome ornament with far more attention than he listened to her father. It seemed as if it fascinated him to see her push it up impatiently, until it tightened her soft flesh; and then to mark the loosening - the fall. He could almost have exclaimed - 'There it goes, again! ~ Elizabeth Gaskell

The movies I've made about the South, they were my experience and it's something that I know. ~ Billy Bob Thornton

Doctors are mostly impostors. The older a doctor is and the more venerated he is, the more he must pretend to know everything. Of course, they grow worse with time. Always look for a doctor who is hated by the best doctors. Always seek out a bright young doctor before he comes down with nonsense. ~ Thornton Wilder

Have you learned nothing from me? There are other things to do with a man besides marry him."
He sighed heavily.
"Sometimes I think deep down inside you're a lesbian. ~ Marshall Thornton

I guess you don't get turned down often."
"I don't get turned down ever."
"Then this is good for you. Builds character. ~ Marshall Thornton

But it was no smiling matter to Margaret. She attended to what Mr. Bell was saying. Her thoughts ran upon the Idea, before entertained, but which now had assumed the strength of a conviction, that Mr. Thornton no longer held his former good opinion of her - that he was disappointed in her. She did not feel as if any explanation could ever reinstate her - not in his love, for that and any return on her part she had resolved never to dwell upon, and she kept rigidly to her resolution - but in the respect and high regard which she had hoped would have ever made him willing, in the spirit of Gerald Griffin's beautiful lines,
'To turn and look back when thou hearest The sound of my name. ~ Elizabeth Gaskell

Mr. Thornton stood by one of the windows, with his back to the door, apparently absorbed in watching something in the street. But, in truth, he was afraid of himself. His heart beat thick at the thought of her coming. He could not forget the touch of her arms around his neck, impatiently felt as it had been at the time; but now the recollection of her clinging defence of him, seemed to thrill him through and through, - to melt away every resolution, all power of self-control, as if it were wax before a fire. He dreaded lest he should go forwards to meet her, with his arms held out in mute entreaty that she would come and nestle there, as she had done, all unheeded, the day before, but never unheeded again. His heart throbbed loud and quick Strong man as he was, he trembled at the anticipation of what he had to say, and how it might be received. She might droop, and flush, and flutter to his arms, as to her natural home and resting-place. One moment, he glowed with impatience at the thought that she might do this, the next, he feared a passionate rejection, the very idea of which withered up his future with so deadly a blight that he refused to think of it. He was startled by the sense of the presence of some one else in the room. He turned round. She had come in so gently, that he had never heard her; the street noises had been more distinct to his inattentive ear than her slow movements, in her soft muslin gown. ~ Elizabeth Gaskell

In Wangechi Mutu's mother tongue, Kikuyu, there is no word for "artist." The closest term is something like "magician" or "a person who uses objects and imbues them with meaning and power, ~ Sarah Thornton

If you keep offering to have sex with me, I'm going to think you like me. ~ Marshall Thornton

This is why, if I may be forgiven a digression, I believe it is time for the black race to forget about rhetoric and instead show what we are capable of doing. The testing will surely go on for the next generation and the next, but each time we meet the test, we'll climb another rung of the ladder until finally we arrive at parity, having earned our place rather than pleading or demanding that it be given to us. ~ Yvonne S. Thornton

You live your life like it's some kind of nuclear fallout shelter. The walls are three feet thick, you have enough food to last through nuclear winter and you're the only one in there. ~ Marshall Thornton

MRS. ANTROBUS: What, George? What have you lost? ANTROBUS: The most important thing of all: The desire to begin again, to start building. ~ Thornton Wilder

I not only bow to the inevitable; I am fortified by it. ~ Thornton Wilder

Stop being sexy. We're in public. ~ Marshall Thornton

You only live once so, lets make a difference people will remember. ~ Xena Thornton

Every person who has ever lived has lived an unbroken succession of unique occasions. ~ Thornton Wilder

Characterization in a play is like a blank check which the dramatist accords to the actor for him to fill in. ~ Thornton Wilder

Change has to be hard because you're fighting against inertia. ~ James Thornton

Yes, an awful lot of sorrow has sort of quietened down up here. People just wild with grief have brought their relatives up to this hill. We all know how it is... and then time... and sunny days... and rainy days... n' snow... We're all glad they're in a beautiful place and we're coming up here ourselves when our fit's over. Now there are some things we all know but we don't takem' out and look at'm very often. We all know that something is eternal. And it ain't houses and it ain't names, and it ain't earth, and ain't even the stars... everybody knows in their bones that something is eternal, and that something has to do with human beings. All the greatest people ever lived have been telling us that for five thousand years and yet you'd be surprised how people are always losing hold of it. ~ Thornton Wilder

Emily: But just for a moment now we're all together. Mama, just for a moment we're all happy. Let's really look at one another... I can't. I can't go on. It goes so fast. We don't have time to look at one another. ~ Thornton Wilder

She saw that the people of this world moved about in an armor of egotism, drunk with self-gazing, athirst for compliments, hearing little of what was said to them, unmoved by the accidents that befell their closest friends, in dread of all appeals that might interrupt their long communion with their own desires. These were the sons and daughters of Adam from Cathay to Peru. ~ Thornton Wilder

This was excitement, and desire, and pleasure. Nothing mattered while you were with a man. Nothing but the man, or men in this case.
This was freedom. This was forgetting. ~ Marshall Thornton

Because we are a globally connected village, we need
to remember that our choices are not isolated. They have
a powerful ripple effect, and that ripple is global. ~ Linda Fisher Thornton

I have to agree with Artforum publisher Charles Guarino: "It's the place where I found the most kindred spirits - enough oddball, overeducated, anachronistic, anarchic people to make me happy." Finally, ~ Sarah Thornton

I suppose if I were looking for love in the eyes of every guy I fucked, I'd have been offended. ~ Marshall Thornton

I think people can live a religious life and yet believe in things maybe outside the box a little bit. ~ Billy Bob Thornton

It was on the tip of my tongue to say something snide, something that would hurt him, but somehow I couldn't. It would be like kicking Bambi in the teeth. ~ Marshall Thornton

But such occasions of excellence became less and less frequent. As her technique became sounder, [her] sincerity became less necessary. ~ Thornton Wilder

On TV you can, you know you can cram, you know, 30 people into a closet and have an orgy, and then they can all shoot up, and everybody has cigarettes in their nostrils and their ears. They don't care. So yeah, television is amazing right now. ~ Billy Bob Thornton

I have come, my lovely," Roddy said with his usual sardonic grin as he swept her a deep bow, "in answer to your urgent summons-and, I might add,-" he continued, "before I presented myself at the Willingtons', exactly as your message instructed." At 5'10", Roddy Carstairs was a slender man of athletic build with thinning brown hair and light blue eyes. In fact, his only distinguishing characteristics were his fastidiously tailored clothes, a much-envied ability to tie a neckcloth into magnificently intricate folds that never drooped, and an acid wit that accepted no boundaries when he chose a human target. "Did you hear about Kensington?"
"Who?" Alex said absently, trying to think of the best means to persuade him to do what she needed done.
"The new Marquess of Kensington, once known as Mr. Ian Thornton, persona non grata. Amazing, is it not, what wealth and title will do?" he continued, studying Alex's tense face as he continued, "Two years ago we wouldn't have let him past the front door. Six months ago word got out that he's worth a fortune, and we started inviting him to our parties. Tonight he's the heir to a dukedom, and we'll be coveting invitations to his parties. We are"-Roddy grinned-"when you consider matters from this point of view, a rather sickening and fickle lot."
In spite of herself, Alexandra laughed. "Oh, Roddy," she said, pressing a kiss on his cheek. "You always make me laugh, even when I'm in the most dreadful coil, which I am now. You cou ~ Judith McNaught

It's so...what? Incredibly hot? Amazingly perfect? Worth Repeating? ~ Jeff Thornton

Off the top of my head, I couldn't think of any churches that equated sucking cock with being Christ-like. ~ Marshall Thornton

I'm not really a full-time director, I just like to direct the things that I write because I think I'm going to know it better than someone else. ~ Billy Bob Thornton

We are not a victim of our emotions or thoughts. We can understand our triggers and use them as tools to help us respond more objectively. ~ Elizabeth Thornton

Somewhere along the line we stopped believing we could do anything. And if we don't have our dreams, we have nothing. ~ Billy Bob Thornton

Anytime you get a chance to play some extreme character, in any direction, it's always a great blessing. ~ Billy Bob Thornton

Standing at the window overlooking the lawn, Jordan and Alexandra Townsende watched the couple heading toward them. "If you'd asked me to name the last man on earth I would have expected to fall head over heels for a slip of a girl, it would have been Ian Thornton," he told her.
His wife heard that with a sidewise look of extreme amusement. "If I'd been asked, I rather think I would have named you."
"I'm sure you would have," he said, grinning. He saw her smile fade, and he put his arm around her waist, instantly concerned that her pregnancy was causing her discomfort. "Is it the babe, darling?"
She burst out laughing and shook her head, but she sobered again almost instantly. "Do you think," she asked pensively, "he can be trusted not to hurt her? He's done so much damage that I-I just cannot like him, Jordan. He's handsome, I'll grant you that, extraordinarily handsome-"
"Not that handsome," Jordan said, stung. And this time Alexandra dissolved in mirth. Turning, she wrapped her arms around him and kissed him soundly. "Actually, he rather reminds me of you," she said, "in his coloring and height and build."
"I hope that hasn't anything to do with why you can't like him," her husband teased.
"Jordan, do stop. I'm worried, really I am. He's-well, he almost frightens me. Even though he seems very civilized on the surface, there's a forcefulness, maybe even a ruthlessness beneath his polished manners. And he stops at nothing when he wants something ~ Judith McNaught

I think we're all bad judges of what goes on in other people's minds about God, Mr. Smith. It's a bad thing to force a God on a man who doesn't want one. It's worse to stand in the way of a man who wants one badly. ~ Thornton Wilder

Hope is a projection of the imagination; so is despair. Despair all too readily embraces the ills it foresees; hope is an energy and arouses the mind to explore every possibility to combat them. ~ Thornton Wilder

I couldn't give a sh*t what they have to say. As soon as I go home and see my husband [James Thornton of Holby Blue fame] and pick up my dog and cuddle him, that's all that matters. I couldn't care if some theatre reviewer thinks my American accent sounds a bit Welsh. ~ Joanna Page

I was looking for an opportunity to make my first feature, so I asked myself: "What do you want to do? Is there something you can give to the world?" ~ Warwick Thornton

I'm as highly insecure as a human can be. ~ Billy Bob Thornton

You swore you loved me, and laughed and warned me that you would not love me forever.
I did not hear you. You were speaking in a language I did not understand. Never, never, I can conceive of a love which is able to foresee its own termination. Love is its own eternity. Love is in every moment of its being: all time. It is the only glimpse we are permitted of what eternity is. So I did not hear you. The words were nonsense. ~ Thornton Wilder

It is very necessary to have markers of beauty left in a world seemingly bent on making the most evil ugliness. ~ Thornton Wilder

To her complete bafflement, instead of continuing his attack, Ian Thornton turned around and met her stormy eyes, an odd expression on his handsome face. "I apologize, Elizabeth," he said grimly. "My remarks were uncalled for." And on that amazing note he strode off, saying that he intended to spend the day hunting.
Elizabeth tore her startled gaze from his departing back, but the vicar continued staring after him for several long moments. Then he turned and looked at Elizabeth. An odd, thoughtful smile slowly dawned across his face and lit his brown eyes as he continued gazing at her. "Is-is something amiss?" she asked.
His smile widened, and he leaned back in his chair, beaming thoughtfully at her. "Apparently there is," he answered, looking positively delighted. "And I, for one, am vastly pleased."
Elizabeth was beginning to wonder if a tiny streak of insanity ran in the family, and only good manners prevented her from remarking on it. Instead she stood up and began clearing the dishes. ~ Judith McNaught

I figured I would have to tell someone to kiss my ass before it was all over, and I have
twice. ~ Billy Bob Thornton

No one is perfect in this world, and we all have our battles, but it's the way we get back on our feet and turn it around that really counts. ~ Tiffany Thornton

Busy? It's the middle of the night what could you be-" she gasped.
"Are you having sex? Don't tell me. I'm a good Christian woman and I don't want to know about such things. All right, tell me a little bit, but don't be graphic unless absolutely necessary. ~ Marshall Thornton

I wanted to tell him that secrets are lonely and that I was tired of being lonely, but that sounded pathetic even in my head. Instead, I said, "I did it because I'm an asshole. Is that what you want to hear? That I'm an asshole? Well, I am. Big fucking surprise. ~ Marshall Thornton

Careful, even now, not to thank the wights, she added, You have all been most kind. ~ Cecilia Dart-Thornton

In most of my films I write the music into the script. I'm listening to songs and lyrics that empower the themes of the film. There's a lot of Indigenous music that has not been heard widely and I love the idea of giving that music to the rest of the world. ~ Warwick Thornton

He sent messages to all fifteen of my former suitors, asking if they were still interested in marrying me-"
"Oh, my God," Alex breathed.
"-and, if they were, he volunteered to send me to them for a few days, properly chaperoned by Lucinda," Elizabeth recited in that same strangled tone, "so that we could both discover if we still suit."
"Oh, my God," Alex said again, with more force.
"Twelve of them declined," she continued, and she watched Alex wince in embarrassed sympathy. "But three of them agreed, and now I am to be sent off to visit them. Since Lucinda can't return from Devon until I go to visit the third-suitor, who's in Scotland," she said, almost choking on the word as she applied it to Ian Thornton, "I shall have to pass Berta off as my aunt to the first two."
"Berta!" Bentner burst out in disgust. "Your aunt? The silly widgeon's afraid of her shadow."
Threatened by another uncontrollable surge of mirth, Elizabeth looked at both her friends. "Berta is the least of my problems However, do continue invoking God's name, for it's going to take a miracle to survive this."
"Who are the suitors?" Alex asked, her alarm increased by Elizabeth's odd smile as she replied, "I don't recall two of them. It's quite remarkable, isn't it," she continued with dazed mirth, "that two grown men could have met a young girl at her debut and hared off to her brother to ask for her hand, and she can't remember anything about them, except one of their names ~ Judith McNaught

Art is not only the desire to tell one's secret; it is the desire to tell it and hide it at the same time. ~ Thornton Wilder

What's in a name? Sometimes a lot of real work. ~ Thornton W. Burgess

I would love to be the poet laureate of Coney Island. ~ Thornton Wilder

It's just that there were times when he liked to keep his masturbatory routine old school. ~ Marshall Thornton

It is not often that you see life and fiction take each other by the hand and dance. ~ Lawrence Thornton

You want to know the hardest thing about being smart?
What?
I pretty much always know what's going to happen next; there's no suspense. ~ Billy Bob Thornton

They were on the set of Bad Santa but I tried to keep the headphones away from them. My kids have seen Sling Blade, they've seen Armageddon, Bandits and Friday Night Lights. They have not seen Monster's Ball, nor will they ever, even when they're sixty [laughter]. I will leave it in my will that they can never see it. ~ Billy Bob Thornton

The contemporary art world is what Tom Wolfe would call a "statusphere." It's structured around nebulous and often contradictory hierarchies of fame, credibility, imagined historical importance, institutional affliction, perceived intelligence, wealth, and attribution such as the size of one's art collection. ~ Sarah Thornton

Comedy is harder than drama, because with comedy you're expecting a result..you make them laugh. [If] they ain't laughing then you're screwed. ~ Billy Bob Thornton

Seek the lofty by reading, hearing and seeing great work at some moment every day. ~ Thornton Wilder

I actually am a phobic twitchy sort of nervous guy. ~ Billy Bob Thornton

I've watched other directors as an actor and I picked up little things here and there about cameras, [but] I wouldn't consider myself the guy you'd want to hire to do Star Trek. ~ Billy Bob Thornton

Although the art world is frequently characterised as a classless scene where artists from lower-msddle-class backgrounds drink champagne with high-priced hedge-fund managers, scholarly curators, fashion designers and other "creatives," you'd be mistaken if you thought the world was egalitarian or democratic. Art is about experimenting with ideas, but it is also about excellence and exclusion. In a society where everyone is looking for a little distinction, it's an intoxicating combination. ~ Sarah Thornton

When I was coming up in the '80s television, if you were on television that meant either you were a young actor just coming up like I was, or you were an older actor whose career was over and you had to go on television. ~ Billy Bob Thornton