It was your birthday, we had drunk and dined Half of the night with our old friend Who’d showed us in the end To a bed I reached in one drunk stride. Already I lay snug, And drowsy with the wine dozed on one side. I dozed, I slept. My sleep broke on a hug, Suddenly, from behind, In which the full lengths of our bodies pressed: Your instep to my heel, My shoulder-blades against your chest. It was not sex, but I could feel The whole strength of your body set, Or braced, to mine, And locking me to you As if we were still twenty-two When our grand passion had not yet Become familial. My quick sleep had deleted all Of intervening time and place. I only knew The stay of your secure firm dry embrace.
Thom Gunn
Related People are not an interruption of our business. People are our business. A man's worst difficulties begin when he is able to do as he likes. It is hard to look up to a leader who keeps his ear to the ground. The most wasted day of all is that in which we have not laughed. The more intelligent a man is, the more originality he discovers in men. Ordinary people see no diff... The intelligence is proved not by ease of learning, but by understanding what we learn. Communication is something so simple and difficult that we can never put it in simple words. Like threads of silver seen through crystal beads Let love through good deeds show. How much more grievous are the consequences of anger than the causes of it. In everyone's heart stirs a great homesickness. That is the supreme value of history. The study of it is the best guarantee against repeating it. Our wisdom comes usually from our experience, and our experience comes largely from our experience. One thing about the school of experience is that it will repeat the lesson if you flunk the first ti... To reprove small faults within due vehemence, is as absurd as if a man should take a great hammer to... Faith is like electricity. You can't see it, but you can see the light. Every tomorrow has two handles. We can take hold of it by the handle of anxiety, or by the handle of... Some families can trace their ancestors back three hundred years, but can't tell you where their chi... A recent survey was said to prove that the people we Americans most admire are our politicians and d... If a man defrauds you one time, he is a rascal; if he does it twice, you are a fool. Flattery looks like friendship, just like a wolf looks like a dog. Forgiveness is the fragrance the violet sheds on the heel that has crushed it. Courage is always greatest when blended with meekness; intellectual ability is most admired when it ... Freedom also includes the right to mismanage your own affairs. Let your friends be the friends of your deliberate choice. The man who has strong opinions and always says what he thinks is courageous - and friendless. Friendship is love with understanding. So few people think. When we find one who really does, we call him a genius Your life can't go according to plan if you have no plan. Practicing the Golden Rule is not a sacrifice; it is an investment. Conversation is an exercise of the mind; gossip is merely an exercise of the tongue. An expert gossiper knows how much to leave out of a conversation To live so that you would not be ashamed to sell the family parrot to the town gossip, is to have li... Gossip is sometimes referred to as halitosis of the mind If you would attain greatness, think no little thoughts. We are born brave, trusting and greedy, and most of us remain greedy. People are changed, not by coercion or intimidation, but by example. Children are natural mimics; they act like their parents in spite of every effort to teach them good... The guilty catch themselves. Good habits are formed; bad habits we fall into. If happiness could be brought, few of us could pay the price. Happiness will never come to those who fail to appreciate what they already have. Happiness is in the heart, not in the circumstances. It's never too late to have a happy childhood. Hatred is a boomerang which is sure to hit you harder than the one at whom you throw it. Hate pollutes the mind. If we miraculously became the people we hate, how lovable we would find ourselves. To feel "fit as a fiddle" you must tone down your middle. Our health always seems much more valuable after we lose it. A patient going to a doctor for his first visit was asked, "And whom did you consult before coming t... "Oh," replied his patient, with no malice aforethought, "he told me to come and see you." It is impossible to make wisdom hereditary. Honesty is a question of right or wrong, not a matter of policy. It is a pleasure to give advice, humiliating to need it, normal to ignore it. It is almost impossible to smile on the outside without feeling better on the inside. Too many people confine their exercise to jumping to conclusions, running up bills, stretching the t... Imagination was given man to compensate for what he is not, and a sense of humor to console him for ... Humor - the perfect relationship of the parts to the whole. Our five senses are incomplete without the sixth - a sense of humor. "What made the deepest impression upon you?" inquired a friend one day of Lincoln, "when you stood i... It isn't easy for an idea to squeeze itself into a head filled with prejudice. Too many people run out of ideas long before they run out of words. Imagination is the pontoon bridge making way for the timid feet of reason. Practical observation commonly consists of collecting a few facts and loading them with guesses. Friendship is a living thing that lasts only as long as it is nourished with kindness, empathy and u... Having supplied them with names, omnipotence, justice, knowledge, Providence, - what are they? A good laugh is sunshine in a house. When you laugh, be sure to laugh at what people do and not at what people are. One look around us ought to show that all our arbitrary measures and bounds have been clamped on us ... No punishment of the unrighteous has ever been too severe in the eyes of the righteous. Why keep on enacting laws when we already have more than we can break. The best leader is the one who has the sense to surround himself with outstanding people and self-re... Advice is the only commodity on the market where the supply always exceeds the demand. Successful men follow the same advice they prescribe for others. You can judge your age by the amount of pain you feel when you come in contact with a new idea Old age may seem a long way off. But on the day it doesn't, it will be too late to do anything about... Age withers only the outside. Where ambition ends happiness begins. The best answer to answer to anger is silence. The size of a man is measured by the size of the thing that makes him angry. A lot of good arguments are spoiled by some fool who knows what he is talking about. People who know the least always argue the most. If you look for the positive things in life; you will find them. What we are doing at the moment is more that just one thing added to the rest; it is a memoir. Behavior is what a man does, not what he thinks, feels, or believes The human mind must believe in something, so why not let it believe what it does believe. He that boasts of his own knowledge proclaims his ignorance It is better to live richly than to die rich. On his examination paper a boy wrote, "A natural death is where you die by yourself without a doctor... Many things are worse than defeat,and compromise with evil is one of them. Desire for security keeps littleness little and threatens the great with smallness. We cannot be too earnest, too persistent, too determined, about living superior to the herd-instinct... A college education never hurt anybody who was willing to learn after he got it. Shortchange your education now and you may be short of change the rest of your life. Mistakes are a great educator when one is honest enough to admit them and willing to learn from them Catch your people doing something right and let them know you appreciate it. Create the kind of climate in your organization where personal growth is expected, recognized and re... Enthusiasm is very good lubrication for the mind. Enthusiasm is that kindling spark which marks the difference between the leaders in every activity a... There are many roads to hate, but envy is the shortest of them all. The only person worth envying is he person who doesn't envy.
More Thom Gunn
My thoughts are crowded with death and it draws so oddly on the sexual that I am confused to be attr... THOM GUNN Deep feeling doesn't make for good poetry. A way with language would be a bit of help. THOM GUNN We tend to put poems into factions. And it restricts our reading. THOM GUNN As humans we look at things and think about what we've looked at. We treasure it in a kind of pr... THOM GUNN I don't know how to sit outside myself and test against a hypothetical self who stayed home. THOM GUNN I work best in rhyme and meter. I was most confident of myself in that way. THOM GUNN We learned in the university to consider Wordsworth and Keats as Romantics. They were only a generat... THOM GUNN I had assumed that I would age with all my friends growing old around me, dying off very gradually o... THOM GUNN I deliberately decided to write a kind of guide to leather bars for straight people, for people not ... THOM GUNN I was much influenced by Jean-Paul Sartre. THOM GUNN When 'Blade Runner' came out, and especially, even actually when 'Alien' came out, i... JAMES GUNN I believe that treating other people well is a lost art. TIM GUNN My life isn't just one genre. It's a romance one minute, an action movie the next - it's... JAMES GUNN Everyone has a best feature, so find clothes and accessories to accentuate those, whether it's y... TIM GUNN If you told me when I was a teen that I would end up being a teacher, I would have said you're o... TIM GUNN I had this wonderful career and thought I would retire as a teacher. TIM GUNN The UK now offers the lowest margins in the world. BEN GUNN Our international businesses both had a tremendous quarter. Our results demonstrate the continued st... BEN GUNN The protection market remains challenging, but improvements in our competitive position and new dist... BEN GUNN We see opportunities for growth (as being) stronger outside the UK at the moment. BEN GUNN Both core businesses, UK and International, are very well positioned for next year and our distribut... BEN GUNN Both core businesses, UK and International, are very well positioned for next year and our distribut... BEN GUNN We've all been training since October and this (state title) was what we were all going for. I'm jus... BEN GUNN The outlook in the UK is promising, particularly if there is an uplift in the housing market. BEN GUNN I don't have anything against corporate America. I mean, I guess there's something about liv... JAMES GUNN I'm not a gambler, let's just say that, nor have I ever been a dealer at a casino. ANNA GUNN But if I had to choose a single destination where I'd be held captive for the rest of my time in... TIM GUNN I don't know why I've always been so captivated by architecture. TIM GUNN Scooby's the greatest cartoon character ever. He isn't cute like Mickey or smart like Bugs o... JAMES GUNN I told them, you can't put a good player in a position to score like that. You just can't do it if y... ALEC GUNN That boy's got some serious feet. He can run, no doubt about it I think we handled him a little bett... ALEC GUNN I hope you remember that scoreboard. Remember that score because I don't want to see that again. ALEC GUNN I told them, you can't put a good player in a position to score like that. You just can't do it if y... ALEC GUNN We let a good team have too many opportunities. It just kills me. ALEC GUNN You cannot turn the ball over against a team like them, and we did. Way too many times. ALEC GUNN Brian is an all-around athlete. He can really haul. He's one of those guys that you've just got to l... ALEC GUNN That boy's got some serious feet. He can run, no doubt about it … I thi... ALEC GUNN We looked good in those three quarters. It was working. ALEC GUNN Life is not a solo act. It's a huge collaboration, and we all need to assemble around us the peo... TIM GUNN There's nothing I like better than going to my apartment, closing the door, cooking my little di... TIM GUNN I found early on in teaching, if you're too blunt an instrument, the students discredit you and ... TIM GUNN Part of what was in the ether all around me growing up, until I was between 19 and 20, was a terribl... TIM GUNN I have to have my coffee. I probably have three cups a day, but only before noon. TIM GUNN I'm honest about expressing my opinions. At the same time, I'm diplomatic in how I do critiq... TIM GUNN I just don't like conspicuous consumption. I find it distasteful. TIM GUNN Science fiction always has had strains of pessimism and optimism weaving through its historical deve... JAMES GUNN I learned quickly that if the student's perception is that you're not listening to them, and... TIM GUNN Fashion was in a crisis up until the mid-'90s and, when it came out of the crisis, it was a very... TIM GUNN Nobody's all good or bad, and nobody's all light or dark. Every human being has so many diff... ANNA GUNN Science fiction writers aren't in the prediction business; they're in the speculation busine... JAMES GUNN Whoever's designing for plus-size doesn't get it. The entire garment needs to be reconceived... TIM GUNN I love HGTV. I love the Food Network. TIM GUNN The truth is that I didn't start out making commercial movies. My films were not film festival m... JAMES GUNN We played really solid defense. Once we got the four runs there might have been a little overconfide... DAVID GUNN By isolating the issues of race, gender, sexual orientation, climate change, environment, governance... JAMES GUNN With fashion, you really need to understand the aspects of construction. Not just design on an iPad. TIM GUNN I told them, you can't put a good player in a position to score like that. You just can't do it if y... ALEC GUNN That boy's got some serious feet. He can run, no doubt about it
I think we handled him a little b... ALEC GUNN The takeover vehicles being created tend to be high risk because they are exposed to a lot of debt. ... ALASTAIR GUNN Associated British Ports has got an asset base in the ports, a security of income and a consistency ... ALASTAIR GUNN They're a pretty cohesive unit. They were a little bit more individual last year in their play, but ... DAN GUNN I am loath to suggest 'Visitor Q' to anyone, because you've got to have a warped brain t... JAMES GUNN I have my mantra about silhouette, proportion, and fit. I believe that when they are in harmony and ... TIM GUNN I can't be told life is beautiful through a normal positive thinking book or a Hallmark movie; t... JAMES GUNN 'Monty Python And The Holy Grail' is a hugely important movie to me. I remember watching it ... JAMES GUNN I feel a bit like Ellen Glasgow (I think it was) who said that she was the master and characters did... JAMES GUNN When I got hired to do 'Guardians,' it was the dream of a lifetime for me. This is what I... JAMES GUNN If he found out I was sleeping, he'd call the local newspaper, ... That's what he did to my predeces... DAVID GUNN If you look at the transportation system in this country, it's gradually grinding to a halt, ... Now... DAVID GUNN I suffer because I crave this and try to satisfy it. LAURA GUNN you've really got an auto-centric mentality among the bureaucratic elite. They've got absolutely no ... DAVID GUNN We gave up a big hit that scored three runs on one of those open diamonds. It would have been a doub... DAVID GUNN The zombie is in a lot of ways the perfect horror movie bad guy. It plays on so many fears all at on... JAMES GUNN We're still taking statements, we're still finding stuff. LAURA GUNN This is the worst case of child molestation imaginable. I don't know if we've ever seen a case like ... LAURA GUNN Simply put, this is the worst case of child molest imaginable. LAURA GUNN I'm the luckiest guy in the world. I got to direct a movie involving three of my favorite things... JAMES GUNN Few activities are as delightful as learning new vocabulary. TIM GUNN We know there are more victims out there. LAURA GUNN The only thing more powerful than words - is the Author who chooses them. K.A. GUNN We know this won't solve the problem, but this gives them another tool to work with, ... The freight... DAVID GUNN If Amtrak fails, intercity passenger rail will be gone in this country, ... If we can't make it at A... DAVID GUNN As kids do, they're smart, and even if parents try to keep things away from them, conflict and i... ANNA GUNN It's tough. You don't get a break going over there, but it's good for our girls to see. If you're go... DAVE GUNN I was the only person who could lose the shootout for our team. CHANDA GUNN I haven't played so well in this tournament. CHANDA GUNN There are a lot of people that want to send us home feeling like failures because we won bronze. I t... CHANDA GUNN This isn't the game we wanted to be playing in, but we pulled together as a team. CHANDA GUNN I tried to give my best in every game that I play, but I haven't played so well in this tournament. ... CHANDA GUNN There are a lot of people who want to send us home feeling like failures. CHANDA GUNN I felt confident. I just wish I could have stopped one or two more. CHANDA GUNN To see other countries are putting time and effort and money into their programs is a great thing...... CHANDA GUNN She's really as good as they come. She made me nervous. CHANDA GUNN In an ideal world, if we had a list of who's starting every game, that would be great. I think he so... CHANDA GUNN But my manners also came from when I was in college and began participating in critiques. You have t... TIM GUNN When I write a screenplay - and I think it's one of the reasons why it was frustrating for me ju... JAMES GUNN We're competing the whole game. We're not having multiple errors in a row. We're spreading them out.... DAVE GUNN We didn't run the bases well. Other teams take extra bases on us, but we haven't got our heads up en... DAVE GUNN The popularity of fantasy surpassing science fiction and the popularity of apocalyptic fiction, part... JAMES GUNN Obviously, what their goal is - and it's been their goal from the beginning - is to liquidate the co... DAVID GUNN a different type of leader who will aggressively tackle the company's financial, management and oper... DAVID GUNN a leader with vision and experience. DAVID GUNN They have no plan for Amtrak other than bankruptcy, DAVID GUNN Both have caused suffering, and both have raised a lot of questions for people. I think it's natural... DAVID GUNN Take the high road. No matter how much strife, and consternation, frustration and anger you might be... TIM GUNN I've been making movies a long time. I'm a professional at it. I'm not a professional at... JAMES GUNN We talk a lot about rebounding with Troyer, and he feels good about it. If he doesn't get the reboun... DAN GUNN I never thought about that. I guess I'd hope so. I think in order to win, there has to be some physi... DAN GUNN When I was a small child, I partially learned to read with comics, in particular with 'Scamp,... JAMES GUNN The work is at such a high level and is so well executed, it really is a matter of taste... [Source:... TIM GUNN Return of the Living Dead. JAMES GUNN The compassion is instigated by the situation, and Godwin, a bit ham-handedly, belabors the situatio... JAMES GUNN What you call "the Golden Age tradition" of stringing stories together into novels was not so much a... JAMES GUNN Most of the complexity of the stories has developed as the stories came along (and may be a product ... JAMES GUNN I could give you some names of Workshop participants who are as good as many who are being published... JAMES GUNN Scientists do their best work when they are in their early years. Writers' skills don't necessarily ... JAMES GUNN In hard-core science fiction in which characters are responding to a change in environment, caused b... JAMES GUNN A few years ago, a fellow professor stopped at my door and said, "You're here in your office more th... JAMES GUNN I don't know if there is any one secret to successful writing, but one important step is to move bey... JAMES GUNN Speaking of high-end shoe designers, in 2011 it was fascinating to see the design company of Christi... TIM GUNN It's a very good institution. You can't help but sympathize with the people who work there. LAURA GUNN She is a very ill child. LAURA GUNN I hope very much that there aren't other victims. I just don't know at this point. LAURA GUNN He averaged about two kids a week, and he specifically chose children who were the most brain-damage... LAURA GUNN It's a really sad, sad case. LAURA GUNN One of the agents who interviewed him said, 'How many kids are we talking about? The defendant, who ... LAURA GUNN When I was a kid, I was obsessed with different planets in the solar system, and I used to create, f... JAMES GUNN I will always be there in the wings saying, 'You need to be good to people. You need to take your wo... TIM GUNN Sometimes the nicest thing to do with a guitar is just look at it. THOM YORKE Men don't know enough about being courteous toward women. You should get into a cab before a wom... THOM BROWNE Well, my son really loves wildlife. And everytime he draws a polar bear I want to tell him there pro... THOM YORKE I'm not Amish, but I grew up in that same area of Pennsylvania and became very attracted to the ... THOM BROWNE I've never believed that pop music is escapist trash. There's always a darkness in it, even ... THOM YORKE The number-one defender of the Second Amendment rights is the National Rifle Association. The NRA wo... THOM TILLIS We're producing spaces that accommodate human activity. And what I'm interested in is not th... THOM MAYNE We don't classify all doctors as incompetent because of the infrequent instances of medical malp... THOM TILLIS BDS is not a typical act of political correctness, undertaken by radical academics whose usual prey ... THOM TILLIS Federal dollars and resources come with so much red tape that state and local experts can't use ... THOM TILLIS The NRA is a true grass-roots organization, and the collective power of its membership is simply unp... THOM TILLIS As the former state speaker of the North Caroline House of Representatives, I helped push two landma... THOM TILLIS As a freedom-lover and avid outdoorsman, I understand the importance of protecting the Second Amendm... THOM TILLIS I've always had the kinds of careers that have a tendency to go home with you. THOM TILLIS People bring up Willie Horton or some other political bombshell in the past, but what they're no... THOM TILLIS You will never satisfy the far extremes on the Left and the Right. THOM TILLIS We have to show respect for that woman who has cerebral palsy and had no choice in her condition, th... THOM TILLIS We need a Congress that understands the sanctity of life, the sanctity of traditional values, the sa... THOM TILLIS What I want to do is create jobs that make the minimum wage irrelevant. THOM TILLIS Barack Obama and Kay Hagan think that the minimum wage needs to be the same in the mountains of Nort... THOM TILLIS 'Intensity' is a good word. It's like ambition, if it's not ambition at expense of s... THOM TILLIS We owe it to the American people to set aside the areas where our ideology may prevent progress and ... THOM TILLIS Republicans should remember that when Trump campaigned, he wasn't holding up a conservative mani... THOM TILLIS I am a U.S. senator from North Carolina. I'm worried about doing the business on the Capitol Hil... THOM TILLIS In cyberspace, weapons systems get created in 24-hour cycles. You have no earthly idea whether or no... THOM TILLIS Democrats creating the expectation that judges should act as politicians in robes is a dangerous pre... THOM TILLIS Law enforcement officers are entrusted with a tremendous responsibility; that is why we hold them to... THOM TILLIS If you just focus on producing good outcomes, all that other stuff sorts itself out. THOM TILLIS To indiscriminately cast all law enforcement as enemies of our communities is to engage in an attemp... THOM TILLIS I want to create an economy where minimum wage is a very brief stepping stone to higher-paying jobs ... THOM TILLIS I resolve to work with my colleagues to succeed in producing the good rather than failing to produce... THOM TILLIS People define themselves aesthetically at a very young age. THOM FILICIA I've always been interested in an architecture of resistance - architecture that has some power ... THOM MAYNE I think the most important thing about music is the sense of escape. THOM YORKE I think sometimes all the charities are doing is mopping up the blood. It's a shame. THOM YORKE Since Brooks Brothers is a 189-year-old company, there are plenty of references and inspirations I c... THOM BROWNE Architecture is involved with the world, but at the same time it has a certain autonomy. This autono... THOM MAYNE Architecture is a result of a process of asking questions and testing them and re-interrogating and ... THOM MAYNE Designing is so easy - it's the business that is hard. That's why you really have to respect... THOM BROWNE I think my clients would tell you I'm a problem solver. I'm not there to agree with people. ... THOM MAYNE It is difficult to make political art work. THOM YORKE I think that you find out what your boss wants you to do, and you do more. To me, that's work et... THOM TILLIS In architecture, you arrive so late. I look at doctors, lawyers I know, and they're all buying b... THOM MAYNE When people have too many choices, they make bad choices. THOM BROWNE The girls were scared, and the boys were excited. CAIDEN THOM He's a pretty fast runner. CAIDEN THOM The alarm was faint, but we could still hear it. CAIDEN THOM When we walked to the bus stop at the top of the street, Troy heard a fire alarm. I walked to the Du... CAIDEN THOM Look around at day-to-day life for ideas, and it finds its way into your work. THOM MAYNE My mom will not go to Florida during the winter. She wants to watch all the games. BILL THOM It's kind of like apples and oranges, not really an even playing field. ... I know there are some ot... BILL THOM My coaching philosophy is very team-oriented. If (DiMaggio) was playing in another program, he might... BILL THOM He works very hard at his trade. Twelve months of the year, he's doing something. After practice he'... BILL THOM It's kind of like apples and oranges, not really an even playing field. ... I know there are some ot... BILL THOM Descriptions of my work depress me. They make me feel pinned down. THOM MAYNE Architecture is the beginning of something because it's - if you're not involved in first pr... THOM MAYNE The people in charge, globally, are maniacs. They are maniacs, and unless we do something about it t... THOM YORKE His birth parents literally gave him away at birth to another couple who, during his first year of l... THOM SHUMAN This is the safest way clinically to increase stem cell circulation, far safer than any of the pharm... STEPHEN THOM The convenience of an early-morning departure from John Wayne and an evening return flight makes it ... THOM NULTY We only exist in terms of how we think we exist. Meaning every cultural development is fabricated an... THOM MAYNE When you do that, you obviously know the nuances that go with it. Staples is better than that. They'... THOM JACOBS The commission is seeking clarification [from Moscow and Kiev] as to what the situation is. MIREILLE THOM I strongly support the construction of the Keystone Pipeline and favor expanding offshore drilling t... THOM TILLIS I think the set looks great. It's kind of like Battlestar Galactica meets like the Italian furni... THOM FILICIA My argument would be that I don't think there is much that's genuinely political art that is... THOM YORKE Standing up for Israel at home validates those fundamental principles of freedom enshrined in our Co... THOM TILLIS I think a lot of people have the Frank Lloyd Wright model in their brains. The architect comes in wi... THOM MAYNE I just received the endorsement of the National Right to Life, and more than anybody else, more than... THOM TILLIS I think artists can influence only through making music that challenges people, excites them and fli... THOM YORKE I have a preference for rough architecture, real, inexpensive, unfinished. THOM MAYNE Since I became a senator in 2015, my office has been inundated by countless letters, emails, and cal... THOM TILLIS