Having a Coke with You is even more fun than going to San Sebastian, Irún, Hendaye, Biarritz, Bayonne or being sick to my stomach on the Travesera de Gracia in Barcelona partly because in your orange shirt you look like a better happier St. Sebastian partly because of my love for you, partly because of your love for yoghurt partly because of the fluorescent orange tulips around the birches partly because of the secrecy our smiles take on before people and statuary it is hard to believe when I’m with you that there can be anything as still as solemn as unpleasantly definitive as statuary when right in front of it in the warm New York 4 o’clock light we are drifting back and forth between each other like a tree breathing through its spectacles and the portrait show seems to have no faces in it at all, just paint you suddenly wonder why in the world anyone ever did them I look at you and I would rather look at you than all the portraits in the world except possibly for the Polish Rider occasionally and anyway it’s in the Frick which thank heavens you haven’t gone to yet so we can go together the first time and the fact that you move so beautifully more or less takes care of Futurism just as at home I never think of the Nude Descending a Staircase or at a rehearsal a single drawing of Leonardo or Michelangelo that used to wow me and what good does all the research of the Impressionists do them when they never got the right person to stand near the tree when the sun sank or for that matter Marino Marini when he didn’t pick the rider as carefully as the horse it seems they were all cheated of some marvelous experience which is not going to go wasted on me which is why I am telling you about it
Frank O'Hara
Related I want you to tell me about every person you’ve ever been in love with. Tell me why you loved... ANDREA GIBSON I ask the impossible: love me forever. Love me when all desire is gone. Love me with the s... ANA CASTILLO There are moments in every relationship that define when two people start to fall in love. A fi... COLLEEN HOOVER If You Forget Me I want you to know one thing. You know how this is: PABLO NERUDA eat, baby. eat. chew. please. I know it hurts. I know it doesn’t feel good. CAITLYN SIEHL Death is nothing at all, I have only slipped away into the next room, I am I and you are you... HENRY SCOTT HOLLAND Yawn... I believe that I love sleep much more than anybody I’ve ever met. CHARLES BUKOWSKI The world is a beautiful place to be born into if you don't mind happiness not always... LAWRENCE FERLINGHETTI Glossa Time goes by, time comes along, All is old and all is new; What is righ... MIHAI EMINESCU String of love Universe surrounds you The Saints kneels to you My freezin... JHUNMAR SIMILA Sonnet XVII I do not love you as if you were salt-rose, or topaz, or the arrow of ca... PABLO NERUDA oxygen Everything needs it: bone, muscles, and even, while it calls the earth its ... MARY OLIVER somewhere i have never travelled, gladly beyond any experience, your eyes have their silence: E.E. CUMMINGS This poem is very long So long, in fact, that your attention span May be stretched to its ... COLLEEN HOOVER I am not the first person you loved. You are not the first person I looked at with a mouth... CLEMENTINE VON RADICS To A Squirrel At Kyle-Na-No Come play with me; Why should you run Through the s... W.B. YEATS Take bread away from me, if you wish, take air away, but do not take from me your laughter... PABLO NERUDA I KNEW IT WAS OVER when tonight you couldn't make the phone ring when you use... DAPHNE GOTTLIEB You have brains in your head. You have feet in your shoes. You can steer yourself an... DR. SEUSS The flowers that I left in the ground, that I did not gather for you, today I bring them... LEONARD COHEN I have named you queen. There are taller than you, taller. There are purer than you, purer... PABLO NERUDA Amor" So many days, oh so many days seeing you so tangible and so close, how do... PABLO NERUDA I Like For You To Be Still I like for you to be still It is as though you are... PABLO NERUDA That time I thought I could not go any closer to grief without dying I wen... MARY OLIVER The Type Everyone needs a place. It shouldn't be inside of someone else. -Richard Siken SARAH KAY I pity the woman who will love you when I am done. She will show up to your first date wit... CLEMENTINE VON RADICS Scared, Cold, in pain, the dust hasn't settled yet. Pinned in, crying, my clothes are ripp... RALPH ALLEN May your love for me be like the scent of the evening sea drifting in thr... SANOBER KHAN When you plant lettuce, if it does not grow well, you don't blame the lettuce. You look for re... THICH NHAT HANH DADDY You do not do, you do not do Any more, black shoe In which I have lived l... SYLVIA PLATH Tell me what it is that you are hiding behind your eyes. Tell me of the pain, so I can make it ... JOSé N. HARRIS ENDURANCE I don't know you, But I love you, Just as God loves me and you. ... SUZY KASSEM We have tears in our eyes As we wave our goodbyes, We so loved being with you, we three. ROALD DAHL My friend once told me she liked this guy because of his hands And I found it absurd that ... CAROL SHLYAKHOVA -Desiderata- Go placidly amid the noise and haste, and remember what peace there may... MAX EHRMANN I love you in my very own way. Like a stone loves the mosses around it Like a sea loves th... ARZUM UZUN Please do not look only at the dark side All the newspapers in the free world explain why... THOMAS MERTON When I am with you, we stay up all night. When you're not here, I can't go to sleep. RUMI Remember The Dream You have a choice Your heart will know You gotta look back s... JAMES INGRAM 6 months, 2 weeks, 4 days, and I still don’t know which month it was then or what day it... CHARLOTTE ERIKSSON I don’t love you as if you were a rose of salt, topaz, or arrow of carnations that propagate... PABLO NERUDA (You do not have to be shamed in my closeness. Family are the people who must never make you feel as... JONATHAN SAFRAN FOER If I were a cinnamon peeler I would ride your bed and leave the yellow bark dust on y... MICHAEL ONDAATJE AFTER SCHOOL SPECIAL Dear Mr. Schneider, I attended your elementary Schoo... SUZY KASSEM May you find serenity and tranquility in a worl... SANDRA STURTZ HAUSS A Woman's Question Do you know you have asked for the costliest thing Ever made by t... JOSHUA HARRIS So that you will hear me my words sometimes grow thin as the tracks of the gulls on t... PABLO NERUDA I like pouring your tea, lifting the heavy pot, and tipping it up, so the fragrant liquid ... CAROL ANN DUFFY Did you know sometimes it frightens me-- when you say my name and I can't see you? will yo... EMILIE AUTUMN As for life, I'm humbled, I'm without words sufficient to say how it has b... MARY OLIVER No Difference Small as a peanut, Big as a giant, We're all the same size W... SHEL SILVERSTEIN When words don’t add up in love, it is because of six possible reasons: 1. They are af... SHANNON L. ALDER My mother tells me that when I meet someone I like, I have to ask them three questions: CAITLYN SIEHL Standing at the edge of time Almost falling down to the dark abyss As I near the end of mi... ISABELLE GUZMAN The Chair I’m writing to you, who made the archaic wooden chair look like a ... JAROD KINTZ THE INVITATION by Oriah Mountain Dreamer It doesn't interest me what you do for a li... ORIAH MOUNTAIN DREAMER When things go wrong, as they sometimes will, When the road you're trudging seems all uphill, ... ANON. Overheard on a Saltmarsh" Nymph, nymph, what are your beads? Green glass, gobl... HAROLD MONRO leaving is not enough; you must stay gone. train your heart like a dog. change the locks<... MARTY MCCONNELL As you set out on your journey to Ithaca, pray that your journey be a long one, filled wit... BARRY B. POWELL Love the quick profit, the annual raise, vacation with pay. Want more of everything ready-... WENDELL BERRY i want to apologize to all the women i have called beautiful before i’ve called them intellig... RUPI KAUR When I was a child, an angel came to say, A true friend is coming my warrior to sweep you away,... SHANNON L. ALDER to love life, to love it even when you have no stomach for it and everything you've held d... ELLEN BASS Looking for Your Face From the beginning of my life I have been looking for your fac... JALALUDDIN MEVLANA RUMI LET’S GO BACK HOME I can't think about you, Without smiling. What I wouldn’... GIORGE LEEDY When Death Comes When death comes like the hungry bear in autumn; when... MARY OLIVER Breaking the circle” My eyes darken when I see my new lover. Fresh prey. My body d... ASPER BLURRY They stay in my mind, these beautiful people, or anyway beautiful people to me, of which t... MARY OLIVER It offends me when you doubt my love. These jealousies are unwarranted. If only you lived ... KAMAND KOJOURI Devereaux is going with our pitch.” “Hey, that’s just great,” I said superperkily. “W... MARIAN KEYES How I go to the woods Ordinarily, I go to the woods alone, with not a single ... MARY OLIVER While walking in a toy store The day before today, I overheard a Crayon Box With many thin... ANON. I drove by all the places we used to hang out getting wasted I thought about our last kiss, how... 5 SECONDS OF SUMMER Love. Because of you, in gardens of blossoming Flowers I ache from the perfumes of s... PABLO NERUDA My child, I know you're not a child But I still see you running wild Between those floweri... ANTONIA MICHAELIS Like a comet pulled from orbit, As it passes a sun. Like a stream that meets a boulder, ... STEPHEN SCHWARTZ Pretty women wonder where my secret lies. I'm not cute or built to suit a fashion model's size<... MAYA ANGELOU I want to write something so simply about love or about pain that even ... MARY OLIVER ON THE DAY I DIE On the day I die, when I'm being carried toward the grave, don't we... RUMI Every morning the maple leaves. Every morning another chapter where the hero shifts from o... RICHARD SIKEN FORBIDDEN Pain without learning is forbidden, waking up one day not knowing what to do, JOSé N. HARRIS there is a loneliness in this world so great that you can see it in the slow movement of t... CHARLES BUKOWSKI Roo: What’s your definition of popularity? Hutch: I used to think people were popular b... E. LOCKHART Already the people murmur that I am your enemy because they say that in verse I give the world ... JULIA DE BURGOS JACK AGüERO TRANSLATOR The Children's Hour Between the dark and the daylight, When the night is beginning t... HENRY WADSWORTH LONGFELLOW The Naming of Cats is a difficult matter, It isn't just one of your holiday games; You may... T.S. ELIOT Something about you caught me by surprise Though I always knew you’d be my demise. R.S. GREY Was that me? Yes it was. Was that him? No it wasn't.. Just a trick of the woods! Just ... STEPHEN SONDHEIM Life is a valuable and unique opportunity to discover who you are. But it seems as soon as... RICHELLE E. GOODRICH WHAT IS TRUTH? Truth is not a thing Or a concept. It is as multidimensional SUZY KASSEM When I was a child, I thought, Casually, that solitude Never needed to be sought. Som... PHILIP LARKIN Girl Without Hands Walking through the ruins on your way to work that do not lo... MARGARET ATWOOD Tell a wise person, or else keep silent, because the mass man will mock it right away. I p... JOHANN WOLFGANG VON GOETHE I think of you often and make no outward show, But what it means to lose you, no one will ... ANON. Studies show: Intelligent girls are more depressed Because they know What the world i... EMILIE AUTUMN Promise Yourself To be so strong that nothing can disturb your peace of mind. T... CHRISTIAN D. LARSON Lately I can't help wanting us to be like other people. For example, if I were a smoker, DEBORAH GARRISON There is a desire within each of us, in the deep center of ourselves that we call our hea... GERALD G. MAY Creatures of the Darkness BY VICKI JORDAN It was world of vampires and demons, wher... CHRIS COLFER
More Frank O'Hara
I am the least difficult of men. All I want is boundless love. FRANK O'HARA I wonder if the course of narcissism through the ages would have been any different had Narcissus fi... FRANK O'HARA you know we've all sinned a lot against science so we really ought to be as available as an app... FRANK O'HARA My eyes are vague blue, like the sky, and change all the time; they are indiscriminate but fleeting,... FRANK O'HARA Kerouac: You're ruining American poetry, O'Hara. O'Hara: That's more than you ever did for it, ... FRANK O'HARA Now I am quietly waiting for the catastrophe of my personality to seem beautiful again, ... FRANK O'HARA I have work to do, and I am afraid not to do it. JOHN O'HARA Члены групп не отличались от публики ни убеждениями, н�... CRAIG O'HARA She gave in to a hankering for a cup of tea even though she knew that the idea of a cup of tea-sitti... MARYANNE O'HARA Henry Fonda gave me a spanking during a scene in Spencer's Mountain. MAUREEN O'HARA After I got to Hollywood, I resented that I didn't get a crack at more dramatic roles because I ... MAUREEN O'HARA I was born into the most remarkable and eccentric family I could possibly have hoped for. MAUREEN O'HARA Comedy is difficult, especially slapstick. The trick is to have fun while you are performing it. MAUREEN O'HARA The depth of John Candy's talent did surprise me. He was one of my all-time favorite leading men... MAUREEN O'HARA Lost in a crowd of greats, not a single Oscar. That's showbiz. MAUREEN O'HARA My whole life was foretold to me. An old Romany gypsy read my fortune. MAUREEN O'HARA Every star has that certain something that stands out and compels us to notice them. MAUREEN O'HARA John Candy knew he was going to die. He told me on his 40th birthday. He said, well, Maureen, I'... MAUREEN O'HARA Audiences in London called me the girl with the black cherry eyes. MAUREEN O'HARA I'm terrified about the day that I enter the gates of heaven and God says to me, just a minute. MAUREEN O'HARA How could you have had such a wonderful life as me if there wasn't a God directing? MAUREEN O'HARA I had always been a tomboy - I still am, at heart. MAUREEN O'HARA Above all else, deep in my soul, I'm a tough Irishwoman. MAUREEN O'HARA The studio thought I was crazy to perform all of my own fencing stunts, but I loved it. MAUREEN O'HARA My heritage has been my grounding, and it has brought me peace. MAUREEN O'HARA As the 1960s began, a new breed of Hollywood leading lady was emerging. She was elegant, internation... MAUREEN O'HARA John Wayne was one of the greatest ambassadors for the United States that ever lived. MAUREEN O'HARA When I was young, I was told that I had a sulky, pouty face. MAUREEN O'HARA When How Green Was My Valley finally wrapped, I thought John Ford was a walking god. MAUREEN O'HARA Making movies is just like betting on horses at the racetrack. MAUREEN O'HARA I have never lost my faith in God. MAUREEN O'HARA I don't remember having a crush on a boy when I was a girl. I don't even remember my first k... MAUREEN O'HARA I am like many of the women I have played onscreen. MAUREEN O'HARA I mean, I knew I wanted to do this kind of thing in school, but to actually have somebody that would... CATHERINE O'HARA Character roles definitely age better than your ingenues. You don't get to keep doing that. CATHERINE O'HARA I wouldn't mind spending a little more time and effort and money on good skin care. And I'm ... CATHERINE O'HARA You've got muscles and you use them everywhere else in your body when you want it. Why not your ... CATHERINE O'HARA To this day, I've found that it doesn't matter what a guy looks like if he's really funn... CATHERINE O'HARA I'm pretty much a good Catholic girl at heart and I believe in family. I also have a basic belie... CATHERINE O'HARA Night time really is the best time to work. All the ideas are there to be yours because everyone is ... CATHERINE O'HARA I think the success of my work stems from being truthful. CATHERINE O'HARA I know. I'm lazy. But I made myself a New Years resolution that I would write myself something r... CATHERINE O'HARA I'm afraid of needles, except acupuncture needles. CATHERINE O'HARA Life is full of tough choices between less-than-perfect alternatives. MARYANNE O'HARA I don't want to be famous for being famous. KELLI O'HARA Life is its own occasion; it does not need a reason to celebrate itself. HEATHER K. O'HARA The Law-of-Destination is straightforward and simple: It is not possible to arrive where we never ta... HEATHER K. O'HARA I suppose we all have our little hiding-hole if the truth was known, but as small as it is, the whol... FRANK O'CONNOR But my dear young lady," he said offering a cigarette, "who ever said I have a poor opinion of women... FRANK O'CONNOR So Father Ring went off in the lofty mood of a man who has defended a principle at a great sacrifice... FRANK O'CONNOR a grin that wasn't natural, and that combined in a strange way affection and arrogance, the arroganc... FRANK O'CONNOR I think we can outgrow the industry because of factors like Vista, which puts an emphasis on graphic... MICHAEL HARA Successful communication depends on how well we listen, rather than how well we push our opinions on... KENYA HARA It will probably just keep doubling for three to four years. In 2007, 3D gaming will finally be an i... MICHAEL HARA I am one and when I am one I am none, and when I am none I have won. JULIEANNE O'CONNOR There is something in us, as storytellers and as listeners to stories, that demands the redemptive a... FLANNERY O'CONNOR They did not submit to the obvious alternative, which was simply to close the eyes and fall. So easy... TIM O'BRIEN We are the music-makers, And we are the dreamers of dreams, Wandering by lone sea-breakers... ARTHUR O'SHAUGHNESSY Where I was born and where and how I have lived is unimportant. It is what I have done with where I ... GEORGIA O'KEEFFE Virtue should always be colmingled with humor. PATRICK O'BRIAN One of the tasks of true friendship is to listen compassionately and creatively to the hidden silenc... JOHN O'DONOHUE In yourself right now is all the place you've got. FLANNERY O'CONNOR [H]iding how you really feel and trying to make everyone happy doesn't make you nice, it just makes ... JENNY O'CONNELL Laughter is wine for the soul - laughter soft, or loud and deep, tinged through with seriousness - t... SEáN O'CASEY The truth does not change according to our ability to stomach it. FLANNERY O'CONNOR If you live today, you breath in nihilism ... it's the gas you breathe. If I hadn't had the Church t... FLANNERY O'CONNOR I think it is safe to say that while the South is hardly Christ-centered, it is most certainly Chris... FLANNERY O'CONNOR We are the music makers, and we are the dreamers of dreams. ARTHUR O'SHAUGHNESSY You couldn't relive your life, skipping the awful parts, without losing what made it worthwhile. You... STEWART O'NAN All the world's a stage and most of us are desperately unrehearsed. SEáN O'CASEY Gabrielle chuckled, her dark eyes twinkling. “So he’s been after you, has he? Poor Etta, pursued... MICHELLE O'LEARY She paused and saw him tense in expectation. He wouldn’t like to hear this, but better from her th... MICHELLE O'LEARY I’m not bipolar, I’ve just had a bipolar life foisted upon me. DANIEL O'MALLEY That's what fiction is for. It's for getting at the truth when the truth isn't sufficient for the tr... TIM O'BRIEN Accepting oneself does not preclude an attempt to become better. FLANNERY O'CONNOR Each of us is an artist of our days; the greater our integrity and awareness, the more original and ... JOHN O'DONOHUE They are all innocent until proven guilty. But not me. I am a liar until I am proven honest. LOUISE O'NEILL I found him perhaps the least terrifying man I've ever met in the theater—because at first glance ... PETER O'TOOLE Happiness arises from getting what you want, and this comes and goes. Joy arises from being with wha... MARY O'MALLEY It's not the face, but the expressions on it. It's not the voice but the things you say. It's not th... IAN O'SHEA You couldn’t relive your life, skipping the awful parts, without losing what made it worthwhile. Y... STEWART O'NAN They should." "Should be like a wood bee," she said. It was a private joke, a ... STEWART O'NAN The happiest she'd ever been was with him, and the saddest. Was that the true test of love? STEWART O'NAN Everywhere I go I'm asked if I think the university stifles writers. My opinion is that they don't s... FLANNERY O'CONNOR Mrs. Hopewell had no bad qualities of her own but she was able to use other people's in such a const... FLANNERY O'CONNOR You never loved me, Farin. You never even said you liked me very much. HEATHER O'BRIEN People give you a hard time about being a kid at twelve. They didn't want to give you Halloween cand... HEATHER O'NEILL Everybody wants to save the Earth; nobody wants to help Mom do the dishes. P.J. O'ROURKE Don't stand unmoving outside the door of a crying baby whose only desire is to touch you. Go to your... PEGGY O'MARA Marry for love. But also choose to marry a man or woman who you love that treats you with the ultima... JULIEANNE O'CONNOR There will be a time when love is beautiful and passionate and nothing else will exist but you and t... JULIEANNE O'CONNOR Where you come from is gone, where you thought you were going to was never there, and where you are ... FLANNERY O'CONNOR Once the soul awakens, the search begins and you can never go back. From then on, you are inflamed w... JOHN O'DONOHUE [I suspect] that in the drive toward the liberal universalist notion of human rights that characteri... DARREN O'DONNELL All the possibilities of your human destiny are asleep in your soul. You are here to realize and hon... JOHN O'DONOHUE If you are different from the rest of the flock, they bite you VINCENT O'SULLIVAN I guess we're really brothers, aren't we? Don't know what that means, except it means that some of t... TIM O'BRIEN We do not need to grieve for the dead. Why should we grieve for them? They are now in a place where ... JOHN O'DONOHUE To love without ownership, to love with total trust and faith in that very love, to love with the sa... JULIEANNE O'CONNOR My feeling on the subject of sex with a man is - don't give it up unless you're willing to give him ... JULIEANNE O'CONNOR Life is surreal. When you step back and really take a look at it, the irony is absolute. JULIEANNE O'CONNOR Ladies, you have a ton of power if you just understand the fundamental differences between men and w... JULIEANNE O'CONNOR When it was dark, you always carried the sun in your hand for me. SEáN O'CASEY Well, I'm not sure where this puts me, Sire. I mean, at least with the others I know what's expected... AMIE O'BRIEN You cannot borrow half of who you are from someone else, yet people try to do it all of the time, th... JENNIFER O'NEILL For Equilibrium, a Blessing: Like the joy of the sea coming home to shore, May the relief ... JOHN O'DONOHUE Sometimes, when people speak, I cease listening to their words and zoom in instead on the cadence, a... ROSIE O'DONNELL Moderation, we find, is an extremely difficult thing to get in this country. FLANN O'BRIEN In our deepest moments we say the most inadequate things. EDNA O'BRIEN It was a great mistake, my being born a man, I would have been much more successful as a seagull or ... EUGENE O'NEILL It could be a meeting on the street, or a party or a lecture, or just a simple, banal introduction, ... JOHN O'DONOHUE The world rests in the night. Trees, mountains, fields, and faces are released from the prison of sh... JOHN O'DONOHUE Your noble friend will not accept pretension but will gently and very firmly confront you with your ... JOHN O'DONOHUE The ego is the false self-born out of fear and defensiveness. JOHN O'DONOHUE If you try to view yourself through the lenses that others offer you, all you will see are distortio... JOHN O'DONOHUE Love allows understanding to dawn, and understanding is precious. Where you are understood, you are ... JOHN O'DONOHUE We do not need to go out and find love; rather, we need to be still and let love discover us. JOHN O'DONOHUE Beauty is the illumination of your soul. JOHN O'DONOHUE Real friendship or love is not manufactured or achieved by an act of will or intention. Friendship i... JOHN O'DONOHUE When love awakens in your life, in the night of your heart, it is like the dawn breaking within you.... JOHN O'DONOHUE No one else has access to the world you carry around within yourself; you are its custodian and entr... JOHN O'DONOHUE Your beloved and your friends were once strangers. Somehow at a particular time, they came from the ... JOHN O'DONOHUE Your soul knows the geography of your destiny. Your soul alone has the map of your future, therefore... JOHN O'DONOHUE If you send out goodness from yourself, or if you share that which is happy or good within you, it w... JOHN O'DONOHUE Every friendship travels at sometime through the black valley of despair. This tests every aspect of... JOHN O'DONOHUE All you can ever achieve is a sense of your soul. You gain little glimpses of its light, colors, and... JOHN O'DONOHUE You are as young as you feel. If you begin to feel the warmth of your soul, there will be a youthful... JOHN O'DONOHUE Behind your image, below your words, above your thoughts, the silence of another world waits. JOHN O'DONOHUE You are like nobody since I love you" -Pablo Neruda This art of love discloses the ... JOHN O'DONOHUE Real intimacy is a sacred experience. It never exposes its secret trust and belonging to the voyeuri... JOHN O'DONOHUE If you try to avoid or remove the awkward quality, it will pursue you. The only effective way to sti... JOHN O'DONOHUE The heart is the inner face of your life. The human journey strives to make this inner face beautifu... JOHN O'DONOHUE It is lovely to meet an old person whose face is deeply lined, a face that has been deeply inhabited... JOHN O'DONOHUE Inspiration is always a surprising visitor. JOHN O'DONOHUE you can tell a true war story if it embarrasses you. If you don't care for obscenity, you don't care... TIM O'BRIEN It’s a hard thing to explain to somebody who hasn’t felt it, but the presence of death and dange... TIM O'BRIEN ...his love was too much for him, he felt paralyzed, he wanted to sleep inside her lungs and breathe... TIM O'BRIEN But this too is true: stories can save us. TIM O'BRIEN They carried all they could bear, and then some, including a silent awe for the terrible power of th... TIM O'BRIEN The wait is long, my dream of you does not end. NUALA O'FAOLAIN There is the solitude of suffering, when you go through darkness that is lonely, intense, and terrib... JOHN O'DONOHUE I’d begun to think of the Immortality Bus as the Entropy Bus, and of ourselves as trundling across... MARK O'CONNELL It's not enough to be nice in life. You've got to have nerve. GEORGIA O'KEEFFE Darkness is drawn to light, but light does not know it; light must absorb the darkness and therefore... EDNA O'BRIEN I don't deserve any credit for turning the other cheek as my tongue is always in it. FLANNERY O'CONNOR You know your children are growing up when they stop asking you where they came from and refuse to t... P.J. O'ROURKE And although in many cases these unions proved happy enough, sailors being excellent husbands, often... PATRICK O'BRIAN Anything that comes out of the South is going to be called grotesque by the northern reader, unless ... FLANNERY O'CONNOR I write to discover what I know. FLANNERY O'CONNOR Whenever I’m asked why Southern writers particularly have a penchant for writing about freaks, I s... FLANNERY O'CONNOR My body is not my own any more. They have stamped their names all over it. LOUISE O'NEILL The beauty that emerges from woundedness is a beauty infused with feeling; a beauty different from t... JOHN O'DONOHUE Then Dad started going on about the complex geological formations in this part of the coast until Mu... KERRIE O'CONNOR Writing a novel is a terrible experience, during which the hair often falls out and the teeth decay.... FLANNERY O'CONNOR She had a vision of the two of them trapped on a tiny raft surrounded by miles of open water. It wou... STEWART O'NAN I would not hurt you, little man,' he said. 'I think that I got the disorder in Mullingar... FLANN O'BRIEN Fame stole my yellow. Yellow is the color you get when you're real and brutally honest. Yellow is wi... ROSIE O'DONNELL Grace changes us and change is painful". FLANNERY O'CONNOR The high-school English teacher will be fulfilling his responsibility if he furnishes the student a ... FLANNERY O'CONNOR There's a certain grain of stupidity that the writer of fiction can hardly do without, and this is t... FLANNERY O'CONNOR Your criticism sounds to me as if you have read too many critical books and are too smart in an arti... FLANNERY O'CONNOR She looked at nice young men as if she could smell their stupidity. FLANNERY O'CONNOR She would've been a good woman," said The Misfit, "if it had been somebody there to shoot her every ... FLANNERY O'CONNOR I am so far from being a pessimist...on the contrary, in spite of my scars, I am tickled to death at... EUGENE O'NEILL Stand up, be counted. We have the numbers. BILL O'REILLY Art never responds to the wish to make it democratic; it is not for everybody; it is only for those ... FLANNERY O'CONNOR People spot a big black lens, and they worry about what they're doing, or how their hair looks. Nobo... ERICA O'ROURKE I have already settled it for myself so flattery and criticism go down the same drain and I am quite... GEORGIA O'KEEFFE The sins of the Midwest: flatness, emptiness, a necessary acceptance of the familiar. Where is the r... STEWART O'NAN The city was a puzzle box built of symbols, a confusion of old and new, armored cars and donkeys in ... STEWART O'NAN That belief in Christ is to some a matter of life and death has been a stumbling block for readers w... FLANNERY O'CONNOR She hated her job the same way I hated my jobs because she knew she was worth more, but she also hat... TAWNI O'DELL Romance and romantic are different. Death, itself, can be romantic. Nature and a destructive snowsto... R.B. O'BRIEN The robot successfully dismounted the car, proceeding at a slight crouch, and with exaggerated cauti... MARK O'CONNELL To create one's world in any of the arts takes courage. GEORGIA O'KEEFFE Whether you succeed or not is irrelevant, there is no such thing. Making your unknown known is the i... GEORGIA O'KEEFFE I found I could say things with color and shapes that I couldn't say any other way... things I had n... GEORGIA O'KEEFFE I've been absolutely terrified every moment of my life and I've never let it keep me from doing a si... GEORGIA O'KEEFFE Don’t tell me my writing is misogynistic or anti-feminist just because I or my heroines like to be... R.B. O'BRIEN That's the trouble with you preachers," he said. "You've all got too good to believe in anything," a... FLANNERY O'CONNOR When a man died, there had to be blame. Jimmy Cross understood this. You could blame the war, You co... TIM O'BRIEN The rocking of the boat by the waves was soothing but unknown. The men on the shore were asleep. Not... JOSEPH O'NEILL When you steal a people's language, you leave their soul bewildered. JOHN O'DONOHUE Words, too, have genuine substance -- mass and weight and specific gravity. TIM O'BRIEN Relationships take up energy; letting go of them, psychiatrists theorize, entails mental work. When ... MEGHAN O'ROURKE There was a lot about Kim and J.P. he didn't get.... he was confused by their lack of romance. As a ... STEWART O'NAN We are fascinated, all of us, by the implacable otherness of others. And we wish to penetrate those ... TIM O'BRIEN It's sad when you learn you're not much of a hero. TIM O'BRIEN Experience has taught me that what you love, you should love all the harder because someday it will ... RONAN O'BRIEN A hat should be taken off when greeting a lady, and left off the rest of your life. Nothing looks mo... P.J. O'ROURKE Rising up into the air, they took to the sky and flew. From west and beyond west, into the wind and ... PAT O'SHEA You're the fire burning inside of me. KELVIN O'RALPH I will not be a common man. I will stir the smooth sands of monotony. I do not crave security. I wis... PETER O'TOOLE I guess relationships are just funny like that. It's impossible to figure out why some work out and ... JENNY O'CONNELL If you work really hard, and you're kind, amazing things will happen. CONAN O'BRIEN Lasting healing comes from being curious rather than controlling, from mercy rather than manipulatio... MARY O'MALLEY What the hell is that?" he asked. "Magic mushrooms." "I've always wanted to try those," he... HEATHER O'NEILL I've always been a pretty good researcher," said Bronwyn modestly.Oh, so that we sha... DANIEL O'MALLEY The plates of the continental shelf - the world itself - had shifted, and their first concern was pu... STEWART O'NAN The weirder you're going to behave, the more normal you should look. It works in reverse, too. When ... P.J. O'ROURKE