http://www.angelfire.com/pages1/drburns/index.html Censors tend to do what only psychotics do: they confuse reality with illusion.
David Cronenberg (b. 1943), Canadian filmmaker. Cronenberg on Cronenberg, ch. 5 (ed. by Chris Rodley, 1992).
Even though a number of people have tried, no one has yet found a way to drink for a living.
Jean Kerr (b. 1923), U.S. author, playwright. Sydney,
in Poor Richard, act 1.
Better belly burst than good liquor be lost.
Jonathan Swift (1667-1745), Anglo-Irish satirist. Neverout, in Polite Conversation, Dialogue 2 (1738), quoting a proverb first collected in James Howell, Paroimiographia (1659).
IÆd hate to be a teetotaller. Imagine getting up in the morning and knowing thatÆs as good as youÆre going to feel all day.
Dean Martin (b. 1917), U.S. screen actor, singer. Quoted in: Leslie Halliwell, HalliwellÆs FilmgoerÆs Companion (1984).
Candy, Is dandy,
But Liquor, Is quicker.
Ogden Nash (1902-1971), U.S. poet. Reflections on Ice-Breaking, in Hard Lines (1931).
I only drink to make other people seem more interesting.
George Jean Nathan (1882-1958), U.S. critic. Quoted beneath his picture in Charlie OÆs bar, New York City......................
Every burned book or house enlightens the world; every suppressed or expunged word reverberates through the earth from side to side.
Ralph Waldo Emerson (1803-82), U.S. essayist, poet, philosopher. Essays, "Compensation," (First Series, 1841).
DonÆt join the book burners. DonÆt think you are going to conceal faults by concealing evidence that they ever existed.
Dwight D. Eisenhower (1890-1969), U.S. general, Republican politician, president. Speech, 14 June 1953, Dartmouth College.
Censorship is never over for those who have experienced it. It is a brand on the imagination that affects the individual who has suffered it, forever.
Nadine Gordimer (b. 1923), South African author. "Censorship and its Aftermath," address, June 1990, to the international WriterÆs Day conference, London (published in Index on Censorship,, Aug 1990).
Lots of people who complained about us receiving the MBE received theirs for heroism in the warùfor killing people. We received ours for entertaining other people. IÆd say we deserve ours more.
John Lennon (1940-80), British rock musician. Quoted in: Beatles Illustrated Lyrics, vol. 1.
God is a concept by which we measure our pain.
John Lennon (1940û80), British rock musician. "God," on the album Plastic Ono Band (1970).
My role in society, or any artist or poetÆs role, is to try and express what we all feel. Not to tell people how to feel. Not as a preacher, not as a leader, but as a reflection of us all.
John Lennon (1940û80), British rock musician. Interview, 8 Dec. 1980, KFRC RKO Radio, given the day of his death.
Life is what happens while you are making other plans.
John Lennon (1940û80), British rock musician. "Beautiful Boy," from the album Starting Over (1980).
Our society is run by insane people for insane objectives. . . . I think weÆre being run by maniacs for maniacal ends . . . and I think IÆm liable to be put away as insane for expressing that. ThatÆs whatÆs insane about it.
John Lennon (1940û80), British rock musician. Interview, 22 June 1968, BBC-TV.
Reality leaves a lot to the imagination.
John Lennon (1940û80), British rock musician. "The Way It Is," CBC-TV, June 1969.
Please accept my resignation. I donÆt care to belong to any club that will have me as a member.
Groucho Marx (1895-1977), U.S. comic actor. Letter to HollywoodÆs FriarÆs Club. Quoted in: Arthur Sheekman, The Groucho Letters, Introduction (1967).
Although it is generally known, I think itÆs about time to announce that I was born at a very early age.
Groucho Marx (1895-1977), U.S. comic actor. Groucho and Me, ch. 1 (1959).
I find television very educational. Every time someone switches it on I go into another room and read a good book.
If the devil were to offer me a resurgence of what is commonly called virility, IÆd decline. "Just keep my liver and lungs in good working order," IÆd reply, "so I can go on drinking and smoking!"
Luis Bu±uel (1900û1983), Spanish filmmaker. My Last Sigh, ch. 6 (1983).
Great music is that which penetrates the ear with facility and leaves the memory with difficulty. Magical music never leaves the memory.
Sir Thomas Beecham (1879û1961), British conductor. Quoted in: Sunday Times (London, 16 Sept. 1962).
Music has charms to soothe a savage breast,
To soften rocks, or bend a knotted oak.
William Congreve (1670û1729), English dramatist. Almeria, in The Mourning Bride, act 1, sc. 1.
Nothing separates the generations more than music. By the time a child is eight or nine, he has developed a passion for his own music that is even stronger than his passions for procrastination and weird clothes.
Bill Cosby (b. 1937), U.S. comedian, actor. Fatherhood, ch. 10 (1986).
Music is spiritual. The music business is not.
Van Morrison (b. 1945), Irish rock musician. Times (London, 6 July 1990).
I think no woman I have had ever gave me so sweet a moment, or at so light a price, as the moment I owe to a newly heard musical phrase.
Stendhal (1783û1842), French author. Letter, 29 Oct. 1808, to his sister Pauline.
The manner in which Americans "consume" music has a lot to do with leaving it on their coffee tables, or using it as wallpaper for their lifestyles, like the score of a movieùitÆs consumed that way without any regard for how and why itÆs made.
Frank Zappa (b. 1940), U.S. rock musician. Interview in: The Real Frank Zappa Book, ch. 11 (1989; written withYou canÆt be a Real Country unless you have A BEER and an airlineùit helps if you have some kind of a football team, or some nuclear weapons, but at the very least you need a BEER.
Frank Zappa (b. 1940), U.S. rock musician. The Real Frank Zappa Book, ch. 12 (1989; written with Peter Occhiogrosso)
A drug is neither moral nor immoralùitÆs a chemical compound. The compound itself is not a menace to society until a human being treats it as if consumption bestowed a temporary license to act like an asshole.
Frank Zappa (b. 1940), U.S. rock musician. The Real Frank Zappa Book, ch. 17 (1989; written with Peter Occhiogrosso).
Most rock journalism is people who canÆt write, interviewing people who canÆt talk, for people who canÆt read.
Frank Zappa (b. 1940), U.S. rock musician. Chicago Tribune (18 Jan. 1978).
Without music to decorate it, time is just a bunch of boring production deadlines or dates by which bills must be paid.
Frank Zappa (b. 1940), U.S. rock musician. The Real Frank Zappa Book, ch. 8 (1989; written with Peter Occhiogrosso).
Get your facts first, and then you can distort them as much as you please.
Mark Twain (1835û1910), U.S. author. Quoted in: Rudyard Kipling, From Sea to Sea, Letter 37 (1899).
