Quotations: Love Quotes, Funny Quotes, Famous Quotes, Inspirational, Motivational

Quotable Valentine Day - Quotes about Feb 14 and why we're so stupid about Cupid!

2012-02-03T18:37:00.000Z

THE QUOTABLE VALENTINE

Great Quotes about Valentine's Day - February 14th

With Valentine's Day looming ... here are a few topical quotations about the most romantic of days - or unromantic given the viewpoint of some of the sour-faced sources below ...

"Oh, if it be to choose and call thee mine, love, thou art every day my Valentine!"
Thomas Hood

"I claim there ain't another Saint as great as Valentine."
Ogden Nash

"I wanted to make it really special on Valentine's Day, so I tied my boyfriend up. And for three solid hours I watched whatever I wanted on TV."
Tracy Smith

"It's Valentine's Day - that time of year when we are once again reminded of the grand, old difference between men and women. Women are better."
Imag-e-nation.com

"I got a Valentine's Day card from my girl. It said, 'Take my heart! Take my arms! Take my lips!' Which is just like her. Keeping the best part for herself."
Robert Orben

"If you don't have a valentine, hang out with your girlfriends, don't go looking for someone. When it's right, they'll come to you."
Carmen Electra

"Feb 14th is Valentine's Day. Or, as men like to call it, Extortion day."
Jay Leno

"It's not every day that I tell you "I love you!" ... OK, maybe it is, but on Valentines Day it's the law!!"
Anon

"I don't understand why Cupid was chosen to represent Valentine's Day. When I think about romance, the last thing on my mind is a short, chubby toddler coming at me with a weapon."
Anon

"Valentine’s Day is when a lot of married men are reminded what a poor shot Cupid really is."
Anon (or a non-romantic)

Valentine Quotations from TV ...

Sally Solomon: "Hey you guys, why is everything so red on Valentine's Day? I mean the greeting cards, and the candy, even the tire ads."
Dr. Dick Solomon: "Well, red represents the blood that was spilled at the massacre."
Harry Solomon: "Massacre?"
Dick: "Yeah, the St. Valentine's Day massacre. It's a very big deal here on Earth."
3rd Rock from the Sun: Dick Puts the 'Id' in Cupid (2000)

Johnny Chase: "I remember I broke up with Stacy Laruzso a week before Valentine's Day. I got back with her a week after. No chocolates, no roses... "
Eric Murphy: "No Class."
Entourage: Blue Balls Lagoon (2005)

Alex: "I don't do Valentine's Day first dates. I think it's a jinx."
Marissa: "That's okay."
Alex: "But next week, when we don't have Hallmark breathing down our necks, we'll go on a date. Cool?"
The O.C.: The Lonely Hearts Club (2005)

Dr. Robert Chase: "Happy Valentine's Day."
Dr. Allison Cameron: "A holiday that only applies to people who are already paired up. For everyone else, it's Monday."
House MD: Insensitive (2007)

Kelly Kapoor: "I received my first Valentine from a secret admirer ... [reads] 'Roses are red. Violets are blue. Its time for your dental cleaning. And maybe a check-up too.' "
The Office: Blood Drive (2009)

If you have any favourite Valentine's quotes that you'd like to share with us, please do so in the comments box below ...

HAPPY VALENTINE'S TO YOU ALL !

The Quotable Listener - great quotes on the power of not talking

2011-01-12T10:18:00.004Z

THE QUOTABLE LISTENER

The Quiet Art of Sshhh...utting Up

A selection of inspirational quotations on the power of not talking may seem to be a strange choice considering The Quotable Listener is an oxymoron ... and that is just the point that these thought-provoking quotes are trying to make.

So don't talk, listen to what these people are saying ...

"Listening is like a torch that dispels the darkness of ignorance."

Dalai Lama

"Courage is what it takes to stand up and speak; courage is also what it takes to sit down and listen."

Winston Churchill

"The most important thing in communication is to hear what isn't being said."

Peter F. Drucker

"We have two ears and one mouth so that we can listen twice as much as we speak."

Epictetus

"It's only through listening that you learn, and I never want to stop learning."

Drew Barrymore

"Difficult as it is really to listen to someone in affliction, it is just as difficult for him to know that compassion is listening to him."

Simone Weil

"Listening, not imitation, may be the sincerest form of flattery."

Joyce Brothers

"There is no such thing as a worthless conversation, provided you know what to listen for. And questions are the breath of life for a conversation."

James Nathan Miller

"It is the province of knowledge to speak And it is the privilege of wisdom to listen."

Oliver Wendell Holmes

"A good listener is not only popular everywhere, but after a while he knows something."

Wilson Mizner

"You need to listen to your body because your body is listening to you."

Dr. Phil McGraw

"One advantage of talking to yourself is that you know at least somebody's listening."

Franklin P. Jones

"Everything in writing begins with language. Language begins with listening."

Jeanette Winterson

"The subconscious is ceaselessly murmuring, and it is by listening to these murmurs that one hears the truth."

Gaston Bachelard

"The first duty of love is to listen."

Paul Tillich

"Wisdom is the reward you get for a lifetime of listening when you'd have preferred to talk."

Doug Larson

"The opposite of talking is not listening. The opposite of talking is waiting."

Fran Lebowitz
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Quotable New Year - Quotations from New Year's Eve to Last Year's Resolutions.

2010-12-28T21:38:00.002Z

THE QUOTABLE NEW YEAR

Twelve great quotations to see in the New Year ...

"Cheers to a new year and another chance for us to get it right."

Oprah Winfrey

"New Year's Eve is like every other night; there is no pause in the march of the universe, no breathless moment of silence among created things that the passage of another twelve months may be noted; and yet no man has quite the same thoughts this evening that come with the coming of darkness on other nights."

Hamilton Wright Mabie

"The proper behavior all through the holiday season is to be drunk. This drunkenness culminates on New Year's Eve, when you get so drunk you kiss the person you're married to."

P.J. O'Rourke

"New Year's Eve, where auld acquaintance be forgot. Unless, of course, those tests come back positive."

Jay Leno

"An optimist stays up until midnight to see the new year in. A pessimist stays up to make sure the old year leaves."

Bill Vaughan

"New Year's Day: Now is the accepted time to make your regular annual good resolutions. Next week you can begin paving hell with them as usual."

Mark Twain

"We spend January 1 walking through our lives, room by room, drawing up a list of work to be done, cracks to be patched. Maybe this year, to balance the list, we ought to walk through the rooms of our lives... not looking for flaws, but for potential."

Ellen Goodman

"The object of a new year is not that we should have a new year. It is that we should have a new soul."

G.K. Chesterton

"May all your troubles last as long as your New Year's resolutions."

Joey Adams

"I do think New Year's resolutions can't technically be expected to begin on New Year's Day, don't you? Since, because it's an extension of New Year's Eve, smokers are already on a smoking roll and cannot be expected to stop abruptly on the stroke of midnight with so much nicotine in the system. Also dieting on New Year's Day isn't a good idea as you can't eat rationally but really need to be free to consume whatever is necessary, moment by moment, in order to ease your hangover. I think it would be much more sensible if resolutions began generally on January the second."

Helen Fielding

"Making resolutions is a cleansing ritual of self assessment and repentance that demands personal honesty and, ultimately, reinforces humility. Breaking them is part of the cycle."

Eric Zorn

"It wouldn't be New Year's if I didn't have regrets."

William Thomas

The Quotable Lady Gaga - quotes from her sexuality to her fashion sense, from her music to her muses.

2010-12-27T22:59:00.003Z

THE QUOTABLE LADY GAGA

Lady GaGa Quotes and Quotes about Lady GaGa

One of the most outspoken and outrageous and outgoing personalities in the world today, controversial singer-songwriter and fashion icon Lady Gaga (Poker Face, Bad Romance and Just Dance) has had a lot to say about her life, her music, her desires, her sexuality and herself ...

"Trust is like a mirror, you can fix it if it's broken, but you can still see the crack in the reflection."

"Money is completely boring to me. It means nothing, except it feeds my art."

"I'm just trying to change the world, one sequin at a time."

"A glamorous life is quite different to a life of luxury. I don’t need luxury. For years, I was practically broke but I was still very vain and glamorous. And I still am."

"I'm obsessively opposed to the typical."

"I think what Madonna and I share is that we are both fearless. We both have a lot of nerve."

"Fight and push harder for what you believe in, you'd be surprised, you are much stronger than you think."

"Don't you ever let a soul in the world tell you that you can't be exactly who you are."

"You should look nice all the time."

"You're love is nothing I can't fight. Can't sleep with a man who dims my shine."

"There are no rules or limits when it comes to love. But I see love as separate from sex."

"I don't feel like I look like the other perfect little pop singers, I think I'm changing what people think is sexy."

"People will always talk, so lets give them something to talk about."

"I talk about myself in the third person all the time. I don't live my life in the way someone like you does."

"Just dance ... it's gonna be okay."

"It's hard knowing who to trust with your personal life. When you cry in your room at night, you don't always know who to call. So I am very close to my family."

"Some women choose to follow men, and some women choose to follow their dreams. If you're wondering which way to go, remember that your career will never wake up and tell you that it doesn't love you anymore"

"You see legendary people taking out their trash, I think it's destroying showbusiness."

"I would rather die than have my fans see me without a pair of heels on. And that's show business."

"I want to have a husband who loves and supports me, just the way anyone else does, I am a very sentimental person and family is important to me."

"Art is life, life is art ... The question is, what came first?"

"The biggest misconception about me is I'm a character or a persona. That when the lights and cameras turn off, I turn into a pumpkin. It's simply not true. I make music and art and design all day long. Yes, I wash my face and go to sleep but when I wake up, I am always Lady GaGa."

"Celebrate all the things you don't like about yourself - love yourself."

CELEBRITIES on LADY GAGA

"She's definitely a big style icon for everyone, and it's made everyone go a bit more edgy with their fashion. I think Lady GaGa is extremely talented - she is a composer, a pianist, she's an opera singer and she does classical music too. I think we haven't even seen her talent yet."

Naomi Campbell

"She breaks all the rules; she’s unconventional. It’s extremely flattering that people think she’s like Carrie [Bradshaw]."

Sarah Jessica Parker

"She's really hot, She's got a look."

Kristen Stewart

"To this day I love sexuality. I love the art of sexuality. I love Lady GaGa and the performance of sexuality. The mysterious, the artistic and the slightly perverse. I'm interested in all that."

Dame Helen Mirren

"I saw her on the American Music Awards, and I was like, 'You're an animal of another kind, and we need you!' She's amazing. She's an entertainer, a visual artist. And her lyrics do mean things when you actually break them down."

Katy Perry

"Lady GaGa has a very bold, fearless image and, I have to say, I have so much respect for original artists who aren't afraid to do what they do. That's what I respect the most. She's awesome."

Rihanna

"Lady GaGa is good, but she's a new artist, Britney Spears is a legend. They are two different artists, two forms of entertainment but very different, is like comparing Picasso to Dali."

Lily Allen

"I consider her more than a dear friend. I consider her my wife, my sister, my daughter. I'm so thankful for her success and I feel like I'm succeeding because she's succeeding. It's that close of a bond. I saw the potential in her from the very beginning before anyone else."

Perez Hilton

"I love Lady GaGa's tracks but I just wish she'd keep her mouth shut. She talks way too much and has too much attitude. It's starting to make me go off her."

Kelly Osbourne

"She is incredible, And the most amazing thing is she was like that before all the fame. We'll be at the airport and she'll have full fishnets and the brazier on even then. I'll be there with my hair tied up, old sweatpants and top that doesn't even match, and she's their in fishnets and not much else."

Nicole Scherzinger

"She knows exactly what she's doing. She's very smart, she's not selling out, she's a great musician, she's a great singer, and she's laughing when she's doing it, the same way that I am."

Marilyn Manson

Click here for more great LADY GAGA stuff

If you have a favourite quote by or about Lady GaGa, go ahead and share it with us all in the comments box below.
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THE QUOTABLE FATHER CHRISTMAS - Santa Claus quotes for some Xmas cheer

2010-12-23T18:26:00.002Z

THE QUOTABLE FATHER CHRISTMAS

Santa Claus quotes for some Xmas cheer

In celebration of the patron saint of Christmas, here is a seasonal selection of quotations about Santa Claus, Kris Kringle, Pere Noel, Kerstman, Yule Elder, Old Man Frost, Papa Noel, Saint Nicholas, Father Christmas ...

"They err who thinks Santa Claus comes down through the chimney; he really enters through the heart."

Mrs Paul M. Ell

"Whenever you give someone a present or sing a holiday song, you're helping Santa Claus. To me, that's what Christmas is all about. Helping Santa Claus."

Louis Sachar

"When I found out that Santa Claus wasn't real, I wasn't upset; rather, I was relieved that there was a much simpler phenomenon to explain how so many children all over the world got presents on the same night! The story had been getting pretty complicated - it was getting out of hand."

Richard P. Feynman

"Christmas at my house is always at least six or seven times more pleasant than anywhere else. We start drinking early. And while everyone else is seeing only one Santa Claus, we'll be seeing six or seven."

W.C. Fields

"Santa Claus has the right idea - visit people only once a year."

Victor Borge

"God is a Republican, and Santa Claus is a Democrat."

Henry Louis Mencken

"Santa Claus wears a Red Suit, he must be a communist. And a beard and long hair, must be a pacifist. What's in that pipe that he's smoking?"

Arlo Guthrie

"Santa Claus is anyone who loves another and seeks to make them happy; who gives himself by thought or word or deed in every gift that he bestows."

Edwin Osgood Grover

"One of the problems we have in this country is that too many adults believe in Santa Claus, and too many children don't."

Lee Lauer

"A cynic is just a man who found out when he was about ten that there wasn't any Santa Claus, and he's still upset."

James Gould

"Santa is very jolly because he knows where all the bad girls live."

George Carlin

"In this age of instant coffee, overnight rush deliveries, and 30-second media sound bites, it's not surprising that children have discovered that their letters to Santa Claus can be sent by email."

Patrick Flaherty

"There are three stages of a man’s life: He believes in Santa Claus, he doesn’t believe in Santa Claus, he is Santa Claus."

Anon

More great Xmas Quotes ...

The Twelve Quotes of Christmas - Seasonal Quotations for Festive Cheer

Funny Xmas Quotes and Christmas Cheer - Putting Fun and Laughter into the Festive Season

What's so 'Special' about the Doctor Who Christmas Specials?

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QUOTABLE QUOTES #1 - Random Quotations linked by a common thread.

2010-12-22T11:17:00.008Z

QUOTABLE RANDOM QUOTES #1

A series of 'random' quotations that make you think about life in general ... each quote is connected to the next one via a common keyword ...

“We live in an age when pizza gets to your home before the police.”

Jeff Marder

"A recent police study found that you're much more likely to get shot by a fat cop if you run."

Dennis Miller

"Only Irish coffee provides in a single glass all four essential food groups: alcohol, caffeine, sugar, and fat."

Alex Levine

"If I were a woman I'd wear coffee as a perfume."

John Van Druten

"Happiness is perfume, you can't pour it on somebody else without getting a few drops on yourself."

James Van Der Zee

"Happiness held is the seed; happiness shared is the flower."

John Harrigan

"One sure way to lose another woman's friendship is to try to improve her flower arrangements."

Marcelene Cox

"Men kick friendship around like a football, but it doesn't seem to crack. Women treat it like glass and it goes to pieces."

Anne Morrow Lindbergh

"If God hadn’t meant us to hunt men, he wouldn’t have given us Wonder Bras."

Kathy Lette

"The only gossip I'm interested in is things from the Weekly World News - 'Woman's bra bursts, 11 injured'. That kind of thing."

Johnny Depp

"Gossip is just news running ahead of itself in a red satin dress."

Liz Smith

"The only rule is don't be boring and dress cute wherever you go. Life is too short to blend in."

Paris Hilton

“Life is too short for reading inferior books.”

James Bryce

"Books are the carriers of civilization. Without books, history is silent, literature dumb, science crippled, thought and speculation at a standstill."

Barbara Tuchman

“A nation or civilization that continues to produce soft-minded men purchases its own spiritual death on an installment plan.”

Martin Luther King, Jr.

"Dying is easy, it's living that scares me to death."

Annie Lennox

Click here for more great quotations...
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Quotations about eBooks from Franz Kafka to Stephen Fry

2010-12-18T16:24:00.005Z

eBOOK eQUOTES

“Books are no more threatened by Kindle than stairs by elevators.”

Stephen Fry

With the recent (compared to traditional printing) advent of eBooks, quotations about electronic books are few and far between with the exception of Stephen Fry's upwardly mobile example above.

So, while we wait for e-literature to catch up and provide a number of well-chosen ebook quotes, here are a few re-quotes of classic book quotations that may serve to fill the ebook void for the time being. And who better to get us underway ...

"I get an urge, like a pregnant elephant, to go away and give birth to an ebook."
Stephen Fry

"An ebook is judged, not by its reference to life, but by its reference to other ebooks."
Stephen Fry

"eBooks serve to show a man that those original thoughts of his aren't very new after all."
Abraham Lincoln

"The oldest eBooks are still only just out to those who have not read them."
Samuel Butler

"The man who does not read good eBooks has no advantage over the man who can't read them."
Mark Twain

"Outside of a dog, an eBook is man's best friend. Inside of a dog it's too dark to read."
Groucho Marx

"An eBook is like a garden carried in the pocket."
Chinese Proverb

"An eBook must be an ice-axe to break the seas frozen inside our soul."
Franz Kafka

"No man can be called friendless who has God and the companionship of good eBbooks."
Elizabeth Barrett Browning

"If there's an eBook you really want to read but it hasn't been written yet, then you must write it."
Toni Morrison

"Why buy a ebook when you can join a library."
Ricky Gervais

"The true university these days is a collection of ebooks."
Thomas Carlyle

"The only true equalisers in the world are ebooks; the only treasure-house open to all comers is a library; the only wealth which will not decay is knowledge; the only jewel which you can carry beyond the grave is wisdom."

J. A. Langford

"No furniture so charming as ebooks."
Sydney Smith

"eBook lovers never go to bed alone."
Anon

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What's so 'Special' about the Doctor Who Christmas Specials?

2010-12-17T15:01:00.002Z

What's so 'Special' about
the Doctor Who Christmas Specials?

by Catherine A. Davies

To make the wait for this year's Doctor Who Xmas Special - A Christmas Carol - a little easier for us impatient Who fans, I have delved back into the archives and found some reviews of the first five Specials to whet our appetite. This personal selection goes a long way to explaining what makes for a great Dr Who Special and where the festive format falls down.

So what of the early Who yuletide episodes? Some have been crackers, some have been turkeys. Some have had all the trimmings, others have had a little too much stuffing. All have featured the Tenth Doctor and all have generated a mountain of reviews - good and bad, funny and sad, sensible and mad ...

"The thing about Doctor Who Christmas Specials is that they are now traditionally required to fulfil a number of audience expectations. They have to be brash, no nonsense populist affairs with an ersatz seasonal message or spirit of intention. It's no good examining the plot that closely or digging around for complex existential homilies because it won't stand up to the pressure."

Frank Collins on BehindTheSofa.org.uk (2008)

"Obviously, there has to be some sort of monster. It wouldn't be Doctor Who on Christmas Day if there wasn't something to freak you out."

David Tennant on RadioTimes.com (2007)

"Doctor Who and Christmas go together like marmite and cheese. Or marmite and jam. Or whatever the hell English people eat marmite with. The point is, they go together well."

Teresa Jusino on PinkRayGun.com (2007)

"If you’re looking for subtleties, a bit of quietness and a little bit of restraint and withdrawal over the festive period, then the past few years have proven that the Doctor Who Christmas Special is absolutely not the place to find it."

Simon Brew on DenOfGeek.com (2009)

"If the Doctor Who Christmas Special really is the franchise's shop window then isn't it about time we got the Fenwicks treatment instead of another gaudy sale at What Everybody Wants?"

Neil Perryman on BehindTheSofa.org.uk (2008)

"Doctor Who is deliriously camp at the best of times, so it makes sense that putting it together with Christmas will notch the Ugly Sister factor up to 11."

Dan Martin on Guardian.co.uk (2010)

"It’s a measure of the remarkable success of the 21st century reboot of Doctor Who that the show’s special 60-minute Christmas episode has, after only one previous outing, already been accorded the sort of acclaim and anticipation historically reserved for the likes of Morecambe and Wise and Only Fools and Horses."

Paul Mount on SciFind.co.uk

"Christmas television was a big deal when I was young. It was the only time of the year that my mum would buy the Radio Times and the TV Times, and I used to love poring over them - I think that’s quite a common British experience. So I’m thrilled to have been part of that for the last few years. We’ll have done five Christmas Specials and Doctor Who seems such an obvious fit for Christmas television, doesn’t it?"

David Tennant (2009)

The Christmas Invasion (2005)

"The Christmas Invasion is an important episode of Doctor Who, not least because it introduces a new Doctor. It is the first Christmas special for forty years (to the day); it is the first Christmas Special to exist in the BBC's archives, and it is the first Christmas Special to exist independently of a wider story. The fact that it is written by Russell T. Davies carries negative connotations for many (myself included) but I was in a forgiving mood for this one: a Christmas special is intrinsically campier and less serious than a regular episode and so I am prepared to let quite a lot go."

Ed Martin on GalliffreyOne.com

"When I read the script, I thought, 'This is quite dark and kids will be petrified to go near their Christmas trees.' But they love being scared."

Billie Piper on RadioTimes.com (2005)

"Billie Piper was a real jingle-belle as she tried to stand up to the aliens."

Sara Nathan in The Sun (2005)

"The most wildly anticipated show of the season - the Doctor Who Christmas Special. 'Wildly anticipated' because a) Doctor Who was the best show of 2005 by about 16 billion parsecs and b) it's our first proper chance to see David Tennant in action. Thank God, then, that this doesn't disappoint in the slightest. In fact, it's possibly the greatest Christmas episode of any programme ever."

Charlie Brooker in The Guardian (2005)

"Casanova, in pyjamas, fighting the Sycorax with a broadsword? What greater gift could womankind receive on Christmas Day?"

Caitlin Moran in The Times (2005)

"Psycho Santas, a killer Christmas tree, a great sword fight, The Doctor coming over all domestic as he tucks into his Christmas dinner - all this and a burst of Slade's perennial it-wouldn't-be-Christmas-without-it hit Merry Christmas Everybody too - what more could you ask for in a Christmas present?! It actually made the tedium and despair of the Christmas season worthwhile!"

Kevin Stone on EOFFTV.org

"Mickey Smith played 'Adric.' A supporting role that adds little to the episode other than to remind viewers that the concept of 'family' is central at Christmastime."

Matthew Walter on EyeOfHorus.org.uk

The Runaway Bride (2006)

"At times you have to wonder if Russell T. Davies is running out of ideas - it's a big leap from bringing back old favourites like the Daleks or cybermen to having robot santas and those silly killer Christmas trees appear on Earth two years in succession. Especially as they weren't that inspiring in The Christmas Invasion."

'The Acrobatic Flea' on HeroPress.net (2006)

"Christmas is a time of high expectations - perhaps only weddings (according to the Doctor, scenes of chemical warfare) come close. The Runaway Bride turns the familiar into a threat - killer Santas, exploding baubles, a spaceship shaped like the star from a Christmas tree. And families will have enjoyed the episode. I note its use of children - three in the wedding reception, two watching the motorway chase, one near the end threatened with death by laser, none of them speaking parts - and suspect it will have been much more successful at making the youngest viewers feel part of the action than Old Who's habit of dragging in child actors ever was. Above all there is a happy ending; the man with the magic screwdriver sees us right, all over in time for dinner."

Nicholas Whyte on StrangeHorizons.com (2007)

"A sparkling but musty vintage with complex undertones and a bittersweet finish. Best enjoyed with: Christmas pudding with a very large slosh of brandy."

Androzani.com

"Russell T. Davies had one big surprise in his story that was all but guaranteed to lead you spitting out your Christmas satsuma."

Simon Brew on DenOfGeek.com (2009)

"Compared to last year’s big, epic Christmas Invasion, The Runaway Bride seems distinctly low-key and, despite the odd festive reference and a bit of trimming here and there, decidedly un-Christmassy ... But ultimately it really doesn’t matter; it’s always entertaining, frequently laugh-out-loud amusing and never less than utterly charming. The Runaway Bride is perfect veg out Christmas night television and if Doctor Who is now established as a festive tradition, then long may it continue."

Paul Mount on SciFind.co.uk

Voyage of the Damned (2007)

"In early December I predicted Voyage of the Damned would be 'all teeth, tits and tinsel - it'll be spectacle and little substance - it'll annoy the hell out of us and be loved by the masses.' Of course, it got 12 million plus viewers, but almost half that number had consumed such an excess of food that their body mass just fused with the sofa they'd slopped down in after eating their way through 4 Iceland stores worth of Profiteroles and honey glazed racks of Kerry Katona. They'd barely register as sentient life, let alone viewers. DFS could make a fortune from these new sofa people."

Damon Querry on BehindTheSofa.org.uk (2007)

"In the space of three years, the Doctor Who Christmas Special has become the tent pole of the BBC’s seasonal schedule ... Voyage of the Damned is pretty to look at and diverting enough yuletide entertainment but it’s a long way from being unsinkable."

Adam Herman on TotalSciFiOnline.com (2007)

"How is it remotely conceivable to become so wrapped up in your own clichés and tropes that you are a mere parody of yourself after only three years on the air?"

Catherynne M. Valente on PinkRayGun.com (2007)

"It seemed kind of silly that Queen Elizabeth, without seeing anybody on the spaceship, knew who the Doctor was and that he was the one to save Buckingham Palace from impact of the falling cruiser. It does make sense that she knows who the Doctor is, given his involvement in British history, but ... ah well. It's the Christmas episode. For that, we will engage in the cutting of the slack."

Brad Trechak on TVSquad.com (2008)

"Oh, look, it’s Doctor Who does The Poseidon Adventure - on the Titanic. Good fun. No, wait: What? Fun? Holy crap, but this is a depressing episode. Jesus. Dead bodies floating in open space, a 'nuclear storm' drive that’s gonna wipe out life on Earth? Characters dying senselessly ... sure, some die nobly, saving others, but some just die senselessly."

Maryann Johanson on FlickFilosopher.com (2008)

"I don’t think I would dare try to jump-start a spaceship that looks like the Titanic by diving it into the atmosphere … but I have to forgive the Doctor that, because it was hilariously funny."

Terry Pratchett in SFX magazine (2010)

The Next Doctor (2008)

"The Next Doctor is the best Doctor Who Christmas Special yet, or is at the least on a par with The Christmas Invasion. It doesn't have the emotional scope of the Doctor and Rose's farewell in Doomsday but it's moving, funny, impressive and has a big, beating heart. Possibly two, in fact."

Gareth McLean in The Guardian (2008)

"It's great fun. The special effects look very expensive: Dickens meets Transformers."

Jim Shelley in The Mirror (2008)

"The Next Doctor moves from a publicity-grabbing mystery to an emotional explanation and finally a child-pleasing (and toymaker-pleasing) conclusion without ever quite seeming as if they belong in the same production. But as a feast of spectacle for Christmas Day, it delivers the thrills that are needed, even though I'd personally rate it below the specials from the last three Yules, if only because the finale does feel a bit like the sort of thing a child would write once they got bored with having all 10 Doctors unite to battle a combined Dalek-Cybermen attack."

Anthony Brown on VisImag.com (2008)

"The Next Doctor was hardly a classic Doctor Who episode, in many ways it stank. But it was a perfect Christmas Special. Warm and cuddly with all the right seasonal elements and exactly what was needed for the evening of Christmas Day."

Trevor Mendham on OffWorldTV.com (2008)

"If, by the end, you're not welling up at the scene where Tennant gets a reaction he's not accustomed to, then - erk - have a lovely time doing whatever you Cybermen do at Christmas, OK? This is not just a Christmas special; this is a Christmas extra special."

Gill Hudson on RadioTimes.com (2008)

"This is more like it: a Christmas Day special that uses Christmassy tropes given a Doctor Who twist. The urchins may have been stage-school perfect - no malnutrition or rickets here - but the sense of place was sold well."

Peter Quentin on TotalSciFiOnline.com (2008)

"A grand slam, a perfect game, a triple play all steroid free and rolled into one. Behold ... The Next Doctor???!!!??"

Joseph Savitski on SciFiCool.com (2009)

The End of Time (2009)

"There's little room for Christmas jollity when you have several series' worth of stories to complete ... This year's Christmas Doctor Who was never going to pause and sniff the mulled wine. There are stories that need completing, fireworks to set up; the End of Time means No End of Plot ... There are plenty of tinsel touches - two separate 'best Christmas present' lines, the Queen's speech, a choir and a silver band, not to mention that turkey - but this didn't need to be a Christmas story in the way that previous Christmas Doctor Whos have."

Peter Robins on Guardian.co.uk (2009)

“This year we’ve done something different again - partly because we’re telling the stories of the end of the Doctor’s time. It is still set at Christmas but it’s perhaps not got quite as much Christmas cheer as before."

David Tennant (2009)

"Russell T. Davies likes to get the gang together at Christmas - last year, he had all the Doctor's travelling companions back to co-pilot the TARDIS - and there is no way he wouldn't call back the troops for Tennant's farewell."

Robert Lloyd on LATimes.com (2009)

"In the end then this entertaining but indulgent 73 minutes is symbolic of the best and worst of the RTD era. Beautifully tender drama spliced together with plotting that plays out like a game of Top Trumps."

Frank Collins on CathodeRayTube.blogspot.com (2009)

"The concluding chapter of Russell T Davies’ Doctor Who stint was rife with flaws, yet potent and powerful enough to milk dry the emotions of every faithful fan who has watched this wonderful show in recent years and decades ... If the Kleenex were still dry, then the Ood song should have changed that."

Ben Rawson-Jones on DigitalSpy.co.uk (2009)

"A weakness of the episode for me was that I felt it was potentially alienating those casual viewers that will more often than not tune into the Christmas show. I feel the use and re-introduction of the Time Lords would be better handled in the regular series as apposed to the Christmas Specials, which by tradition have always tried to be as inclusive as possible."

Ian Cullen on SciFiPulse.net (2009)

"It was the best of times, it was the worst of times. Yes, it was Christmas, but it was also time to say goodbye to David Tennant as the Doctor in a two-part special of Doctor Who. We laughed (maybe), we cried (probably), we said 'WTF was that?' (a lot) - it was a typical Rusty way to end it all."

Rob Buckley on The-Medium-Is-Not-Enough.com (2010)

Most of the above reviews / quotations come from the forthcoming book The Quotable Doctor Who - Volume Four: The New Who Episode Guide to be published in 2011.
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FAVOURITE LITERARY QUOTATIONS from Hemingway to Vonnegut

2010-12-15T22:39:00.001Z

FAVOURITE LITERARY QUOTATIONS
from Hemingway to Vonnegut

"You know it makes one feel rather good deciding not to be a bitch."

Ernest Hemingway, For Whom The Bell Tolls

"A sentence should read as if its author, had he held a plough instead of a pen, could have drawn a furrow deep and straight to the end."

Henry David Thoreau, A Week on the Concord

"When one writes a novel about grown people, he knows exactly where to stop - that is, with a marriage; but when he writes of juveniles, he must stop where he best can."

Mark Twain, The Adventures of Tom Sawyer

"I'm quite illiterate, but I read a lot."

J.D. Salinger, Catcher In The Rye

"I'm glad I haven't got the sort of conscience I've got to nurse like a sick puppy all the time."

William Faulkner, The Sound And The Fury

"A phrase began to beat in my ears with a sort of heady excitement: 'There are only the pursued, the pursuing, the busy, and the tired."

F. Scott Fitzgerald, The Great Gatsby

"The one thing that doesn't abide by majority rule is a person's conscience."

Harper Lee, To Kill A Mockingbird

"One of the biggest troubles of hitchhiking is having to talk to innumerable people, make them feel that they didn't make a mistake picking you up."

Jack Kerouac, On The Road

"While men believe in the infinite some ponds will be thought to be bottomless."

Henry David Thoreau, Walden

"The conquest of the earth, which mostly means the taking it away from those who have a different complexion or slightly flatter noses than ourselves, is not a pretty thing when you look into it too much."

Joseph Conrad, Heart Of Darkness

"But the pearls were accidents, and the finding of one was luck, a little pat on the back by God or the gods both."

John Steinbeck, The Pearl

"He had decided to live forever or die in the attempt, and his only mission each time he went up was to come down alive."

Joseph Heller, Catch-22

"She was made glad in vague ways by the battle, for this was the love-making of the Wild, the sex-tragedy of the natural world that was tragedy only to those that died."

Jack London, White Fang

"It seemed hardly the face of a man alive, with such a deathlike hue; it was hardly a man with life in him that tottered on his path so nervelessly, yet tottered, and did not fall!"
Nathaniel Hawthorne, The Scarlett Letter

"The line of the buildings stood clear-cut and black against the sky; here and there out of the mass rose the great chimneys, with the river of smoke streaming away to the end of the world."

Upton Sinclair, The Jungle

"The sea had jeeringly kept his finite body up, but drowned the infinite of his soul."

Herman Melville, Moby Dick

"In the rotation of crops there was a recognised season for wild oats; but they were not to be sown more than once."

Edith Wharton The Age of Innocence

"One of the hardest conditions of boyhood is the almost continuous strain put upon the powers of invention by the constant and harassing necessity for explanations of every natural act."

Booth Tarkington, Penrod

"He is in a constant state of stage fright, he says, because he never knows what part of his life he is going to have to act in next."

Kurt Vonnegut, Slaughterhouse-Five

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A to Z OF HUMOROUS TV QUOTES

2010-12-15T22:28:00.001Z

A to Z of HUMOROUS TV QUOTES

UK version

APOLOGIES
TV ANNOUNCER (Susie Blake): We would like to apologise to viewers in the North. It must be awful for you.
VICTORIA WOOD on TV

BLOOD
Det. Insp. JACK FROST (David Jason) to a new recruit: Were you born cold-blooded? Or is there some sort of transfusion you can get on the NHS these days?
A TOUCH OF FROST

CLOTHES
ANNA FORBES (Daniela Nardini): Well if you'll excuse me, I've got a long bath and a short dress to get into.
THIS LIFE

DRIVING
NICK HARPER (Kris Marshall): Driving school tells you to keep two hands on the wheel at all times, I mean what are they thinking of? I mean what are you supposed to if you've got a phone in one hand and a kebab in the other?
MY FAMILY

EXCUSES
MRS SLOCOMBE (Molly Sugden) apologising for being late: The central heating broke down and I had to hold my pussy in front of it. It was frozen solid.
ARE YOU BEING SERVED?: Mrs. Slocombe Expects

FOOD
GRANVILLE (David Jason): Genuine Jamaican ginger cakes? What do you mean genuine? They've never been anywhere near Jamaica.
ARKWRIGHT (Ronnie Barker): What's that g-g-g ... got to do with it? We sell Mars bars, don't we?
OPEN ALL HOURS

GUNS
MAN IN BED (John Fortune): Has your husband got a gun?
WOMAN IN BED (Eleanor Bron): Yes.
MAN: Marvellous! What kind?
WOMAN: Ooh! I don’t know. It’s Russian, I think … begins with an S … Sawnoff?
WHERE WAS SPRING (1969)

HEALTH
DOCTOR (Patrick Cargill): A pint is a perfectly normal quantity to take!
TONY HANCOCK: You don’t seriously expect me to believe that! I mean, I came here in good faith to help my country. I don’t mind giving a reasonable amount, but a pint … that’s very nearly an armful.
HANCOCK’S HALF HOUR: The Blood Donor

IMAGE
FRANK LASLETT (John Forgeham): I think you should be my agent, I'm the one who needs an image makeover.
HAZEL BAILEY (Alison Newman): Sorry Frank, even if you gave both your kidneys to dying babies you'd still smell like a septic tank.
FOOTBALLER'S WIVES

JOWLS
STEED (Patrick MacNee): How I enjoy you working cheek-by-jowl with Iva.
EMMA PEEL (Diana Rigg): I assure you my cheek will not be nowhere near his jowl.
THE AVENGERS

KYLIE
EDINA MONSOON (Jennifer Saunders): No Twiggy, we want to go with you on this. We could've gotten Kylie, but we know you have more class. You don't need to parade around with a pair of gold lame hot pants wedged up your chocolate starfish to make an impression.
ABSOLUTELY FABULOUS

LANGUAGE
VICTOR MELDREW (Richard Wilson): What language are you talking in now? It appears to be Bollocks.
ONE FOOT IN THE GRAVE

MOTORING
AUDREY fforbes-HAMILTON (Penelope Keith) to Richard DeVere: To think that Grantley is in the hands of a man who has no interest in farming, doesn't go to church and now it turns out hasn't heard of Winnie the Pooh. You think A.A. Milne is a motoring organisation, I suppose.
TO THE MANOR BORN

NEWSPAPERS
Ch. Insp. MORSE (John Thaw): Allowing the pages of The Sun to pass before your eyes, Lewis, does not amount to reading.
INSPECTOR MORSE

OLD AGE
LIONEL HARDCASTLE (Geoffrey Palmer): How come you're an older woman, but I'm an old man?
AS TIME GOES BY

PROBLEMS
DAVID BRENT (Ricky Gervais): When confronted by a difficult problem, you can solve it more easily by reducing it to the question, “How would the Lone Ranger handle this?”
THE OFFICE

QUALIFICATIONS
Father TED (Dermot Morgan): Dougal, how did you get into the church in the first place? Was it, like, 'collect 12 crisp packets and become a priest?'
FATHER TED

REINCARNATION
RODNEY TROTTER (Nicholas Lyndhurst): I am depressed because of the state of my life at the moment. I've got this horrible feeling that if there is such a thing as reincarnation, knowing my luck, I'll come back as me!
ONLY FOOLS AND HORSES: Three Men, A Woman and A Baby

SMOKING
MANNY BIANCO (Bill Bailey): Of course you can't taste anything! You smoke eighty bejillion cigarettes a day! What's that you're eating?
BERNARD BLACK (Dylan Moran): It's some sort of delicious biscuit.
MANNY: It's a coaster!
BLACK BOOKS

THRIFT
LENNIE GODBER (Richard Beckinsale): Oh, come on Fletch! You are mean.
NORMAN FLETCHER (Ronnie Barker): No, I’m not. Thrifty perhaps. Frugal.
GODBER: He unwraps Bounty bars under water so I can’t hear he’s got one.
PORRIDGE: Poetic Justice

UNDERPANTS
JIM ROYLE (Ricky Tomlinson): These underpants cost me a quid, and I've got about fifty pence worth stuck up my arse.
THE ROYLE FAMILY

VIOLENCE
DIANA TRENT (Stephanie Cole): Oh, my God, all that love and peace. Always makes me want to kill somebody.
WAITING FOR GOD

WAR
GERMAN GUEST: Will you please stop talking about the war.
BASIL FAWLTY (John Cleese): Me? You started it!
GERMAN: We did not start it!
BASIL: Yes you did! You invaded Poland!!
FAWLTY TOWERS

XENOPHOBIA
JAMES HACKER (Paul Eddington): You know what the average Common Market official is like? They've got the flexibility of the Germans, the organising ability of the Italians and the modesty of the French. And that's topped up by the humour of the Belgians, the generosity of the Dutch and the intelligence of the Irish.
YES, MINISTER

Y-CHROMOSOME
TIM BROOKE-TAYLOR: I want a son. I must have a son. Graeme, you're a doctor ...
GRAEME GARDEN: Sorry, can't be done.
TIM: But a man isn't a man unless he exercises his right to fatherhood.
BILL ODDIE: You can exercise it all you like but you won't find much use for it!
THE GOODIES

ZOMBIES
GARY SPARROW (Nicholas Lyndhurst): What is going on, Yvonne? Out there ... her ... she's one of those, isn't she? One of those ... things.
YVONNE SPARROW (Michelle Holmes): She's not one of the undead, Gary. She's a social worker.
GARY: There's a difference?
GOODNIGHT SWEETHEART: Just One More Chance

The Twelve Quotes of Christmas - Seasonal Quotations for Festive Cheer

2010-12-15T10:58:00.003Z

The Twelve Quotes of Christmas

brought to you by
BLUE EYED BOOKS
The Home of Humorous Quotes

MERRY CHRISTMAS from BLUE EYED BOOKS

The Quotable Motorist - funny quotations about cars and their drivers.

2010-12-09T21:46:00.001Z

THE QUOTABLE MOTORIST

Funny quotations about cars and their drivers.

Compiled by Colin M Jarman

The following car quotes are taken from the forthcoming book Laughing Gear: The Quotable Top Gear - 1000 quotations about cars and their drivers to be published by Blue Eyed Books in 2011.

"In less enlightened times, the best way to impress women was to own a hot car. But women wised up and realized it was better to buy their own hot cars so they wouldn't have to ride around with jerks."

Scott Adams

"Women are like cars: we all want a Ferrari, sometimes want a pickup truck, and end up with a station wagon."

Tim Allen

"I have bad reflexes. I was once run over by a car being pushed by two guys."

Woody Allen

"Is fuel efficiency really what we need most desperately? I say that what we really need is a car that can be shot when it breaks down."

Russell Baker

"The one thing that unites all human beings, regardless of age, gender, religion, economic status or ethnic background, is that, deep down inside, we ALL believe that we are above average drivers."

Dave Barry

"Americans are broad-minded people. They'll accept the fact that a person can be an alcoholic, a dope fiend, a wife beater, and even a newspaperman, but if a man doesn't drive, there is something wrong with him."

Art Buchwald

"If the automobile had followed the same development as the computer, a Rolls-Royce would today cost $100, get a million miles per gallon, and explode once a year killing everyone inside."

Robert Cringely

"Men are superior to women, for one thing they can urinate from a speeding car."

Will Durst

"Any man who can drive safely while kissing a pretty girl is simply not giving the kiss the attention it deserves."

Albert Einstein

"If all the cars in the United States were placed end to end, it would probably be Labor Day Weekend."

Doug Larson

"There’s an undeniable pleasure in stepping into an open-topped sports car driven by a beautiful woman. It feels like you’re stepping into a metaphor."

Hugh Laurie

"Remember when you used to tie the Christmas tree to the top of your car and drive home? Now our SUV's are so big, the trees fit inside. The new Cadillac Escalade actually has a Christmas tree holder on the dash."

Jay Leno

"When buying a used car, punch the buttons on the radio. If all the stations are rock and roll, there's a good chance the transmission is shot."

Larry Lujack

"Patience is something you admire in the driver behind you and scorn in the one ahead."

Mac McCleary

"The best car safety device is a rear-view mirror with a cop in it."

Dudley Moore

"Automobiles are free of egotism, passion, prejudice and stupid ideas about where to have dinner. They are, literally, selfless. A world designed for automobiles instead of people would have wider streets, larger dining rooms, fewer stairs to climb and no smelly, dangerous subway stations."

P.J. O'Rourke

"Life's not fair, is it? Some of us drink champagne in the fast lane, and some of us eat our sandwiches by the loose chippings on the A597."

Victoria Wood

The above car quotations are taken from the forthcoming book Laughing Gear: The Quotable Top Gear - 1000 quotations about cars and their drivers to be published by Blue Eyed Books in 2011.

"I come to praise Celebrity, not bury it!" - A collection of celebrity praise.

2010-12-08T14:57:00.002Z

PRAISE BE !

A selection of quotations that heap on praise like a six-handed coal shoveller working in the furnaces of Hell.

Here at Blue Eyed Books, we are working on a number of new book titles and one such is The Big Book of Celebrity Praise. Having previously published books of insults and poisonous quotes, we thought it was about time we reported on the other end of the spectrum.

While, The Big Book of Celebrity Praise is not due to be published until the end of 2011, here are a few tasters of things to come ...

GEORGE BERNARD SHAW

"That exquisite handwriting like a fly which has been trained at the Russian ballet."

James Agate, Diary (1944)

P.G. WODEHOUSE

"The facts in this case, ladies and gentlemen, are simple. The first thing you should know, and probably the last, too, is that P.G. Wodehouse is still the funniest writer ever to have put words on paper. Fact number two: with the Jeeves stories, Wodehouse created the best of the best. I speak as one whose first love was Blandings, and who later took immense pleasure from Psmith, but Jeeves is the jewel, and anyone who tries to tell you different can be shown the door, the mini-cab, the train station, and Terminal 4 at Heathrow with a clear conscience. The world of Jeeves is complete and integral, every bit as structured, layered, ordered, complex and self-contained as King Lear, and considerably funnier."

Hugh Laurie in The Daily Telegraph (1999)

JACK LONDON

"I have only read one book in my life, and that is White Fang. It’s so frightfully good I’ve never bothered to read another."

Uncle Matthew in Nancy Mitford's Love in a Cold Climate (1949)

FRANKLIN D. ROOSEVELT

"Meeting Franklin Roosevelt was like opening your first bottle of Champagne; knowing him was like drinking it.

Winston Churchill

CYD CHARISSE

"Cyd Charisse was the only woman who looked as good naked as she did dressed."

Helen Rose - Metro's house designer

MICHAEL JACKSON

"A dancer with the fanciest feet on the street … Jackson may dance like Baryshnikov straddling a jackhammer, move like a street blood steeped in Astaire and t’ai chi … the sexual dynamism irradiating from the arch of his dancing body challenges Government standards for a nuclear meltdown."

Time magazine (1984)

BRAD PITT

"Death would be a beautiful place if it looks like Brad Pitt."
Carmen Electra

JULIA ROBERTS

"Ameica's Sweethearts, a terrifically funny romantic comedy, is a slam-dunk for Julia Roberts, the Michael Jordan of cuteness."

Desson Thomson in The Washington Post (2001)

FERRARI 355

"The Ferrari 355 is the automotive equivalent of a quail's egg dipped in celery salt and served in Julia Roberts' belly button."

Jeremy Clarkson on Top Gear

DARCEY BUSSELL

"Watching Darcey Bussell dance is like seeing a rare butterfly alight with weightless grace."

Kate Kellaway in The Observer (2007)

MAMMA MIA!

"Had Shakespeare or Joyce or Dickens or Puccini been sitting in Cineworld with me watching Mamma Mia!, they would have nodded thunderously with approval and left the cinema muttering: 'I want a piece of that.' "

Melanie Reid in The Times (2008)

TWILIGHT - The Movie

"In the 17-million-copy land of Twilight, the calling card isn't blood and fangs, but the exquisite, shimmering quiver of unconsummated first love. By that measure, the movie version gives really good swoon."

Chuck Wilson in The Village Voice (2008)

STEPHEN FRY

"His wit should be registered at police headquarters as a lethal weapon."

Kathy Lette on Celebrity Cash in the Attic (2010)

We shall be adding to this list over the next few months ... until publication of the book in late 2011.

For more info on The Big Book of Celebrity Praise and the other fun / humour / quotes books from Blue Eyed Books, visit the official website at Blue Eyed Books.

If you have any examples of celebrity praise you'd like to share with us, please add them in the comments box below. The most outrageous the better ...
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ARE YOU SMARTER THAN A 900-YEAR-OLD? A Dr Who Quiz to win a copy of The Quotable Doctor Who

2010-12-07T09:21:00.002Z

ARE YOU SMARTER THAN A
900-YEAR-OLD ?
THE QUOTABLE DOCTOR WHO QUIZ - TV Show

This fun-packed, thought-provoking Doctor Who themed quiz should separate the Whovians from the Whovianots.

To celebrate the publication of the First Volume in The Quotable Doctor Who series, Blue Eyed Books are giving you the chance to win a copy of Vol One signed by both co-authors - Colin M Jarman and Catherine A Davies.

To win a copy of Volume One, complete the following quiz, fill out your name, email and country and we shall be in touch with the answers and winner once the competition has closed on January 10th, 2011.

The winner will be the entrant who has answered the most questions correctly. In the event of a tie, a name will be chosen at random from those with the most correct answers.
Standard Blue Eyed Books competition terms and conditions apply.

<p>&amp;amp;amp;lt;p&amp;amp;amp;gt;&amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;lt;p&amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;gt;&amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;lt;p&amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;gt;&amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;lt;p&amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;gt;&amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;lt;p&amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;gt;&amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;lt;p&amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;gt;&amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;lt;p&amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;gt;&amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;lt;p&amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;gt;&amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;lt;p&amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;gt;&amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;lt;p&amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;gt;&amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;lt;p&amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;gt;&amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;lt;p&amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;gt;Loading...&amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;lt;/p&amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;gt;&amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;lt;/p&amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;gt;&amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;lt;/p&amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;gt;&amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;lt;/p&amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;gt;&amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;lt;/p&amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;gt;&amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;lt;/p&amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;gt;&amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;lt;/p&amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;gt;&amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;lt;/p&amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;gt;&amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;lt;/p&amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;gt;&amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;lt;/p&amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;gt;&amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;lt;/p&amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;gt;&amp;amp;amp;lt;/p&amp;amp;amp;gt;</p>

Competition ends on Jan 10th 2011. All entrants will be notified of the correct answers, their score and whether they won the signed copy of Volume One. Thanks for playing.

For more Doctor Who quotations and details of The Quotable Doctor Who quotes series visit our partner site Who Said What About Dr Who blog or Blue Eyed Books Quotable Doctor Who pages.

Volume Two [Enemies, Monsters and Other Characters] in The Quotable Doctor Who series is due to be published by Blue Eyed Books in Spring 2011.

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Funny Xmas Quotes and Christmas Cheer: Putting Fun and Laughter into the Festive Season

2010-12-04T14:52:00.004Z

FUNNY XMAS QUOTES

A Personal Collection of Christmas Quotations
and
Fun-Packed Festive Humor
compiled by Colin M Jarman
of Blue Eyed Books (The Home of Humorous Quotations).

XMAS EXTRACTS from Classic Television Shows

"Everybody knows that the Wise Men arrived in Bethlehem before the Rose Bowl game."

Bob on The Bob Newhart Show

"Oh, joy, Christmas Eve. By this time tomorrow, millions of Americans, knee-deep in tinsel and wrapping paper will utter those heartfelt words, 'Is this all I got?' "

Frasier [Kelsey Grammar] on Cheers

"Parker I'm your mother. Mother's don't lie to their sons. Now go wash your hands or Santa's not gonna bring you anything for Christmas."

Lynette [Felicity Huffman] on Desperate Housewives

"I should've known better than to listen to someone who said the Tooth Fairy and Santa Claus killed each other ... so don't expect anything for Christmas'."

George on George Lopez

"He never calls, he never writes, I only hear from him at Christmas when he sends me a cheddar cheese nativity scene. I'm Catholic, I can't spread a wise man on a Ritz cracker."

Sophia [Estelle Getty] on The Golden Girls

"Like we say in St. Olaf, Christmas without fruitcake is like St. Sigmund's Day without the headless boy!"

Rose [Betty White] on The Golden Girls

"Christmas is not about being with people you like. It's about being with your family."

Tim [Tim Allen] on Home Improvement

Answering the phone at work on Christmas Day - "Ho-ho-homicide!"
Det. John Munch [Richard Belzer] on Homicide: Life on the Streets

"No presents for Christmas? That's like Easter without high-stakes poker."

Jack [George Segal] on Just Shoot Me

"The next person who wishes me a merry Christmas is gonna get decked along with the halls!"

Thelma [Vicki Lawrence] on Mama's Family

"A fat woman came into the shoe store today and wanted a pair of shoes to wear to a Christmas party. I told her to stand on her hands, put a star on her butt, and go as the world's largest, ugliest Christmas tree."

Al [Ed O'Neill] on Married With Children

"Hey guys, since our wives are downtown feeding Christmas dinners for the homeless, shouldn't we be at the nudie bar feeding dollars to the topless?"

Jefferson [Ted McGinley] on Married With Children

"It's Saint Patrick's day. Here in Scranton, St. Paddy's day is a big deal. It is the closest the Irish will ever have to Christmas."

Michael [Steve Carell] on The Office

"I like everything about Christmas. Except the Chipmunk Song. And shopping, I hate shopping. I never know what to get anyone, especially Gibbs. What do you get a guy who has nothing and wants nothing?"

Abby [Pauley Perrette] on NCIS

"Twinkling colored lights are nice and so are plastic Santas and reindeers and nativity scenes, but let me tell you something. There's nothing like the sight of a beautiful, black-as-pitch raven to get you in the Christmas spirit."

Chris [John Corbett] on Northern Exposure

"Don't talk to me about Christmas. All that sticky, phony goodwill. I'd like to get a giant candy cane and beat the wings off a sugar plum fairy."

Oscar [Jack Klugman] on The Odd Couple

"For the next three hours, we'll be absolutely kid free. It'll be like that time we lost them at the mall. That was the best Christmas ever."

Homer [Don Castellaneta] on The Simpsons

"We got so caught up in the little things of Christmas, like Love and Family, that we almost forgot it's buying things that makes our economy thrive."

Miss Diane [Trey Parker] on South Park

"On this Christmas Eve, I just want to say watch out for drunk drivers. And don't pick up anybody who might puke in your cab!"

Louie [Danny DeVito] on Taxi

"Grace. It's Christmas, for goodness sake. Think about the baby Jesus ... up in that tower, letting his hair down ... so that the three wise men can climb up and spin the dradel and see if there are six more weeks of winter."

Karen [Megan Mullally] on Will and Grace

"This is the worst Christmas ever. I had thought it was the one when our parents bought us hamsters and forgot to poke holes in the boxes, but at least that had a moment of suspense."

Brian [Steven Weber] on Wings

The above selection of festive quotes is taken from the forthcoming book BOX OF LAUGHS: Funny TV Quotes to be published in 2011 by Blue Eyed Books.

CHRISTMAS CHEER

"Do give books for Christmas. They're never fattening, seldom sinful, and permanently personal."

Lenore Hershey

"A lovely thing about Christmas is that it's compulsory, like a thunderstorm, and we all go through it together."

Garrison Keillor

"One of the most glorious messes in the world is the mess created in the living room on Christmas day. Don't clean it up too quickly."

Andy Rooney

"Christmas is a time when everybody wants his past forgotten and his present remembered."

Anon

BAH HUMBUG!

"Christmas begins about the first of December with an office party and ends when you finally realize what you spent, around April fifteenth of the next year."

P. J. O’Rourke

"I once bought my kids a set of batteries for Christmas with a note on it saying, toys not included.”

Bernard Manning

"Santa Claus has the right idea. Visit people once a year."

Victor Borge

IF YOU HAVE ANY FUNNY XMAS QUOTES YOU WOULD LIKE TO SHARE WITH US, PLEASE ENTER THEM IN THE COMMENTS BOX BELOW.

MERRY XMAS from COLIN & BLUE EYED BOOKS

GREAT XMAS GIFT BOOK IDEAS from BLUE EYED BOOKS

.

Top Ten Quotations about Libraries, Books and Knowledge

2010-12-03T16:28:00.001Z

FUNNY LIBRARY QUOTATIONS

To celebrate an often overlooked and underfunded community resource, these are my Top Ten Quotes about Libraries and Books ...

"If you have a garden and a library, you have everything you need."

Marcus Tullius Cicero

"Perhaps no place in any community is so totally democratic as the town library. The only entrance requirement is interest."

Lady Bird Johnson

"Libraries allow children to ask questions about the world and find the answers. And the wonderful thing is that once a child learns to use a library, the doors to learning are always open."

Laura Bush

"A library in a town is an evergreen tree of diabolical knowledge! It blossoms through the year!"

Richard B. Sheridan

"I've got a vendetta to destroy the Internet, to make everyone go to the library. I love the organic thing of pen and paper, ink on canvas. I love going down to the library, the feel and smell of books."

Joseph Fiennes

"Nothing sickens me more than the closed door of a library."

Barbara Tuchman

"A library is thought in cold storage."

Herbert Samuel

"What is more important in a library than anything else - than everything else - is the fact that it exists."

Archibald MacLeish

"When I read about the way in which library funds are being cut and cut, I can only think that ... society has found one more way to destroy itself."

Isaac Asimov

"I need to use one of my most important investigative tools - my library card."

Det. Robert Goren [Vincent D'Onofrio] on Law & Order: Criminal Intent

Quotations compiled by Colin M Jarman of Blue Eyed Books

My favourite joke about libraries ...

"So he said, 'I'm going to chop off the bottom of one of your trouser legs and put it in a library.' I thought 'That's a turn-up for the books.' "
Tommy Cooper

Dr Who Quotes Book - The Quotable Doctor Who: 2000 quotations about the world's favourite Time Lord.

2010-12-02T16:48:00.001Z

WHO said WHAT about DOCTOR WHO?

The Quotable Doctor Who

www.blue-eyed-books.co.uk/doctor-who-quotes-book

PRESS RELEASE: "The TARDIS of Quotations Books"

VOLUME ONE: A Cosmic and Comic Collection of

2000 Biographical Quotations about The Doctor

by Colin M Jarman and Catherine A Davies

"I love this show as much as ever. It has not diminished as I feared it would. I can still catch a Jon Pertwee repeat on UK Gold and be happy as a Zygon."

Russell T. Davies in The Guardian (2005)

LONDON. UK - The Quotable Doctor Who delivers the first-ever, comprehensive collection of standalone quotations about Doctor Who - the show and character … in the words of those involved with the productions, as well as considerable and considered contributions from critics, reviewers, fans, and many more …

"The Doctor - the last Time Lord from the planet Gallifrey, a sort of intergalactic, time-travelling sheriff with a special fondness for Earth."

Mike Hale in The New York Times (2010)

The Quotable Doctor Who contains over 2000 interesting quotations and insightful comments about the TV show from the first black and white episode in 1963 to the HD wonders of 2010.

This publication from Blue Eyed Books covers all eleven TV incarnations of the Doctor - both character and actor - William Hartnell, Patrick Troughton, Jon Pertwee, Tom Baker, Peter Davison, Colin Baker, Sylvester McCoy, Paul McGann, Christopher Eccleston, David Tennant, Matt Smith as well as other film and TV Doctors: Peter Cushing & William Hurndall.

This deeply-researched and well-presented compendium includes observations and opinions about all The Doctor's companions from the first Susan Foreman to the current Amy Pond, with the likes of Jo Grant, Sarah Jane Smith, Mel Bush, Rose Tyler, Captain Jack, Donna Noble and Martha Jones in between ...

On The Doctor getting younger - "What is odd is that the companions have remained pretty much the same nubile, up-for-it age. They began as children out with a cranky magical uncle of a sort that was common in Edwardian children’s books, but have now ended up with an intergalactic blind date."

A.A. Gill in The Sunday Times (2010)

There are special sections on The Doctor's 'accessories' from the TARDIS to his Sonic Screwdriver; and the three Doctor Who movies & TV spin-offs such as Torchwood and The Sarah Jane Adventures.

"The TARDIS may have been impressively roomy but it would still only be a changing room for Superman."

Steve Tomkins in Third Way (2006)

"The Sonic Screwdriver sounds like something Carrie would drink in Sex And The City but in fact this nifty little gizmo was all that Doctor Who needed to defeat the Daleks, mend the TARDIS and fit K-9 with a collar for his cyberfleas."

The Sunday Herald (2003)

"Sarah Jane is getting her own show, it's aimed towards the kiddies, but it doesn't get the overkill that Torchwood gets in its series two. Can the series Harriet Jones, Prime Minister be far behind?"

Jeff Swindoll on MonstersAndCritics.com (2007)

There are also specially chosen sections comparing the TV Show and The Doctor to other shows and movies and to other fictional characters (such as James Bond and Sherlock Holmes). Other sections cover: Regeneration, Behind The Sofa and Sex ...

"Whoever plays him, the Doctor is a cosmic meddler, with no ideology except an aversion to suffering and injustice. As a hero, he belongs to the class of Eccentric English Bachelor Geniuses, of whom the supreme example is Sherlock Holmes. Like Holmes, he is cerebral, solitary and curious. He doesn't find wickedness fearsome as much as supremely irritating."

Lloyd Rose in The Washington Post (2000)

"The cliché about Doctor Who - that it had us 'hiding behind the sofa' - is more telling in its tone than its questionable factuality. It connotes nostalgia, and a pleasurable mixture of fright and fascination - but above all it connotes domesticity. It united fear and soft furnishings in the British mind."

Sam Leith in The Daily Telegraph (2008)

"The Doctor needn't remain forever sexless - it can't be easy, after all, when your fellow traveller is wearing leopard-skins. But in an age as sexually obsessed as ours, a hero who'd rather be knobbling Daleks than knocking off his leggy companions is surely to be welcomed."

Brian Logan in The Guardian (2003)

The Quotable Doctor Who - Volume One is published by Blue Eyed Books on 7th December making it the perfect Christmas present for the millions of Doctor Who fans around the world. The book can be pre-ordered online (Amazon, etc) or via the publisher's 'Dr Who' webpage at: www.Blue-Eyed-Books.co.uk/Doctor-Who-Quotes-Book

ABOUT THE AUTHORS

In a 'Time And Relative-Duality Interrelated Symbiosis' the co-authors of The Quotable Doctor Who coincidentally correlate with the original 1963 Doctor Who 'pairing'. Where William Hartnell (early 50s) and Carol Ann Ford (early 20s) played grandfather and grand-daughter, Colin and Catherine (uncle and niece) fit the same age group as their predecessors.

Colin M Jarman

With 30 books published since 1990, Colin has already penned 'biographies' on popular cultural icons James Bond, Roy of the Rovers, Fred Astaire and Judge Dredd. He fondly remembers the earliest 1960s incarnations of The Doctor from Hartnell to Pertwee as being iconic TV moments that ranked up there with the 1966 World Cup Final and the 1969 Moon landing. Unsurprisingly, Colin has focused on the Classic Who series …

Catherine A Davies

No relation to Who writer / producer Russell T. Davies, Catherine did, however, start her Doctor Who journey with Russell's New Series in 2005. After finding The Adipose cute and The Weeping Angels terrifying she can't wait to see what new adventures Matt and Amy get up to in 2011 and beyond.

ABOUT THE BOOK

Pages: 250

Format: Paperback

Quotes: 2000+

ISBN: 9781907338151

Size: 17.00 x 24.4 cm

Web: www.Blue-Eyed-Books.co.uk

Twitter: http://twitter.com/QuotableDrWho

For more details about The Quotable Doctor Who, email Blue Eyed Books

Click here TO BUY The Quotable Doctor Who in local currency (£, Euro., US$, CAN$ and AUS $) and with free post worldwide.

-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

FUTURE VOLUMES of THE QUOTABLE DOCTOR WHO to be published in 2011 ...

VOLUME TWO - ENEMIES, MONSTERS and MINOR CHARACTERS

A broad selection of quotations about The Doctor's major enemies and scary monsters (from the Daleks to Weeping Angels, Silurians to Sontarans, Davros to The Master) plus a cast list of supporting / minor characters & famous guest stars from the TV show.

VOLUMES THREE and FOUR - THE QUOTABLE DOCTOR WHO EPISODE QUIDE

Critical reviews and first-hand, behind the scenes comments on all 32 seasons of the TV Show from Vol 3 Classic Who: An Unearthly Child (1963) to Survival (1989)

Vol 4 New Series: Rose (2005) to Season Six (2011).

For more details on both volumes, go to www.blue-eyed-books.co.uk/doctor-who-quotes-book

© Colin M Jarman and Catherine A Davies (2010)

THE QUOTABLE DOCTOR WHO is not an authorised publication of BBC Worldwide

or officially affiliated with the BBC TV show.

ELEVEN QUOTES ABOUT THE ELEVEN TV DOCTOR WHOS

1. WILLIAM HARTNELL

"His crusty characterisation sometimes made the premise seem more like Ebenezer Scrooge: Time Cop."

Christopher Bahn on AVClub.com (2010)

2. PATRICK TROUGHTON

"A piccolo playing Clive Dunn in baggy trousers and Tucker Jenkins haircut."

TVCream.co.uk

3. JON PERTWEE

"Pertwee's version, exiled to Earth to foil multiple extra-terrestrial incursions into the M25 area, was co-opted by the military establishment, but compensated by dressing like Jimi Hendrix and being as rude as possible to anyone in a uniform."

Matthew Sweet in The Independent (2003)

4. TOM BAKER

"Superbly intelligent, witty and fond of jelly babies, this Doctor would stick around longer than any other and inspire thousands of children to beg mothers everywhere to get knitting."

Chris Alpha on TheOodcast.com (2010)

5. PETER DAVISON

"When the Doctor was in his fifth regeneration, well, honestly, I couldn't take him seriously as a Time Lord ... All I could see in this Doctor was Tristan Farnon - adorable vet. I expected that at any moment he'd do a flea and tic check on K-9. "

Carole E. Barrowman in Chicks Dig Time Lords (2010)

6. COLIN BAKER

"Colin Baker's acting talent - and his innate charisma - can easily be seen. He fulfils the main requirement that any actor who plays the Doctor must meet: he's interesting."

David Ryan on DVDVerdict.com (2008)

7. SYLVESTER McCOY

"The Doctor has not been in any danger of being mistaken for Michelangelo's David. Tom Baker nice chap but face like a bag of pork chops and Sylvester McCoy frankly disturbing."

Lucy Mangan in The Guardian (2006)

8. PAUL McGANN

"I wish we could see more of how he’d have handled The Doctor, because he has a funky Willy Wonka / Lord Byron vibe going on. And also because life is short and he is hot."

MaryAnn Johanson on FlickFilosopher.com (2010)

9. CHRISTOPHER ECCLESTON

"Eccleston brought a real, nearly tangible, sense of madness to the character of the Doctor. He was the ladies' Tom Baker ... with a head injury."

Keith Breese on FilmCritic.com (2005)

10. DAVID TENNANT

"David Tennant brought humanity and humour to the part, as well as a lot of hair product. And the widest, stariest eyes on (and often off, obviously) the planet. "

Sam Wollaston in The Guardian (2009)

11. MATT SMITH

"You know you're getting older when the doctor starts looking younger. I've got jars of chutney that have been around longer than the new Doctor Who ... Anyway, I like him. Partly because he looks as if he could have come from the planet Gallifrey."

Jan Etherington in The Daily Telegraph (2009)

For more sample quotes about Doctor Who, please go to the Quotable Doctor Who home page

Click here TO BUY The Quotable Doctor Who in local currency (£, Euro., US$, CAN$ and AUS $) and with free post worldwide.

Funny Quotes Books make Great Christmas Gift Ideas from James Bond to Doctor Who, from Poker to Dancing and more!

2010-11-23T15:12:00.003Z

Fun Quotations Books for Best Xmas Gifts

Stuck for the perfect Christmas gift for a friend or loved one ... or maybe even a special treat for yourself?

Blue Eyed Books' range of fun-packed quotes books are an ideal present ... and with 1000s of quotations in each book, this is surely a gift that keeps on giving!

Choose from our great range of titles from James Bond to Doctor Who, Dancing to Poker, Film Reviews to Bitching ...

THE QUOTABLE DOCTOR WHO (Vol One)
2000 quotations about the world's favourite Time Lord
from William Hartnell in 1963 to Matt Smith in 2010.

Click here for more details ....

JAMES BOND: LICENSE TO QUOTE
1500 humorous quotations about the world's favourite spy
from Sean Connery to Daniel Craig

Click here for more details ....

THE QUOTABLE POKER PLAYER
1500 funny quotations about Poker, Poker Stars & Poker Movies
from Five Card Stud to No Limit Texas Hold 'em.

Click here for more details ....

THE QUOTABLE FILM CRITIC (Vol 1: 2000-2010)

2000 of the best 'worst' movie reviews of the 21st century

from Affleck to Zeta-Jones, from Avatar to Zoolander.

Click here for more details ....

THE QUOTABLE DANCER
1300 funny quotations about Dance on Stage and Film
from Dirty Dancing to High School Musical.

Click here for more details ....

DANCING ON ASTAIRE: THE QUOTABLE FRED ASTAIRE
2000 biographical quotations about the world's greatest dancer

from Flying Down to Rio to The Band Wagon and more.

Click here for more details ....

DANCING WITH THE QUOTES (Vol One)
1000 humorous quotations about dancing on TV
from Dancing With The Stars to So You Think You Can Dance.

Click here for more details ....

STRICTLY 'QUOTE' DANCING (Vol One)
1500 humorous quotations about dancing on TV
from Strictly Come Dancing to SYTYCD and more.

Click here for more details ....

CELEBRITY 'BITCH' QUOTES
2000 bitchy comment by women about famous women
from Hollywood Bitch Queens to British Bitch Slaps and more.

Click here for more details ....

Click here for more details on all these great quotations books and future fun quotes titles from Blue Eyed Books.

Poker Quotes - A to Z of Poker Quotations

2010-07-10T19:13:00.001+01:00

A to Z of Poker Quotes

A fairly random collection of poker quotations that run from A to Z - some famous, some funny, some inspirational, some motivational, some wacky, some offbeat, some cute, some Texas Hold Em, some Stud ... all great, all free and all taken from The Quotable Poker Player book.

"All ACES are good for is to win a small pot or lose a big one."

Stu Ungar

"BAD BEATS will, from time to time, still rob you like a crack addict with an empty pipe."

Rick Dacey in Poker Player magazine (2006)

"The poker CHIP is like a conjuror’s sleight of hand that turns an egg into a billiard ball, a necessity of life into a plaything, reality into illusion."

Al Alvarez

"Poker is such a great game. It’s you and your brain against everybody else. The DECK doesn’t know who you are."

Lyle Berman in USA Today (2006)

"Phil Hellmuth has an EGO that is notorious even in ego-charged poker circles."

Demian Bulwa in The San Francisco Chronicle (2003)

"I like to see lots of FLOPS."

Gus Hansen

"Poker is a stimulating psychological challenge, combining GUTS and detective work ... a world of its own, offering all the childish appeal of secret places, special languages and staying up late at night."

Victoria Coren

"HEADS UP poker play may be the purest form of psychological warfare this game has to offer. It’s no wonder why the old westerns and Rounders and every other poker movie always comes down to a one-on-one battle between the good guy and the villain."

David Williams in All In magazine (2008)

"IMAGE is vital. Poker was seen in Britain as an American import, associated with Mississippi riverboat gambling and the long stare of Steve McQueen in The Cincinnati Kid. This was card-drama in bars full of cheroot smoke, whiskey and wild women. In Britain, by contrast, it was traditionally the pastime of crooks in grimy vests playing under bare bulbs, or self-consciously raffish rich kids looking for street cred."

Ben Macintyre in The Times (2005)

"I just realized something. JOKER is poker with a ‘J’ ... coincidence?"

Phoebe [Liza Kudrow] on Friends: The One with All the Poker (1995)

"A KING can do no wrong … unless it runs into an ace."

Old Poker Saying

"A poker player has to be LUCKY … in the same way that Warren Buffet gets lucky playing the stock market year after year."

Phil Gordon, Poker: Real Deal (2006)

"All the bills are paid and you feel pretty good. Is it time to go shopping? Yes, providing you leave enough MONEY to play poker."

Barry Greenstein, Ace on the River (2005)

"Poker Tip #10: You’re not allowed to give yourself a NICKNAME. This holds true in life as well as in poker."

Richard Roeper in The Chicago Sun-Times (2005)

"Poker is a game of people. If you remember that, you can bounce your OPPONENTS around like tumbleweed in Texas. If you forget, Lord have mercy on your bankroll."

Doyle Brunson, According to Doyle (1984)

"Not for nothing are POKER TABLES shaped like the floor of the Coliseum - the better to concentrate the butchery, the better to observe it up close. lions and tigers and bears, oh my! Thumbs up or thumbs down on the river."

James McManus in American Poetry Review (2002)

"Pocket QUEENS are arguably the third best Hold ‘em starting hand, but like everything having to do with the ladies, it just isn’t that simple. It is also one of the hands players go broke with most often. The cards are beautiful, mesmerizing. All that paint is hypnotic, but you must use your head, not your heart. You must tread cautiously and think carefully, not jump in with both feet like a love-struck teenager."

Katie Lindsay in Pro Player magazine (Sep 2006)

"There are a lot of RULES to poker: a flush beats a straight, three of a kind beats two pair, never trust anyone named Vegas Billy. But the cardinal rule of all time may be this: Never bet $86 on the three of clubs. But even that rule is sorely tested when everyone folds except you and the guy whose currency on the table is handwritten."
Jesse McKinley in The New York Times (2003)

"SEX and poker don’t go together. That, at least, is my general experience. Which is not to say that one should not follow the other."

David Spanier, Total Poker (1977)

"Learn their secrets and determine how they keep from going on TILT. If the shoe fits, steal it!"

Lou Krieger

"Alas, I have no discernible ability at Hold ‘em - if I were playing against nine Franciscan monks, I would be the UNDERDOG - a somewhat unfortunate reality considering I am paid to analyze Hold ‘em on TV. (By the way, this makes me the Matt Millen of poker.)"

Norman Chad in Sports Illustrated magazine (2009)

"One of the weird things about poker is that you’re handling all this cash, and you’re getting paid in cash, and it’s flowing in and out of your life, and it’s easy to lose the VALUE of money. When you have a lot of success young, and you get a hold of a lot of cash, and you’ve never had to be an adult struggling, you lose perspective."

Anne Duke in All In magazine

"The important thing is to get fun out of poker, and the best fun is the fun of WINNING."

Chris Ferguson in Inside Edge magazine (2006)

99 [Barbara Feldon]: "Why don’t we use the X-22 computer, Chief?"
Chief [Edward Platt]: "I’ve thought of that, 99, but somebody fed a deck of cards into it and now all it’ll do is play poker with the CIA computer."
99: "Well can’t you reprogramme it?"
Chief: "No, we can’t do that, it’s 32 dollars behind."

on Get Smart: The Worst Best Man (1968)

"Erick Lindgren thought it would be a good idea to issue a challenge saying he and I could amass more Player of the YEAR points than any other two players. (Except for Phil Ivey because he doesn’t count. He’s not human)."

Daniel Negreanu in All-In magazine (2009)

"I am in poker for all the wrong reasons. I don’t care about the money. I just want to experience a 48-hour period where I am at one with the universe. I want to experience that ZEN state of consciousness where you can do no wrong: your tiny twos flop into a set, your inferior pair rivers into a backdoor straight. Phil [Laak] calls this phenomenon ‘Surfing the Wa’."

Jennifer Tilly in Bluff magazine (2005)

Quotes taken from
The Quotable Poker Player book
[1500 Funny Poker Sayings]
published by Blue Eyed Books

For more Poker Quotations go to:
The Quotable Poker Player

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The Quotable Bikini

2010-07-05T10:16:00.001+01:00

The Quotable Bikini

On July 5th, 1946, the modern bikini was unveiled in public for the first time. Invented by French engineer Louis Réard, this 'revolutionary' and iconic piece of beachwear was named after the Bikini Atoll in the Pacific.

Réard described his 'invention' as "smaller than the smallest swimsuit." He also said, "A bikini is not a bikini unless it can be pulled through a wedding ring."

To celebrate the unveiling of Réard's modern bikini design, here is a selection of famous and humorous quotations about the ubiquitous piece of swimwear ...

"A girl in a bikini is like having a loaded pistol on your coffee table - There's nothing wrong with them, but it's hard to stop thinking about it."

Garrison Keillor

"A bikini is like a barbed-wire fence. It protects the property without obstructing the view."

Joey Adams

"Statistics are like a bikini. What they reveal is suggestive, but what they conceal is vital."

Aaron Levenstein

"Nature has no mercy at all. Nature says, 'I'm going to snow. If you have on a bikini and no snowshoes, that's tough. I am going to snow anyway.' "

Maya Angelou

"A man will go to war, fight and die for his country. But he won't get a bikini wax."

Rita Rudner

"There's a side of my personality that goes completely against the East Coast educated person and wants to be a pin-up girl in garages across America ... there's a side that wants to wear the pink angora bikini!"

Mira Sorvino

"Women shop for a bikini with more care than they do a husband. The rules are the same. Look for something you'll feel comfortable wearing. Allow for room to grow."

Erma Bombeck

"A bikini is a thoughtless act."

Esther Williams

"Since the beginning, the bikini has represented freedom, fun, and a sense of liberation."

Malia Mills

"I’m not in my element standing around in a bikini in front of strangers. I never stand up in a bikini, even at the swimming pool. I feel like a normal person when it comes to things like that. I'm like any other girl who doesn't want to show her bottom."

Elizabeth Hurley

"I really did put up all my wedding pictures on my website. And I swear to you, my wedding pictures got downloaded just as much as my bikini pictures."

Cindy Margolis

"In shops selling bikinis, there are no calendars with pictures of garages."

Pierre Legare

"There is less and less difference between government and a bikini: everyone wonders how it holds, and everyone hopes to see it falling."

Anon

"Once they know you're willing to put on a bikini, the phone won't stop ringing."

Jennifer Barretta

On Britney Spears - "It's a bit sad to wear a bikini to sell records."
Samantha Mumba

"What purpose do the WAGS of the English football team serve? A very simple one. They exist to show nothing changes as far as women are concerned. It is as if a group of embittered middle-aged men got together in a bitch-fest about women and then, somehow, produced living dolls who - shallow, dumb, lazy and living off their men - personified their complaints. WAGs are programmed for three activities: sex, sunbathing and shopping. Obviously they all secretly hate each other and spend their limited brain power deciding which bikini to change into."

Suzanne Moore in The Daily Mail (2006)

Reviewing 'Sunburn' (1979) - "The only thing tinier than the bikini Farrah Fawcett wore in this comedy-thriller was La Farrah’s talent."
Rona Barrett (1979)

Reviewing 'Mamma Mia' - "Cheesier than grilled halloumi. And, yes, the plot has more holes than a crocheted bikini."
Allison Pearson in The Daily Mail (2009)

Perhaps the most famous bikini wearer of all-time is Ursula Andress who played the memorable Bond Girl Honeychile Ryder in the first James Bond film Dr. No in 1962. Honey's first appearance in the movie - emerging from the sea in a white bikini - has caused shockwaves ever since ...

"In the book, the heroine is walking a beach nude with a knife-belt strapped about her when Bond first sees her. In the movie, Andress fills a wet bikini as if she were going downwind behind twin spinnakers."

Time magazine (1962)

"Ursula Andress emerged from the sea in a bikini just large enough to sheath a dagger."

Jami Bernard in The New York Daily News (1997)

"The sexy, bikini-clad Andress, first seen emerging nymph-like from the ocean, set the gauge at ‘super-hot’ for future Bond girls."

John Farr on HuffingtonPost.com (2008)

"Was it the body or the bikini that made Andress the most memorable (and lusted-after) Bond Girl of all time? ... Give the costume designer an Oscar for creating a white version that wasn’t see-through."

Nicola Copping in The Times (2008)

"Ask a man which is his favourite Bond Girl outfit, and he will look as though you have asked him to recite Pythagoras’s theorem in Gaelic. He may have committed to memory every fleshy curve, every beauty spot and every inch of thigh - but with the possible exception of Ursula Andress’ bikini, the precise details of the garments 007’s paramours were spilling out of has been forgotten."

Celia Walden in The Daily Telegraph (2008)

"This bikini made me a success."

Ursula Andress

For more Humorous Fashion Quotes ...

look out for the forthcoming book The Quotable Fashionista

Some quotes taken from James Bond: Licence To Quote

(1500 Humorous Quotations about 007)

and

James Bond: Quotino Royale

(4000 Biographical Quotations about the world's favourite secret agent)

published by Blue Eyed Books

For more great quotations, inspirational thoughts and famous sayings,
go to A2Z of Quotes or Blue Eyed Books - The Home of Humorous Quotes
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The Quotable Fourth of July and the U.S.A.

2010-07-04T08:53:00.001+01:00

The Quotable Fourth of July and the U.S.A.

The Fourth of July is best known as the day on which the U.S.A. celebrates its independence gained back in 1776. As well as marking the 'birth' of a nation, July 4th is also the birthday of a number of famous Americans and they are celebrated with a selection of quotes by them ...

"Happiness in this world, when it comes, comes incidentally. Make it the object of pursuit, and it leads us a wild-goose chase, and is never attained."

Nathaniel Hawthorne - author of The Scarlet Letter (b. 1804)

"Oh, Susanna, don't you cry for me / For I come from Alabama / With my banjo on my knee."

Stephen Foster - songwriter Oh! Susanna, Camptown Races and My Old Kentucky Home (b. 1826)

"The chief business of the American people is business."

Calvin Coolidge - 30th President (b. 1872)

"The number one book of the ages was written by a committee, and it was called The Bible."

Louis B. Mayer - Hollywood producer (b. 1882)

"We don't pay taxes. Only the little people pay taxes."

Leona Helmsley - billionaire hotelier and real estate investor aka 'The Queen of Mean' (b. 1920)

"Painters can study the masters can't they? Musicians can hear Beethoven. What will filmmakers do?"

Eva Marie Saint - actress On The Waterfront [Oscar for Best Supporting Actress] and North By Northwest (b. 1924)

"Money brings some happiness. But after a certain point, it just brings more money."

Neil Simon - playwright / screenwriter Barefoot in the Park, The Odd Couple [Tony Award] and California Suite (b. 1927)

"A myth is a story told in a historical context. You think of that name, Al Davis, and you think of an old, rich, white guy who owns the Raiders."

Al Davis - owner and former coach of the Oakland Raiders (b. 1929)

"Owning the Yankees is like owning the Mona Lisa."

George Steinbrenner - shipping magnate and owner of the New York Yankees (b. 1930)

"I feel that it is healthier to look out at the world through a window than through a mirror. Otherwise, all you see is yourself and whatever is behind you."

Bill Withers - singer / songwriter Lean on Me, Ain't No Sunshine, Just the Two of Us and Lovely Day (b. 1938)

"One of the real tests of journalistic integrity is being fair to someone who might best be described by a four-letter word."

Geraldo Rivera - TV reporter and chat show host (b. 1943)

"I am the living death, the Memorial Day on wheels. I am your Yankee Doodle Dandy, your John Wayne come home, your Fourth of July firecracker exploding in the grave."

Ron Kovic - Vietnam War vet, peace activist and author of Born on the Fourth of July (b. 1946)

To celebrate its independence day here are a few thought-provoking quotations about the United States of America ...

"I was born on July 4, 1776, and the Declaration of Independence is my birth certificate. The bloodlines of the world run in my veins, because I offered freedom to the oppressed. I am many things, and many people. I am the nation. I am 213 million living souls - and the ghost of millions who have lived and died for me."
Otto Whittaker

"The United States is the only country with a known birthday."

James G. Blaine

"America is the only nation in history which miraculously has gone directly from barbarism to degeneration without the usual interval of civilization."

Georges Clemenceau

"America is God's crucible, the great Melting-Pot where all the races of Europe are melting and reforming!"

Israel Zangwill

"America is the only country ever founded on the printed word."

Marshall McLuhan

"America is so vast that almost everything said about it is likely to be true, and the opposite is probably equally true."

James T. Farrell

"America is a country that doesn't know where it is going but is determined to set a speed record getting there."

Laurence J. Peter

"America ... just a nation of two hundred million used car salesmen with all the money we need to buy guns and no qualms about killing anybody else in the world who tries to make us uncomfortable."

Hunter S. Thompson

"America is an enormous frosted cupcake in the middle of millions of starving people."

Gloria Steinem

"What is the essence of America? Finding and maintaining that perfect, delicate balance between freedom 'to' and freedom 'from.' "

Marilyn vos Savant

"America's one of the finest countries anyone ever stole."

Bobcat Goldthwaite

"There is not a liberal America and a conservative America - there is the United States of America. There is not a black America and a white America and Latino America and Asian America ... there's the United States of America."

President Barack Obama

"There is nothing wrong with America that cannot be cured by what is right with America."

President Bill Clinton

"For this is what America is all about. It is the uncrossed desert and the unclimbed ridge. It is the star that is not reached and the harvest that's sleeping in the unplowed ground."
President Lyndon B. Johnson

"And so, my fellow Americans ... ask not what your country can do for you - ask what you can do for your country. My fellow citizens of the world: ask not what America will do for you, but what together we can do for the freedom of man."

President John F. Kennedy

For more great quotations, inspirational thoughts and famous sayings,
go to A2Z of Quotes or Blue Eyed Books - The Home of Humorous Quotes
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The Quotable Dave Barry

2010-07-03T11:08:00.005+01:00

The Quotable Dave Barry ... humorist, parodist, columnist and syndicatist

Dave Barry (born on this day - July 3rd - in 1947) is a Pulitzer Prize-winning humorist and writer. As a hugely syndicated columnist and best-selling author he has earned the right to be called quotable. Even his book titles are humorous enough to be quoted on their own: The Taming of the Screw, Stay Fit and Healthy Until You're Dead, Dave Barry's Guide to Marriage and/or Sex, Dave Barry Hits Below the Beltway, I'll Mature When I'm Dead and Babies and Other Hazards of Sex: How to Make a Tiny Person in Only 9 Months With Tools You Probably Have Around the Home.

Here is just a small selection of Dave's funny sayings and amusing observations ...

"A sense of humor is a measurement of the extent to which we realize that we are trapped in a world almost totally devoid of reason. Laughter is how we express the anxiety we feel at this knowledge."

"I love the Olympics, because they enable people from all over the world to come together and - regardless of their political or cultural differences - accuse each other of cheating."

"The guys on TV are usually playing Texas Hold ‘Em, which is the hottest poker game at the moment, although there are many other popular variations of poker, including Seven-Card Stud, Five-Card Draw, Alabama Grope ‘Em, Omaha High Low, Iowa Bore ‘Em, Six-Card High Low Medium Jacks Wild Stud Draw Go Fish, Cincinnati Lawn Flamingo, Florida Recount ‘Em, Kansas City Clam Enhancer, Arkansas Geld ‘Em, New Jersey Whack ‘Em, New York Kvetch ‘Em, Red Rover and Whist."

"Buying the right computer and getting it to work properly is no more complicated than building a nuclear reactor from wristwatch parts in a darkened room using only your teeth."

"You can say any foolish thing to a dog, and the dog will give you a look that says, 'My God, you're right! I never would've thought of that!' "

"Sharks are as tough as those football fans who take their shirts off during games in Chicago in January, only more intelligent."

"Auto racing is boring except when a car is going at least 172 miles per hour upside down."

"Although golf was originally restricted to wealthy, overweight Protestants, today it's open to anybody who owns hideous clothing."

"The leading cause of death among fashion models is falling through street grates."

"It is a scientific fact that your body will not absorb cholesterol if you take it from another person's plate."

"It is inhumane, in my opinion, to force people who have a genuine medical need for coffee to wait in line behind people who apparently view it as some kind of recreational activity. I bet this kind of thing does not happen to heroin addicts. I bet that when serious heroin addicts go to purchase their heroin, they do not tolerate waiting in line while some dilettante in front of them orders a hazelnut smack-a-cino with cinnamon sprinkles."

"Without question, the greatest invention in the history of mankind is beer. Oh, I grant you that the wheel was also a fine invention, but the wheel does not go nearly as well with pizza."

"Electricity is actually made up of extremely tiny particles called electrons, that you cannot see with the naked eye unless you have been drinking."

"The Constitution of the United States of America, Article V, Section 1: 'There shall be a National Anthem containing incomprehensible words and a high note that normal humans cannot hit without risk of hernia.' "

"Bill Gates is a very rich man today ... and do you want to know why? The answer is one word: versions."

"Have you noticed that whatever sport you're trying to learn, some earnest person is always telling you to keep your knees bent?"

"I have been a gigantic Rolling Stones fan since approximately the Spanish-American War."

"Life is anything that dies when you stomp on it."

"Never under any circumstances take a sleeping pill and a laxative on the same night."

"The four building blocks of the universe are fire, water, gravel and vinyl."

"The Internet is the most important single development in the history of human communication since the invention of call waiting."

"The only kind of seafood I trust is the fish stick, a totally featureless fish that doesn't have eyeballs or fins."

"The simple truth is that balding African-American men look cool when they shave their heads, whereas balding white men look like giant thumbs."

"Thus the metric system did not really catch on in the States, unless you count the increasing popularity of the nine-millimeter bullet."

"What I look forward to is continued immaturity followed by death."

For more on Dave Barry, check out his official website at: www.DaveBarry.com

For more great quotations, inspirational thoughts and famous sayings, go to A2Z of Quotes
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The Quotable Hemingway - In Ernest or In Jest?

2010-07-02T09:54:00.002+01:00

The Quotable Hemingway - In Ernest or In Jest?

Ernest Hemingway (who died on this day - July 2 - in 1961) was one of the great American writers across many formats: novels, short stories, articles, etc. He won the Pulitzer Prize for Fiction in 1953 for The Old Man and the Sea and he was awarded the Nobel Prize in Literature in 1954. His other major works included: The Sun Also Rises (1927), A Farewell to Arms (1929), Death in the Afternoon (1932), For Whom the Bell Tolls (1940) and A Moveable Feast (1964).

As a writer who lived life to the full and more, Hemingway was eminently quotable about his chosen profession ...

"A writer should write what he has to say and not speak it."

"A man's got to take a lot of punishment to write a really funny book."

"The good parts of a book may be only something a writer is lucky enough to overhear or it may be the wreck of his whole damn life - and one is as good as the other."

"My attitude toward punctuation is that it ought to be as conventional as possible. The game of golf would lose a good deal if croquet mallets and billiard cues were allowed on the putting green. You ought to be able to show that you can do it a good deal better than anyone else with the regular tools before you have a license to bring in your own improvements."

"I don't like to write like God. It is only because you never do it, though, that the critics think you can't do it."

"All my life I've looked at words as though I were seeing them for the first time."

"Having books published is very destructive to writing. It is even worse than making love too much. Because when you make love too much at least you get a damned clarte that is like no other light. A very clear and hollow light."

"The parody is the last refuge of the frustrated writer. Parodies are what you write when you are associate editor of the Harvard Lampoon. The greater the work of literature, the easier the parody. The step up from writing parodies is writing on the wall above the urinal."

"A serious writer is not to be confused with a solemn writer. A serious writer may be a hawk or a buzzard or even a popinjay, but a solemn writer is always a bloody owl."

"When writing a novel a writer should create living people; people not characters. A character is a caricature."

"You can write any time people will leave you alone and not interrupt you. Or rather you can if you will be ruthless enough about it. But the best writing is certainly when you are in love."

"All modern American literature comes from one book by Mark Twain called Huckleberry Finn ... American writing comes from that. There was nothing before. There has been nothing as good since."

Quotations about Hemingway's writing ...

"Editing Hemingway was like wrestling with a god."
Tom Jenks

"Hemingway is great in that alone of living writers he has saturated his work with the memory of physical pleasure, with sunshine and salt water, with food, wine and making love and the remorse which is the shadow of that sun."
Cyril Connolly

"I wonder now what Ernest Hemingway's dictionary looked like, since he got along so well with dinky words that everybody can spell and truly understand."
Kurt Vonnegut

"He got hold of the red meat of the English language and turned it into hamburger."
Richard Gordon

"I read him for the first time in the early 1940s, something about bells, balls, and bulls … and I loathed it."
Vladimir Nabokov

"Ernest Hemingway was a highly readable writer, one whose stories lost no time in communicating themselves from the printed page to the reader, from dialogue on paper to dialogue sounding in one's own ears and carrying his tales forward as if the characters were alive and right there in person. The immediacy of Hemingway's reality conveys itself with more than deliberate speed, and with an impact few other writers so quickly and so compactly achieve. Some commentators said years ago that Hemingway was a writer's writer. He turned out to he a reader's writer as well."
Langston Hughes

"If pretty words alone could provide leadership, then why not just give the presidency and the Peace Prize to a Hemingway novel?"
Todd Harris

A Farewell to Arms - "A footnote to the minor art of Gertrude Stein, an appendix to the biography of the great novelist Scott Fitzgerald, and the Ouida of the thirties."
Brophy, Levey & Osborne, 50 Works of Literature We Could Do Without (1967)

For Whom the Bell Tolls - "Mr Hemingway ... please leave stories of the Spanish Civil War to Malraux."
Commonweal

The Sun Also Rises - "His characters are as shallow as the saucers in which they stack their daily emotions."
The Dial

For more great quotations, inspirational thoughts and famous sayings, go to A2Z of Quotes
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The Quotable Princess Diana

2010-07-01T22:33:00.001+01:00

The Quotable Princess Diana

Diana Frances Spencer (born on this day - July 1st - in 1961) will be forever remembered as the People's Princess - Diana, Princess of Wales.

To celebrate her beautiful yet tragically short life, in which she touched the hearts of millions around the world, here is a choice selection of quotations by the Princess ...

Princess Diana on the British royalty ...

"Being a princess isn't all it's cracked up to be."

"I'd like to be a queen in people's hearts but I don't see myself being queen of this country."

"It's vital that the monarchy keeps in touch with the people. It's what I try and do."

"They say it is better to be poor and happy than rich and miserable, but how about a compromise like moderately rich and just moody?"

Princess Diana on her family ...

"Family is the most important thing in the world."

"I live for my sons. I would be lost without them."

"If men had to have babies, they would only ever have one each."

"Hugs can do great amounts of good - especially for children."

Princess Diana on her charity role ...

"I knew what my job was; it was to go out and meet the people and love them."

"HIV does not make people dangerous to know, so you can shake their hands and give them a hug: Heaven knows they need it."

"The biggest disease the world suffers from in this day and age is the disease of people feeling unloved. I know that I can give love for a minute, for half an hour, for a day, for a month, but I can give. I am very happy to do that, I want to do that."

"You can't comfort the afflicted with afflicting the comfortable."

"Carry out a random act of kindness, with no expectation of reward, safe in the knowledge that one day someone might do the same for you."

Princess Diana on herself ...

"I'm as thick as a plank."

"I don't go by the rule book... I lead from the heart, not the head."

"I am not a political figure, nor do I want to be one; but I come with my heart."

For more great quotations, inspirational thoughts and famous sayings, go to A2Z of Quotes
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The Quotable Cheryl Cole - the Geordie goddess and X Factor judge who has nailed it.

2010-06-30T15:44:00.003+01:00

**The Quotable Cheryl Cole ... Geordie goddess, pop princess and X Factor judge who has nailed it.**

Cheryl Cole (née Tweedy born in Newcastle Upon Tyne - on this day 30 June - in 1983) is an English singer with Girls Aloud, as well as being a songwriter, actress, dancer, model, and TV talent judge on The X Factor.

Twice voted 'Sexiest Women in the World' by FHM magazine in 2009 and 2010, Cheryl found fame with Popstars spawned girl band Girls Aloud recording a string of number one hits including: Sound of the Underground, I'll Stand by You, Walk This Way and The Promise. As a solo singer, Cheryl has had success with titles such as: 3 Words, Fight For This Love and Parachute.

She married England soccer star Ashley Cole in 2006 and Cheryl filed for divorce in May 2010. Since then she has been romantically linked with Dancing With the Stars professional dancer Derek Hough.

In 2009, Cheryl became the face of L'Oréal and signed a reported five million pound deal to 'author' five romantic novels HarperCollins.

To celebrate the life and lifestyle of Cheryl Cole here is a choice selection of quotations by and about her ...

Quotes by Cheryl ...

"Sometimes I just feel like I need a chocolate bar. I don't deny myself anything."

"I tend to shop online ... mostly online to be honest because I actually feel the whole thing of shopping is actually really stressful. Just the lighting in dressing rooms makes you depressed."

"There's not another better feeling that you could have over being an inspiration to someone else. I love that feeling of inspiring other women."

"If Sex And The City said they wanted me to be in their movie, I'm there. My PA reckons I'm half Carrie half Charlotte. Not sure if that's a good thing or not."

"I was 15 when I lost my virginity, but I made my boyfriend wait three months, so I am really proud of myself for that. The thought of being intimate with someone you don't know really freaks me out. I think men should earn that intimacy."

"There was a moment in time just after Girls Aloud took a break where I thought, 'Do I do a solo record, or do I start a family?' "

Quotations about Cheryl ...

"The poor man’s Posh."
The Independent (2006)

"Some girls you look at and think, 'Damn, you shouldn't look that good'. Cheryl is one of them. She has this quality that turns powerful men into giggly schoolboys. Any guy that ends up with her will be lucky. It might not be a man. I'd take her out on a date and she knows it."
Fergie
"Cheryl is now so skeletal I wonder her neck can bear the weight of those enormous false eyelashes and copious hair extensions: every week during the X Factor, I’ve waited on tenterhooks for the moment her head would, finally, crash on to the judges’ table."
Liz Jones in The Daily Mail (2008)

"Cheryl Cole, tearful nice-cop of Saturday evening TV and - since the kiss-and-tell stories involving husband Ashley - Britain's favourite wronged woman."
Tom Ewing in The Guardian (2009)

"Even before she performed Fight For This Love on The X Factor, Cheryl Cole's vocal limitations were in danger of overshadowing her solo ambitions. However, as Madonna, Kylie and Britney have all shown over the years, there's a lot more to pop greatness than simply hitting the right notes. With sales of her 3 Words album already topping 300,000, Cole has - to use one of her favourite X Factor expressions - pretty much 'nailed it' so far."
David Balls on DigitalSpy.com (2009)

"The throbbing 3 Words had a hint of Madonna’s Ray Of Light, the outfits a definite dash of Kylie. If Cole - or simply Cheryl, as she will surely soon be known - can sell herself as a hybrid of those two pillars of pop, Ashley can have the house."
Lisa Verrico in The Times (2010)

For more great quotations, inspirational thoughts and famous sayings, go to A2Z of Quotes
.

In Quotes: Jayne Mansfield, Lana Turner and Katharine Hepburn - three legends, one fateful date with destiny.

2010-06-29T15:01:00.000+01:00

IN QUOTES: Jayne Mansfield, Lana Turner and Katharine Hepburn - three legends, one fateful date with destiny.

Coincidentally, these three Hollywood legends all died on this day - June 29. Each actress is remembered in their own way ...

In 1967, Jayne Mansfield (born 1933) died in an automobile accident at the age of 34. With the physique of a Playboy Playmate, Jayne's most famous movie was The Girl Can't Help It. As she admitted the public didn't care about her intellect or acting ability, "They're more interested in 40-21-35."

"Dramatic art in her opinion is knowing how to fill a sweater."
Bette Davis

"When it comes to men, I heard she never turns anything down except the bedcovers."
Mae West

On her big screen rival Mamie Van Doren - "Mamie … what’s her last name? It begins with V.D. … I don’t see her as a rival, no. Of course, she’s blonde. So many are. But, if you know what I mean, she does seem rather small for her size."

In 1995, Lana Turner (born in 1921) died at the age of 74 of complications from throat cancer. Her most famous role was playing femme fatale Cora Smith in The Postman Always Rings Twice (1946).

"I planned on having one husband and seven children, but it turned out the other way around."

"I find men terribly exciting, and any girl who says she doesn`t is an anemic old maid, a streetwalker, or a saint."

"A gentleman is simply a patient wolf."

"She's not Madame X; she's brand X; she's not an actress, she's a commodity"
Pauline Kael

"She’s a nice girl, but it’s like sitting in a room with a beautiful vase."
Judy Garland

"She is not even an actress ... only a trollop."
Gloria Swanson

"In the past, studios would actively encourage film set romances, particularly if the actress was as limited as Lana Turner, who could only convincingly portray lust when she was actually in the trailer with her leading man between takes."
Siobhan Synnot in The Scotsman (2004)

In 2003, Katharine Hepburn (born 1907) died of natural causes in Connecticut at the age of 96. Acclaimed as one of the greatest screen actreeses of all time, Katharine was nominated 12 times for an Oscar winning a record four times: Morning Glory (1933), Guess Who's Coming to Dinner (1967), The Lion in Winter (1968) and On Golden Pond (1981).
She also won an Emmy Award in 1976 (Love Among the Ruins).

"Sometimes I wonder if men and women really suit each other. Perhaps they should live next door and just visit now and then."

"Plain women know more about men than beautiful ones do."

"Acting is a nice childish profession - pretending you`re someone else and at the same time selling yourself."

"Life`s what`s important. Walking, houses, family. Birth and pain and joy. Acting`s just waiting for a custard pie. That`s all."

"Acting is the most minor of gifts and not a very high-class way to earn a living. After all, Shirley Temple could do it at the age of four."

"I`m a personality as well as an actress. Show me an actress who isn`t a personality, and you`ll show me a woman who isn`t a star."

"If you survive long enough, you`re revered - rather like an old building."

Quotes about Katharine ...

"The girl has great verve and control, always stimulating, always great fun."
Cary Grant

"Kate was a powerful force of nature."
Jane Fonda

"She will always be the greatest woman star. She was a woman of all generations and all seasons."
Karen Kramer

"With her confidence and slight swagger, the real essence of the Hepburn style is not the clothing, but the woman herself."
Carrie Donovan

"Katharine Hepburn isn’t really stand-offish. She ignores everyone equally."
Lucille Ball

"I admire Katharine Hepburn’s cheekbones more than her films."
Bette Davis

"She is snippy you know, which is a shame. She was never on my side."
Ginger Rogers

"The woman’s a purseful of mannerisms and gaudy affectations. Have you caught her trying to act all frilly-feminine? It’s piteous. I think she won awards for being such an independent role model, not for her acting prowess … she doesn’t act, she emotes."
Estelle Winwood

The Lake [1933] - "Go to the Martin Beck Theatre and watch Katharine Hepburn run the gamut of emotions from A to B."
Dorothy Parker in Life magazine

Some of the above quotations taken from ...
To Bitch or Not To Bitch!?

published by Blue Eyed Books

For more great quotations, inspirational thoughts and famous sayings, go to A2Z of Quotes

The Quotable A.A. Gill - The food & TV critic with an acerbic taste in insults

2010-06-28T12:55:00.005+01:00

The Quotable A.A. Gill ... the food / TV critic with an acerbic taste in insults

A.A. Gill (born on this day - June 28 - in 1954) is the Sunday Times' resident Television and Food critic - and Adrian Anthony Gill certainly does not mince his words when it comes to reviewing either subject whether it be a stuck up celebrity or a stick of celery.

A.A.'s Television critiques ...

Red Riding - "Sean Bean is a performer who has all the dramatic range of a tiddlywink, albeit a very angry tiddlywink."

Pushing Daisies - "Anna Friel manages to be wholesome and erotic in an undead way."

Ashes To Ashes - "As D.I. Drake … Keeley Hawes couldn’t arrest an audience if she came on naked with a ‘This Way Up’ sticker on her bottom."

Dr. Who - "I’m put off by how much gape-acting David Tennant does. The mouth is permanently gurning. It’s like watching someone who is half Time Lord, half haddock."

Heroes - "I do wonder why they cast Hayden Panettiere as Claire the cheerleader. She is so short, the only thing she could cheerlead would be Subbuteo football."

Stephen Fry in America - "Throughout his career, Fry has relentlessly reached for the fey, light option, gone for all the gravitas of Noël Coward in a bubble bath with PG Wodehouse and the loofah of introspection that was Joyce Grenfell."

Are You Smarter Than A 10-Year-Old? - "Not being as clever as a 10-year-old is like saying you’re not as clever as a zebra crossing or a right-angled triangle or Gary Lineker."

Ray Mears Goes Walkabout - "Ray’s back in Australia and, as ever, lost for words. Nobody can confront the sublime and come up with a vocabulary as lacking as Mears’."

Britain’s Got Talent - "The skin-crawling Piers Morgan, Gore-Tex man, impervious to emotion or sensitivity. He seems to have learnt human as a second language, possibly from Derren Brown."

British Isles: A Natural History - "If Alan Titchmarsh wants to get out of the window box and into the big world, he needs to find some chiaroscuro and form opinions that don’t sound as if they came off the shelf from Homebase."

That Mitchell and Webb Look - "Mitchell and Webb are Little and Large with irony, Cannon and Ball with O-levels, Mike and Bernie Winters without Schnorbitz."

Countdown - "A programme that oozes despair like a badly applied tourniquet. It is the recreation of those who live on waiting-room time … Countdown is playing Hangman for shy suicides, and it could be prosecuted for assisting euthanasia."

Little Britain - "It is an idea that went straight from the screen to the back of the school bus without ever troubling the grown-ups, and it’s never been within hailing distance of a laugh."

A.A.'s Food critiques ...

"Christmas dinner: the single most disgusting meal ever invented with the exception of American thanksgiving, which, though similar, manages to be marginally worse … Nobody sane or loving could invent Christmas food from scratch."

"A lobster bisque ought to be the crowning glory of the potager. And this one was excellent. Silky as a gigolo’s compliment and fishy as a chancellor’s promise."

"The baby back ribs were like eating the evidence in a war-crimes trial."

"Winkles are bottom-feeders’ chewing gum."

"Bouillabaisse … this is one of those dishes that has a mythological culinary status. Cassoulet is another. And salad dressing. And the Bloody Mary … Bouillabaisse is still, for me, geographically specific. I can only eat it in the South of France. Anywhere else, it just makes me sad."

"I ordered a lasagne. There’s only so much you can do for lasagne in the looks department. The only garnish that would improve it would be a power cut. And you have to go gingerly. It can be like emptying Vesuvius into your mouth, turning your tongue into a Pompeian pumice mummy."

"Scottish smoked salmon filled with poached salmon was too monotonously huge; nicely made, but a bit like eating a soggy pink scatter cushion."

"Soufflé Suisse: a difficult dish that always feels a bit Edwardian and normally comes the size of an inflated crème brûlee. What arrived was hot egg with napalm cheese, twenty stories high. It was the Dirk Diggler of soufflés."

"Pizza Express is a sort of gastronomic post-modern version of the Morecambe and Wise Christmas Special. We’ve all been here and done that … Only Hannibal Lecter would conceivably have a favourite Café Rouge or All Bar One, but everyone has a favourite Pizza Express."

"The Rainforest Café menu is, almost comfortingly; exactly the same as every other theme restaurant menu on the planet. It’s hamburger and pasta caught between a Hard Rock and a hard place."

"There are many wonderful things about Egypt, but none of them is gastronomic. An Egyptian restaurant belongs on the same street as a Fijian ballet school, a Ukrainian tailor and a Nigerian interior decorator."

Some of the above quotations taken from ... The Quotable Critic

and some quotes taken from the future title ... The Quotable Foodie
published by Blue Eyed Books

For more great quotations, inspirational thoughts and famous sayings, go to A2Z of Quotes
.

The Quotable 'Cubby' Broccoli - Mastermind behind the James Bond movies

2010-06-27T09:28:00.004+01:00

The Quotable 'Cubby' Broccoli ... the Mastermind behind the James Bond movies

Albert 'Cubby' Broccoli (who died this day - June 27 - in 1996) was an American film producer best remembered for bringing James Bond to the big screen. In all, Broccoli was involved in 17 Bond films from the very first Dr No in 1962 to his last involvement as Consulting Producer with 007 with Goldeneye in 1995

Born in Queens, New York in 1909, Cubby worked in a pharmacy, as a coffin-maker and selling Christmas trees. He later became a talent agent (representing stars such as Robert Wagner and Lana Turner) before making a name for himself as a producer in the movie business in the 1950s. Having worked with the likes of Howard Hughes and Irving Allen, Cubby moved to London but eventually went bust after The Trials of Oscar Wilde flopped at the box office in 1960.

Having long dreamed of bringing Ian Fleming's 007 secret agent to the screen, Broccoli and Harry Saltzman (who owned the screen rights to the books) formed Eon Productions. Casting the relatively unknown Sean Connery as James Bond, they made Dr No in 1962 on a million dollar budget and the rest as they say is history.

Broccoli's legacy with James Bond continues as his stepson, Michael G. Wilson and daughter Barbara now run the multi-million dollar industry that has grown up around the Bond movies.

To celebrate the life and career of the inspirational film producer and proud family man, here is a selection of quotes by and about Cubby Broccoli ...

Quotes by Cubby ...

On the Bond movie formula - "A virile and resourceful hero, exotic locations, the ingenious apparatus of espionage and sex on a fairly sophisticated level."

Dr No - "It was with this film that the James Bond formula and style were perfected."

"My favourite films are From Russia With Love, Goldfinger and The Spy Who Loved Me. I can’t say there is a single one I’d want to re-do, although there are parts of The Man With The Golden Gun I’d change."

"I honestly felt a responsibility toward all the Bond fans out there. I know they look forward to these pictures. And so I’m going to go on delivering then as long as I can. Also, it’s a challenge, which I enjoy. We try to make each picture more exciting than the one before, to take Bond somewhere he hasn’t already been."

"Bond is my life. I get ideas for the films all the time. I scribble down ideas on the backs of old envelopes. Even when I’m on the toilet and get a Bond idea I grab a piece of toilet paper and write it down. And that idea, though it began on a piece of toilet paper, can cost millions of dollars to put on the screen."

On the 007 leading men after Sean Connery - "Like comparing a still photograph with a film."

"Bond’s ladies must stay in the background and must give the impression of being experienced with men. They must be strong but elegant. ‘Something’ must happen when you look at them."

"It is not necessary to use established actresses in these films. It’s entertainment after all, not Macbeth."

"Nudity would destroy Bond’s career. His image must be clean cut. We can’t risk offending his massive family audience in any way."

"I love looking at the old Bond films. Maybe it's purely out of reminiscence, the nostalgic things you think about. But there were some very good films made and I think that the public has enjoyed them, too."

"That we were lucky to stumble upon Ian Fleming and Bond, was a bit of a good fortune. The rest was all hard work."

"The Russians did invite me to make a film there. But when I said I’d like to make a Bond movie there, they said, 'We’re not ready for that yet!' "

Quotes about Cubby ...

"The production team of Cubby Broccoli and Harry Saltzman had pretty well invented a whole new genre - the big, glossy, no-expense-spared international thriller. A heady mix of beautiful locations, beautiful people and beautiful cars, whipped up into a confection of non-stop action and sex. There is no depth to a Bond movie; it is a world of goodies and baddies, a world where death is played for laughs. The films do not nourish the soul. They do not set out to. They are pure entertainment. Pure cinema."
Charlie Higson in The Spectator (2006)

"He was remarkable man, a fantastic producer, and if it wasn’t for Cubby there wouldn’t be Bond films today. He is the main reason for them. When I arrived he came onto the set to welcome me. Normally one doesn’t meet a producer."
Desmond Llewelyn - ‘Q’ in the Bond films

"Producer Albert R. Broccoli seems to know exactly how to stretch his formula like a cat’s cradle in his hands."
Sheila Benson in The Los Angeles Times

"Producer Albert R. Broccoli, the major-domo of the James Bond movies, is the proverbial Jewish mother of cinema: he is not about to let anyone go away hungry. In Moonraker, the eleventh 007 opus, Broccoli serves the audience a space-shuttle hijacking, a jumbo-jet explosion and a protracted wrestling match between two men who are falling from the sky without parachutes. All this happens before the opening credits. From there, it's on to gondola chases in Venice, funicular crashes in Rio and laser-gun shootouts and lovemaking in deep space. Meanwhile, beautiful women come and go .... When Broccoli lays out a feast, he makes sure that there is at least one course for every conceivable taste."
Frank Rich in Time magazine (1979)

"Albert (Cubby) Broccoli, the constant force behind the pictures. Directors come and go, but Broccoli remains, lavishing time, attention and megabucks on the formula adventures."
Rita Kempley in The Washington Post (1987)

"Producer ‘Cubby’ Broccoli took Fleming’s ingredients and turned them into his own dish."
James Taylor in The Times (2007)

"Indiana Jones, Arnie, Derek Flint et al owe a major debt to Bond, James Bond. Or perhaps Broccoli, Cubby Broccoli."
Michael Cooper on Alternative007.co.uk (2006)

Taken from James Bond: Licence To Quote

(1500 Humorous Quotations about 007)

and

James Bond: Quotino Royale

(4000 Biographical Quotations about the world's favourite secret agent)

published by Blue Eyed Books

For more great quotations, inspirational thoughts and famous sayings, go to A2Z of Quotes
.

The Quotable Babe Zaharias - The Greatest All-Round Female Athlete

2010-06-26T15:06:00.001+01:00

The Quotable Babe Zaharias ... the Greatest All-Round Female Athlete

Mildred Didrikson aka 'Babe' Zaharias (born on this day - June 26 - in 1911) can lay claim to have been the world's greatest all-round female athlete. She even took her nickname from being compared to baseball legend 'Babe' Ruth.

In 1931, she led her team to the Amateur Athletic Union basketball national championship, was a three-time All-American and once scored 106 points in a game.

Her performance of six wins in the ten events at the 1932 AAU Championships was enough to win the team prize ... on her own. She then won two gold medals (80m hurdles and javelin) and a silver (high jump) in the 1932 Los Angeles Olympics.

In 1939, Time magazine extolled her unmatched range of sporting gifts as "... famed woman athlete, 1932 Olympic Games track & field star, expert basketball player, golfer, javelin thrower, hurdler, high jumper, swimmer, baseball pitcher, football halfback, billiardist, tumbler, boxer, wrestler, fencer, weight lifter, adagio dancer."

Later in life she took up golf and she won the 1946-47 United States Women's Amateur Golf Championships, as well as the 1947 British Ladies Amateur Golf Championship - the first American to do so - and three Western Open victories. In total she won 41 LPGA Tour wins - topped off by 10 Major titles.

In 1975 - 19 years after her death - Babe, a film based on her life, was released with Susan Clark in the lead role. In 1981, she was featured on a U.S. postage stamp.

In 1999, the Associated Press voted Babe its Woman Athlete of the 20th Century in 1999. A year later, ESPN ranked her the tenth greatest athelete of the 20th century - the hihest ranked woman.

Quotes by 'Babe' ...

"Before I was ever in my teens, I knew exactly what I wanted to be when I grew up. My goal was to be the greatest athlete that ever lived."

"You can't win them all ... but you can try."

"The Babe is here. Who's coming in second?"

To a meeting of the LPGA in the 1940s - "You know when there's a star, like in show business, the star has her name in lights on the marquee! Right? And the star gets the money because the people come to see the star, right? Well, I'm the star, and all of you are in the chorus."

"That little ball won't move until you hit it, and there's nothing you can do for it after it has gone."

"It's not enough just to swing at the ball ... You've got to loosen your girdle and really let the ball have it."

On her breasts - "If I didn’t have these I’d hit it twenty yards further."

"There are times when a golfer is tempted to throw her clubs away and forget the whole humblin' business. At other times, she wouldn't trade places with a queen ... that's when the shots are long and true, and putts are dropping."

On rumours of her retiring from golf - "As long as I am improving I will go on, and besides, there's too much money in the business to quit."

"Winning has always meant much to me, but winning friends has meant the most."

"All my life I've been competing and competing to win. I came to realize that in this way, this cancer was the toughest competition I had faced yet. I made up my mind that I was going to lick it all the way. I not only wasn't going to let it kill me, I wasn't even going to let it put me on the shelf."

Quotes about 'Babe' ...

On Babe playing on the men's pro golf tour - "It would be much better if she and her ilk stayed at home, got themselves prettied up and waited for the phone to ring."
Joe Williams in The New York World-Telegram

"Except perhaps for Arnold Palmer, no golfer has ever been more beloved by the gallery."

Charles McGrath in The New York Times

"She is beyond all belief until you see her perform...Then you finally understand that you are looking at the most flawless section of muscle harmony, of complete mental and physical coordination, the world of sport has ever seen."

Grantland Rice

"She was brave as a lion, as lovable as a lamb. She bragged, she swore, drank, but could be presented at court, comfort a nun, buy a fur for her mother or sew a dress for herself as well as the product of any finishing school. She was a roughneck with a basketball or a deck of cards in her hands. But she grew roses, raised poodles, danced at the White House and hung curtains like the dutiful Scandinavian housewife she was."

Jim Murray in The Los Angeles TImes

Some quotations taken from Quote Like A Butterfly, Sting Like a Queen Bee

(1000 Humorous Sports Quotations exclusively by Women)

published by Blue Eyed Books

For more great quotations, inspirational thoughts and famous sayings, go to A2Z of Quotes
.

The Quotable George Orwell ... The Father of Big Brother.

2010-06-25T18:50:00.002+01:00

The Quotable George Orwell ... The Father of Big Brother

George Orwell (born on this day - June 25 - in 1903) was the pseudonym of British author Eric Arthur Blair - best known for his politically-charged novels Animal Farm and 1984.

To celebrate his birth date, here is a selection of famous quotations by and about George / Eric ...

"Advertising is the rattling of a stick inside a swill-bucket."
from Keep the Aspidistra Flying (1936)

"In almost any revolt the leaders would tend to be people who could pronounce their aitches."
from The Road to Wigan Pier (1937)

"There is at least a tinge of truth in that picture of Southern England as one enormous Brighton inhabited by lounge-lizards."
from The Road to Wigan Pier (1937)

"England is perhaps the only great country whose intellectuals are ashamed of their own nationality. In left-wing circles it is always felt that there is something slightly disgraceful in being an Englishman and that it is a duty to snigger at every English institution, from horse racing to suet puddings. It is a strange fact, but it is unquestionably true that almost any English intellectual would feel more ashamed of standing to attention during God save the King than of stealing from a poor box."
from The Lion and the Unicorn (1941)

"Four legs good, two legs bad."
from Animal Farm (1945)

"The creatures outside looked from pig to man, and from man to pig, and from pig to man again; but already it was impossible to say which was which."

from Animal Farm (1945)

"Serious sport has nothing to do with fair play. It is bound up with hatred, jealousy, boastfulness, disregard of all rules and sadistic pleasure in witnessing violence: in other words it is war minus the shooting."
from 'The Sporting Spirit' in Tribune (1945)

"Writing a book is a horrible, exhausting struggle, like a long bout of some painful illness. One would never undertake such a thing if one were not driven on by some demon whom one can neither resist nor understand."
from Why I Write (1946)

"No one can look back on his schooldays and say with truth that they were altogether unhappy."
from Such, Such Were The Joys (1947)

"It was a bright cold day in April, and the clocks were striking thirteen."
Opening line from Nineteen Eighty-Four (1949)

"If you want a picture of the future, imagine a boot stamping on a human face - forever."
from Nineteen Eighty-Four (1949)

Quotes about George Orwell ...

"George Orwell was the wintry conscience of a generation which in the thirties had heard the call of the rasher assumptions of political faith. He was a kind of saint and, in that character, more likely in politics to chastise his own side than the enemy."
V.S. Pritchett in New Statesman (1950)

"He could not blow his nose without moralising on conditions in the handkerchief industry."
Cyril Connolly in The New York Evening Colonnade (1973)

"Old George Orwell got it backward [in 1984]. Big Brother isn't watching. He's singing and dancing. He's pulling rabbits out of a hat. Big Brother's holding your attention every moment you're awake. He's making sure you're always distracted. He's making sure you're fully absorbed... and this [act of] being fed, it's worse than being watched. With the world always filling you, no one has to worry about what's in your mind. With everyone's imagination atrophied, no one will ever be a threat to the world."
Chuck Palahniuk, Lullaby (2002)

For more great quotations, inspirational thoughts and famous sayings, go to A2Z of Quotes and Blue Eyed Books
.

The Quotable Mindy Kaling - Another Funny Day at The Office?

2010-06-24T09:03:00.002+01:00

The Quotable Mindy Kaling ... another funny day at The Office?

Actress, writer and self-confessed shopper Mindy Kaling (born this day in 1979) is best known for her role as Kelly Kapoor in NBC TV's sitcom The Office - for which she also acts as writer and producer.

As one of the funniest people working in television, here is a selection of funny quotes and hilarious comments from Mindy ...

On her chatty, bubbly and celebrity obsessed 'Office' character Kelly - "I don't think there are a lot of times when Asians on television get to play total idiots, so it's really freeing."

"Girls like it when you nickname them something smaller than a bread box. Chickadee. Pat of Butter. Baby Mouse. This makes us feel tiny and adorable. Space Heater and Minivan do not."

As well as her work on TV Mindy is also worth following on Twitter ... here are a few gems from twitter.com/mindykaling

"A little known Atheist pillar of argument is how could there be a God if he would allow me to have to work during the NBA final"

"I miss when I was a little kid when I could go without peeing for like 4 days"

"Don't watch The Strangers when you're home alone, and don't watch the Taking of Pelham 1-2-3 on the subway."

"Not to go Carrie Bradshaw on people, but is it possible to stay a romantic on this planet? Do I have to move to Mars?"

"One funny thing I remember from my childhood is that Simpsons Halloween episodes were actually scary to me."

"Going to a bachelorette party tonight. the word bachelorette is horrible, right?"

For more great quotations, inspirational thoughts and famous sayings, go to A2Z of Quotes and Blue Eyed Books
.

The Quotable Bob Fosse

2010-06-23T08:24:00.001+01:00

The Quotable Bob Fosse

Winner of nine Tony Awards for choreography and direction Bob Fosse (born this day in 1927) also won an Emmy (for Liza with a 'Z'), an Oscar (for Cabaret), a Palme d'Or (for All That Jazz - based on his turbulent life) and a Laurence Olivier Award amongst many other accolades and tributes. He has even had awards named after him - the Fosse Awards, now renamed the American Choreography Awards is just one example of the heights to which this legendary choreographer, director, producer, screenwriter and dancer soared.

Although he made his mark on the big screen, Fosse will be best remembered for his theatre work. His name is linked to such showstopping shows as: Pal Joey, The Pajama Game, Damn Yankees, Redhead, How to Succeed in Business Without Really Trying, Sweet Charity, Pippin, Chicago, Dancin' and Big Deal.

To celebrate one of the great dance talents of the twentieth century, here is a selection of quotations by and about Bob Fosse (who died of a heart attack in 1987) ...

Quotes by Bob Fosse ...

"I thank God that I wasn't born perfect."

"I think Balanchine and Robbins talk to God and when I call, he’s out to lunch."

"Directors are never in short supply of girlfriends."

"Don't dance for the audience; dance for yourself."

"The time to sing is when your emotional level is too high to just speak anymore, and the time to dance is when your emotions are just too strong to only sing about how you feel."

Quotations about Bob Fosse ...

Cabaret (1972) - "Superbly choreographed by Bob Fosse, the cabaret numbers evoke Berlin of 1931 so vividly that only an idiot could fail to perceive that something is rotten in the state of Weimar."
Tom Milne in The Time Out Film Guide

"Bob Fosse likes tall girls with no shape. You don’t have to be a good dancer … you have to be double-jointed."

Valerie Peters (1977)

"Fosse, a dancer, a singer, a choreographer, knew musicals the way a child is supposed to remember mother’s milk."

Richard Fuller in Cincinnati magazine (1979)

All That Jazz - "An uproarious display of brilliance, nerve, dance, maudlin confessions, inside jokes and, especially, ego … as if Bob Fosse had invited us to attend his funeral … after all, funerals are only wasted on the dead."
Vincent Canby in The New York Times (1979)

"Dancing Fosse is like dancing with whiskey in your belly. Most girls dance like they’ve got Diet Coke in their belly."

Shirley MacLaine

"He crammed his dances full of sexual imagery so harsh and loveless that you can’t help wondering what made him so successful a womanizer."

Terry Teachout in Time magazine (1999)

Fosse the Musical - "Fosse, with a capital ‘F’, means one of Broadway’s supreme choreographers. With a lower-case ‘f’, it is a castle moat or a long and narrow ditch. The contrivers of the show Fosse have usurped that capital ‘F’ for their lowercase venture. This long and narrow spectacle that came to praise Bob Fosse is more likely to bury him."
John Simon in New York magazine (1999)

"His Expressionist-slink dance style has turned up everywhere but the Christian Broadcasting Network."

Elvis Mitchell in The New York Times (2002)

Director: "We open in a week, people! The set isn’t finished. Mother Abbess just quit because she has shingles. And, every step-ball change would make Bob Fosse rise from the grave just so he could have a heart attack again!"
in The Pacifier (2005)

Reviewing the movie 'Ninja Assassin' - "It’s like Bob Fosse night at the martial-arts studio. Most of the killing here is done with bladed throwing stars that, like the ninjas themselves, arrive from nowhere. They appear to have been used to edit the film as well."
Wesley Morris in The Boston Globe (2009)

On the inspiration for Beyonce's 'Single Ladies' video - "Although I wanted the video to feel like it was one continuous take, on the shoot day we decided to split the song into three parts. I deliberately let the shots be long so viewers would connect with the human endeavor of Beyoncé's awe-inspiring dance, which was inspired by an old-school Bob Fosse routine."
Jake Nava (2009)

Quotes taken from
The Quotable Dancer

(1300 Humorous Dance Quotations from Stage and Screen)

published by Blue Eyed Books

For more great quotations, inspirational thoughts and famous sayings, go to A2Z of Quotes

The Quotable Fred Astaire ... style and class on the dancefloor

2010-06-22T08:21:00.002+01:00

The Quotable Fred Astaire ... style and class on the dancefloor

Regarded by many as the world's greatest dancer Fred Astaire was the quintessential smooth operator on the dance floor. As fellow Hollywood hoofer Gene Kelly aptly said, "The history of dance on film begins with Astaire."

Fred's unmatched career on stage, screen and television stretched across eight decades including such great musical films as: Flying Down to Rio, Top Hat, Swing Time, Follow the Fleet, Shall We Dance, The Band Wagon, Easter Parade and Funny Face. In these films and more Fred memorably danced with a glittering array of equally unforgettable partners including: Ginger Rogers, Joan Crawford, Rita Hayworth, Ann Miller, Cyd Charisse, Judy Garland, Eleanor Powell, Audrey Hepburn and Leslie Caron.

In tribute to the mercurial Mr. Nimblefoot, here is a selection of quotations about Fred that span the decades in deference to his longevity and legendary status ...

Apple Blossoms [1919] - "He is one of those extraordinary persons whose senses of rhythm and humour have been all mixed up - whose very muscles of which he seems to have an extra supply - are downright facetious."
Alexander Woollcott in The New York Times (1919)

Stop Flirting [1923] - "Columbus may have danced with joy at discovering America, but how he would have cavorted had he also discovered Fred and [his sister] Adele … They typify the primal spirit of animal delight that could not restrain itself - the vitality that bursts its bonds in the Garden of Eden."
Sydney W. Carroll in The Times (1923)

The Gay Divorcee (1934) - "It is difficult to recall any dancing on the screen comparable to that of Mr. Astaire, who, in addition to his inexpressible Terpsichorean talents, endows the picture with a charm of personality, a small subtlety, a very definite class which the screen must never allow to escape … incidentally, if he has tragedy in his repertoire, here is the logical Nijinsky when the drama of the dancer comes to the screen."
Regina Crewe in The New York American (1934)

You'll Never Get Rich (1941) - "Mr. Astaire is no great shakes as an actor, but he has an irrepressibly light-hearted way about him that takes everything in its stride. As the dance director who joins the Army to escape the extra-marital commotions of producer Robert Benchley, Mr. Astaire moves on nimble feet. Marching with the squad he can’t stop ‘making patty-cake with the feet,’ and in the guardhouse, where he spends most of his time, he pulls together a hot-fingered rhythm section for accompaniment. Then he goes to town in a dance that would make a hippopotamus twitch."
Theodore Strauss in The New York Times (1941)

Royal Wedding aka Wedding Bells (1951) - "A lively lot of dancing and some pleasantly handled songs … Graced with Fred Astaire beating his tootsies ... give him a novelty arrangement and a little space in which to move around and he can make old Terpsichore holler, no, matter how average the song. One ‘single’ he does in a gymnasium, with a hat-rack and dumb-bells for props, bears the old Astaire trademark, and he likewise makes quite a rib-tickling thing out of dancing on walls and ceiling in another done with trick photography."
Bosley Crowther in The New York Times (1951)

Finian's Rainbow (1968) - "A lot of the fine things in the film come from Fred Astaire, who possibly danced better 30 years ago but has never achieved a better characterization. In most of the Astaire musicals we remember, he was really playing himself, and the plot didn’t make much of an effort to conceal that. This time he plays arthritic, wizened, wise Finian McLonergan (with some songs and dances the original stage Finian didn’t have). And it is a remarkable performance."
Roger Ebert in The Chicago Sun-Times (1968)

That's Entertainment II (1976) - "Fred Astaire … was and still is the greatest. It’s not simply the wit and elegance that amaze us, but the continuing variations he worked so successfully for so long … Stepping Out With My Baby, with Astaire dancing in slow motion in front of a chorus in real time, is a little bit of what great movie musicals are all about."
Vincent Canby in The New York Times (1976)

"He never wiped out battalions with a submachine gun, waved a pistol, led a car chase, nor threw a punch. He never bared his chest nor even kissed on screen. Yet he was the most influential movie star of his generation. Fred Astaire, who died yesterday at 88, was a legend who made it look easy, a self-taught vaudevillian from Omaha who was the definition of worldly sophistication."
The Boston Globe (1987)

Quotations and reviews taken from The Quotable Fred Astaire / Dancing On Astaire

(2000 Biographical Quotations about the World's Greatest Dancer)

published by Blue Eyed Books

For more great quotations, inspirational thoughts and famous sayings, go to A2Z of Quotes.

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The Quotable Prince William of Wales

2010-06-21T08:41:00.001+01:00

The Quotable Prince William of Wales

Prince William of Wales (born on this day in 1982) is the elder son of Prince Charles and Princess Diana, the third grandchild of Queen Elizabeth II and Prince Philip. Second in line to the British throne, William has served in the Blues and Royals regiment of the Household Cavalry and in the RAF.

To celebrate his 28th birthday here is a selection of quotations from the Prince ...

"I am and always will be an HRH. But out of personal choice I like to be called William because that is my name and I want people to call me William ... for now."

"I'm always open for people saying I'm wrong because most of the time I am.”

"My guiding principles in life are to be honest, genuine, thoughtful and caring."

"There's been a lot of speculation about every single girl I'm with and it actually does quite irritate me after a while, more so because it's a complete pain for the girls."

After being compared to Leonardo DiCaprio - "I think he shall find it easier being King of Hollywood than I shall being King of England."

"Harry can paint but I can't. He has our father's talent while I, on the other hand, am about the biggest idiot on a piece of canvas. I did do a couple of drawings at Eton which were put on display. Teachers thought they were examples of modern art, but in fact, I was just trying to paint a house."

For more great quotations, inspirational thoughts and famous sayings, go to A2Z of Quotes or Blue Eyed Books.

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The Quotable Nicole Kidman ... from Honolulu to Hollywood

2010-06-20T08:58:00.002+01:00

The Quotable Nicole Kidman ... from Honolulu to Hollywood

Nicole Kidman (born on this day in 1967) is an Australian actress with US dual citizenship as she was born in Honolulu.

Nicole is famous for being married to Tom Cruise and for starring in films such as: Days of Thunder, Batman Forever, Practical Magic, To Die For, Cold Mountain, Fur, and The Golden Compass winning a Best Actress Oscar for The Hours.

Showing her verstaility, Nicole has also had a number one record in the UK in 2001 - Something Stupid with Robbie Williams.

To celebrate Nicole's 43rd birthday, here is a selection of interesting, insightful and inspiring quotations by and about her ...

Nicole on her life and career ...

"I love acting, but it's much more fun taking the kids to the zoo."

"What's the point of doing something good if nobody's watching.”

"You're not anyone in America unless you're on TV."

"It's so bizarre, I'm not scared of snakes or spiders. But I'm scared of butterflies. There is something eerie about them. Something weird!"

"I'd like to be wise. You have to go through a lot to get there, but I'm willing to go through a lot."

After unveiling her star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame - "I've never been so excited to have people walk all over me for the rest of my life."

Nicole on her body image ...

"You don't have to be naked to be sexy."

"I have a boy`s body. I would prefer to have more curves because I think that`s more beautiful. I would much rather have J. Lo`s body than mine ...I would love to have boobs and a butt like Jennifer Lopez but I`m not having surgery so there it is."

Nicole on life with Tom Cruise ...

"I wouldn't want to be married to me, but luckily Tom Cruise does."

After her divorce from her diminutive husband - "Now I can wear heels."

Nicole on Moulin Rouge ...

"My kids and the film Moulin Rouge! are the two things that are my shining lights."

[On her Golden Globe - "I never knew I'd be in a musical, let alone win an award for one."]

Nicole on Eyes Wide Shut ...

"There's no drugs, no Tom in a dress, no psychiatrists."

Nicole on Bewitched ...

"All that nose twitching becomes quite addictive after a while. It was hard to switch off."

Nicole on The Stepford Wives ...

"It's a comedy. We hope."

Others on Nicole ...

"Being around Nicole is like being around electricity."

Baz Luhrmann

"When I was told I was meeting Nicole Kidman ... I was like, ‘How am I going to get through this and not look like an idiot or try to lick her face?' "

Robbie Williams

"Nicole is an actress whose remarkable beauty and talent and determination has brought her the kind of success that only comes in dreams."

Adrien Brody

"Nicole is one of the most incandescent presences on the screen. Ever. I really think she's an alien. She looks like it. She can do anything. The woman is just ... there's something about her that's otherworldly."

Shirley MacLaine

For more great quotations and famous sayings, go to A2Z of Quotes or Blue Eyed Books.

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The Quotable Paula Abdul ... from All-American cheerleader to American Idol

2010-06-19T07:59:00.002+01:00

The Quotable Paula Abdul ... from All-American cheerleader to American Idol

Former American Idol judge Paula Abdul (born on this day in 1962) is a multi-talented performer having had six number one singles on the Billboard Hot 100, won a Grammy [for Best Music Video - Short Form for Opposites Attract] and has two Primetime Emmy Awards for Outstanding Choreography.

Here is a selection of quotations and critical reviews that go some way to summing up Paula and her career ...

"I will never forget my humble beginnings as a Laker Girl. It was probably one of the most fun jobs I ever had."

On her first major choreography gig - "My only problem was how to tell the Jacksons how to dance [on their Torture video]. Imagine me telling them what routines to do. I was young, I was scared. I'm not quite sure how I got through that."

On her brand of choreography - "When people expect me to go right, I'll go left. I'm unpredictable."

"My choreography suits men very well, and the women who can do it are damn hard, strong dancers."

"My videos stand the test of time. They are like the almanac for every performer. Even Rhianna has come up to me and said ‘I hope you don’t mind.’ And Beyonce. You can see the influence of what I’ve done. It’s really fun to see that I’ve left a mark. It was my idea to create an animated character. It takes a lot of focus, a lot time, and a lot of money."

"I stand on principle where many people stand on money."

"Keep the faith, don't lose your perseverance and always trust your gut instinct."

"The cool part of being an entertainer is getting the opportunity to get your feet wet in all areas."

Paula on her fellow American Idol judge -

"Can you imagine Simon Cowell as a kid? His imaginary friends probably never wanted to play with him."

"I welcome him like I welcome cold sores. He's from England, he's angry and he's got Mad Power Disease."

"Simon would not want to audition in front of Simon."

Paula and Simon definitely have different ways of expressing their opinions as Paula explained her kinder method ...

"Constructive criticism is about finding something good and positive to soften the blow to the real critique of what really went on."

And Paula should know the effects of positive and negative criticism as her career has seen the critics place her at both ends of the spectrum ...

"Paula has made it OK for the girl who isn’t elegant or sophisticated to dance. Whereas if you put on a Smokey Robinson track, you’d figure a girl would have to do beautiful Ballet moves."

Julie Brown in The New York Times (1990)

"Paula Abdul is the Doris Day of dance music."

Jay Cocks in Time magazine (1991)

"Opposites Attract, featuring Abdul’s pas de deux with animated home-feline Skat Kat, is terrific fun, updating the Gene Kelly-Jerry Mouse number from Anchors Aweigh with Roger Rabbit slickness."

Glenn Kenny in Entertainment Weekly (1992)

"If Paula were a movie star, she’d be Demi Moore. Neither woman possesses great beauty or awe-inspiring talent, and neither exactly radiates intelligence or natural charm. Both have been able to transcend these limitations, however, by simply out-sweating the competition. These ladies work hard for the money, and so do their publicists and personal trainers."

Elysa Gardner in Rolling Stone magazine (1995)

"Let’s talk about Lily Allen, shall we? To be honest, I’d generally rather not, never having been the biggest fan of her singing style - whispering-to-cover-up-the-lack-of-ability not being my favourite approach; I generally prefer an 80s soprano - you know, like Paula Abdul."

Hadley Freeman in The Guardian (2008)

"Note to Dancing With The Stars producers: How about getting real dancers going against real dancers? Here’s where Paula Abdul could shine. Stick her against Ben Vereen, Savion Glover, Chita Rivera and Debbie Allen and we might just have a show.”

Bruce Miller in The Sioux City Journal (2009)

"On American Idol, Paula Abdul has always seemed to struggle just to form sentences, let alone to add something worthwhile to the discussion. This is why I’ve been fast-forwarding through her inane, repetitive comments as long as I can remember. Her remarks rank up there with pharmaceutical drug commercials and disturbing horror movie trailers … Paula is exactly the sort of person who should never, ever have been invited to appear on television in the first place."

Heather Havrilesky on Salon.com (2009)

Quotations and sayings taken from

The Quotable Dancer

(1300 Humorous Dance Quotations from Stage and Screen)

Dancing With The Quotes
(1000 Humorous Dance Quotations)

The Quotable Critic
(2000 Comical Celebrity Cheapshots from the 21st Century)

To Bitch or Not To Bitch
(1500 Girl-on-Girl Celebrity Insults)

All published by Blue Eyed Books
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The Quotable Paul McCartney ... A Hard Day's Knight?

2010-06-18T08:35:00.003+01:00

The Quotable Paul McCartney ... A Hard Day's Knight?

“It was 68 years ago today ...” Sir Paul McCartney (born on this day in 1942) is the most successful songwriter in the history of popular music [according to Guinness World Records], He will always be remembered as one of the Beatles and for writing great songs such as: Hey Jude, Yesterday, Let It Be, Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band and Lady Madonna (with John Lennon) and he also penned the James Bond song Live and Let Die.

To pay tribute to Sir Paul's great career, here is a selection of his famous and inspirational quotations covering the last fifty years ...

Paul on life in the Beatles ...

"None of us wanted to be the bass player. In our minds he was the fat guy who always played at the back."

"We didn't all get into music for a job. We got into music to avoid a job, in truth ... and get lots of girls.”

"There are only four people who knew what the Beatles were about."

Paul on song-writing and being creative ...

"People who create and write, it actually does flow - just flows from into their head, into their hand, and they write it down. It's simple."

"To get a big hit single today you've got to go a bit dance. You've got to go a bit Britney. I don't think I can do that - well, I could but it wouldn't look very seemly!"

"Imagination grows by exercise, and contrary to common belief, is more powerful in the mature than in the young."

"I saw that Meryl Streep said, 'I just want to do my job well.' And really, that's all I'm ever trying to do."

"I'm still looking to write a great song ... You always are. You know, you never think, 'Well, that's enough ... that's good enough.' "

On leaving record label EMI after 45 years - "Everybody at EMI had become part of the furniture. I'd be a couch; Coldplay are an armchair. Robbie Williams ... I dread to think what he was."

Paul on his musical inspirations ...

"It was Elvis who really got me hooked on beat music. When I heard Heartbreak Hotel I thought, 'This is it.' "

"No one is musically educated until they have heard The Beach Boys' Pet Sounds."

Paul's serious social comments ...

"I don't ever try to make a serious social comment."

"If slaughterhouses had glass walls, everyone would be a vegetarian."

"Think globally, act locally."

"In the end, the love you take is equal to the love you make."

For more great quotations, go to A2Z of Quotes or Blue Eyed Books.

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The Quotable Cyd Charisse ... the Hollywood goddess with the million dollar legs

2010-06-17T07:55:00.002+01:00

The Quotable Cyd Charisse ... the Hollywood goddess with the million dollar legs

Born Tula Ellice Finklea in Amarillo, Texas in 1922, this great entertainer also went by the names of Lily Norwood, Felia Siderova and Maria Istomina. It was as Cyd Charisse that she achieved Hollywood stardom and on the way she blazed an unforgettable trail across the cinematic dance floor. Sadly, it was on this day in 2008 that Cyd Charisse died after a heart attack and she was laid to rest at Hillside Memorial Park Cemetery in Culver City.

In celebration of a great dancer and an unforgettable lady, here is a selection inspirational quotations by and about Cyd ...

"My father had a jewellery store in Amarillo, Texas and on Saturday afternoons we could go to the movies. The first time I saw Fred Astaire and Ginger Rogers, I fell in love with dancing."
Cyd Charisse in Los Angeles magazine (2004)

On dancing with Fred Astaire - "Coming from a Russian ballet company and a lot of hard training, I was a strong dancer and I loved to dance and I loved to work and he found someone who liked to work just as much as he did and we got along fabulously well together."
Cyd Charisse

"Cyd Charisse is a terrific dancer, a wonderful partner. She has precision plus - beautiful dynamite, I call it ... When you danced with her, you stayed danced with her.'"
Fred Astaire, Steps in Time (1959)

"Like all pure dancers of Hollywood, Charisse expressed persona through movement rather than dialogue, and in her case that persona was smoky, sinuous, and cool: a quintessential ‘50s mix of sex and poise. She was the choreographic equivalent of a classic Sinatra LP."
Ty Burr in The Boston Globe (2008)

"How anyone can watch Singin’ In The Rain’s billowing, over-the-top fantasy sequence and not be seduced by the woman is beyond me. Forget all that Two-step / Cha-Cha-Cha Dancing With The Stars nonsense. This is what real dancing is about."
Sarah Hepola on Salon.com (2008)

"Her duet with Gene Kelly [in Singin’ In The Rain] is one sexually charged ‘do me now’ pas de deux ... if that doesn’t steam your jeans right then and there, you might as well cancel your subscription to Maxim."
Mark Bourne on Film.com (2008)

"She looked like a woman who liked to shock priests with wicked confessions."
Gene Kelly

Her tongue-in-cheek suggestion for an epitaph - "People sometimes had a problem placing her face, but they never forgot her pins."
Cyd Charisse

"Her legs were sensational, of course, as long, mesmeric and dangerous as the M1, and insured by the film studio MGM for a million dollars."
Peter Evans in The Daily Mail (2008)

"Cyd Charisse - whose legs are deadlier than all the firearms in Chicago."
Stuart Klawans in The New York Times (2003)

"Her long legs made her look streamlined like the Chrysler Building."
Howard Dietz

"The amazing 'Girl Hunt' ballet [in The Band Wagon ], a film noir pastiche in which Cyd Charisse demonstrates once again that her legs reach up to her armpits."
Anne Billson in The Sunday Telegraph

"It’s Always Fair Weather is an amazing film - for Cyd’s legs alone … After this you’ll find yourself dancing in the street, as well as checking out more movies with the amazing Cyd Charisse."
Louis Black in The Austin Chronicle (1998)

Quotes taken from

The Quotable Dancer

(1300 Humorous Dance Quotations from Stage and Screen)
and

The Quotable Fred Astaire
(2000 Biographical Quotations about the world's greatest dancer)

published by Blue Eyed Books

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Quote of the Day : June 16th - Old Tom Morris and Phil Mickelson

2010-06-16T11:16:00.000+01:00

QUOTE OF THE DAY: June 16th

Old Tom Morris and Phil Mickelson

Two four-time Major-winning golfers were born on this day.

Thomas Mitchell Morris, Sr. was born in 1821 at the home of golf St. Andrews in Scotland. Known as Old Tom Morris, he won The Open Championship in 1861, 1862, 1864 and 1867

Old Tom's most famous quotation was in reference to the locals at St. Andrews, "We were all born with webbed feet and a golf club in our hand here."

On looking through a telescope for the first time and seeing the moon - "Faith, sir! She's terrible full o' bunkers."

"Old Tom is the most remote point to which we can carry back our genealogical inquiries into golfing style, so that we may virtually accept him as the common golfing ancestor who has stamped the features of his style most distinctly on his descendants."

Horace G. Hutchinson (1900)

Phil Mickelson was born in 1970 in San Diego, California. 'Lefty' holds the record for most Majors won by a left-hander: three Masters' titles in 2004, 2006 and 2010 with a US PGA title in 2005.

Some great quotations from Phil ...

"The object of golf is not just to win. It is to play like a gentleman, and win."

"I hate to play a tournament in which I'm not contending. It's just not any fun for me."

“There's an old saying, 'Beware of the ailing golfer. And whenever he's complaining, we know we're in trouble.”

“The more you study the course, the more you appreciate what a great test it is.”

For more great quotes, go to A2Z of Quotes or Blue Eyed Books.

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Quote of the Day: June 15th - Lightning Reactions

2010-06-15T10:00:00.001+01:00

QUOTE OF THE DAY: June 15th - Lightning Reactions

On this day in 1752 Benjamin Franklin famously proved that lightning is a form of electricity. To celebrate this scientific breakthrough, here is a selection of famous sayings and funny quotations about that most electric of weather phenomena ...

"Mirth is like a flash of lightning, that breaks through a gloom of clouds, and glitters for a moment; cheerfulness keeps up a kind of daylight in the mind, and fills it with a steady and perpetual serenity."

Joseph Addison

"There are only three things that can kill a farmer: lightning, rolling over in a tractor, and old age."

Bill Bryson

"Television news is like a lightning flash. It makes a loud noise, lights up everything around it, leaves everything else in darkness and then is suddenly gone."

Hodding Carter

"Electricity is really just organized lightning."

George Carlin

"Bring in the bottled lightning, a clean tumbler, and a corkscrew."

Charles Dickens, The Life and Adventures of Nicholas Nickleby

"A poet is someone who stands outside in the rain hoping to be struck by lightning."

James Dickey

"They say marriages are made in Heaven. But so is thunder and lightning."

Clint Eastwood

"Genius unrefined resembles a flash of lightning, but wisdom is like the sun."

Franz Grillparzer

"A poet is a man who manages, in a lifetime of standing out in thunderstorms, to be struck by lightning five or six times."

Randall Jarrell

"I'd rather be a lightning rod than a seismograph."

Ken Kesey

"Poetry is a sword of lightning, ever unsheathed, which consumes the scabbard that would contain it."

Percy Bysshe Shelley

"I do believe there are leaders who are like lightning and they come along and they lead. The Lincolns of the world, the Alexander the Greats, they do exist. They have existed."

Oliver Stone

"If you are caught on a golf course during a storm and are afraid of lightning, hold up a 1-iron. Not even God can hit a 1-iron."

Lee Trevino

"The reason lightning doesn't strike twice in the same place is that the same place isn't there the second time."

Willie Tyler

"The trouble ain't that there is too many fools, but that the lightning ain't distributed right."

Mark Twain

"The difference between the right word and the almost right word is the difference between lightning and a lightning bug."

Mark Twain

For more great quotes, go to A2Z of Quotes or Blue Eyed Books.

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The Quotable Che Guevara ... Rebel With A Cause

2010-06-14T08:45:00.001+01:00

The Quotable Che Guevara ... Rebel With A Cause

Today is the official birth date of iconic revolutionary Ernesto 'Che' Guevara.

Five famous quotations by Che ...

"The revolution is not an apple that falls when it is ripe. You have to make it fall."

"Silence is argument carried out by other means."

"One has to grow hard but without ever losing tenderness."

"The desire to sacrifice an entire lifetime to the noblest of ideals serves no purpose if one works alone."

"We cannot be sure of having something to live for unless we are willing to die for it."

Six inspirational quotations about Che and his legacy ...

"Che sowed the seeds of social conscience in Latin America and the world, he was a flower prematurely cut from its stem."

Fidel Castro

"Che was the most complete human being of our age."

Jean-Paul Sartre

"Che's life is an inspiration for every human being who loves freedom. We will always honour his memory."

Nelson Mandela

"Guevara remains a national hero in Cuba where he is remembered for promoting unpaid voluntary work by working shirtless on building sites or hauling sacks of sugar. To this day, he appears on a Cuban banknote cutting sugar cane with a machete in the fields."

Rosa Tania Valdes

"He belongs more to the romantic tradition than the revolutionary one. To endure as a romantic icon, one must not just die young, but die hopelessly. Che fulfils both criteria. When one thinks of Che as a hero, it is more in terms of Byron than Marx."

Christopher Hitchens

"Che T-shirts are among the first things you'll see after landing at the Havana airport. But at least the Cubans know whom they're glorifying. In the United States, Che's life story and ambitions seem beside the point, or maybe they've just been reduced to caricature. The guy's face is shorthand for 'I'm against the status quo.' He's politics' answer to James Dean, a rebel with a very specific cause."

David Segal in The Washington Post (2006)

For more great quotes, go to A2Z of Quotes or Blue Eyed Books.

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The Quotable Tim Allen ... from Tool Time to Toy Story and beyond !

2010-06-13T09:54:00.002+01:00

**The Quotable Tim Allen ... from Tool Time to Toy Story and beyond !**

US comic and actor Tim Allen (born on this day in 1953) is famous for his TV sitcom role as DIY expert Tim Taylor in Home Improvement and also as the voice of Buzz Lightyear in the Toy Story movies.

Winner of the 1995 Golden Globe for Best Actor in a Television Series or Comedy, Tim's performances have always gone down well with audiences and the box office, however the mainstream critics appear to have a different view of his talents ...

"As a comic actor, Allen’s palette is limited to varying degrees of beige. He is not only boring, he’s obnoxious and narcissistic."

Ann Hornaday in The Washington Post

Zoom - "No superpower on earth can neutralize Mr. Allen’s weary shtick."
Jeannette Catsoulis in The New York Times (2006)

Santa Clause 3 - "Martin Short means we’re getting a turkey and a ham for the holidays. As for Tim Allen, he’s more like a tasteless lump of mashed potatoes."
Kyle Smith in The New York Post (2006)

Tim also co-starred with John Travolta, William H. Macy and Martin Lawrence in Wild Hogs and the critics were not wild about their collective performances either ...

"Looking at the actors on the poster outside the cinema triggers a kind of awestruck anticipation. They are four faces on a Mount Rushmore of rubbishness. Which one of these Hollywood middleweights is going to be the most utterly abysmal? Which is going to phone in the most inept performance? It’s like King Kong versus Godzilla versus Alien versus Predator: all four creatures lined up on the starting blocks for the 100m Terrible Acting event.

Peter Bradshaw in The Guardian (2007)

Whatever the critics think about Tim Allen, he has proved over and over to be a funny man with a humorous take on life ...

"Scientists have estimated that every person on earth has some atoms in their body from every other person who ever existed. Yikes. This means I have atoms in my body from Buddha, Jesus, Lincoln, Geronimo, Hitler, Attila the Hun, Lassie, and Marilyn Monroe. At least now I understand my mood swings."

“Women are like cars: we all want a Ferrari, sometimes want a pickup truck, and end up with a station wagon.”

“Never comment on a woman's rear end. Never use the words 'large' or 'size' with 'rear end.' Never. Avoid the area altogether. Trust me.”

For more Humorous Showbiz Insults go to ... The Quotable Critic

published by Blue Eyed Books

Quote of the Day : June 12th - Shakespeare's Globe

2010-06-12T12:50:00.000+01:00

QUOTE OF THE DAY: June 12th- Shakespeare's Globe

On this day in 1997, a modern reconstruction of the Globe Theatre was opened by Queen Elizabeth II in London. Rebuilt some 200 metres from the site of the original theatre, the almost exact replica - named Shakespeare's Globe - was constucted from same authentic oak & deal timbers and Norfolk reed thatch.

Shakespeare's Globe is the third such theatre to be built in the vicinity of Southwark on the south bank of the River Thames. The first was built in 1599 by William Shakespeare's playing company, the Lord Chamberlain's Men, and was destroyed by fire in 1613. A replacement was built on the same site a year later and finally closed down in 1642.

In celebration of the Globe and William Shakespeare's stage craft, here are a few relevant quotations ...

"You would no sooner ask me to play Shakespeare away from the Globe than you'd ask some rock star to make his new record on eight-track tape."
Mark Rylance - first Artistic Director of Shakespeare's Globe

In a 2007 Doctor Who adventure - The Shakespeare Code - the Doctor and his assistant Martha discover that the Globe has fourteen sides ...
The Doctor: "Fourteen. Why does that ring a bell? Fourteen."
Martha: "There’s fourteen lines in a sonnet."
The Doctor: "So there is. Good point. Words and shapes, following the same design. Fourteen lines, fourteen sides, fourteen facets… Oh, my head… tetradecagon… Think, think, think. Words, letters, numbers, lines."
Shakespeare: "This is just a theatre."
The Doctor: "Oh, yeah, but the theatre’s magic, isn’t it? You should know, stand on this stage, say the right words with the right emphasis at the right time … oh, you can make men weep, or cry with joy. Change them. You can change people’s minds just with words in this place. And if you exaggerate that ... "
Martha: "It’s like your police box. Small wooden box with all that power inside."
The Doctor: "Oh, oh, Martha Jones, I like you."

Reviewing Baz Luhrman’s 1996 film based on a classic Shakespeare play, critic Jay Carr of The Boston Globe [no relation] wrote ...
"Romeo and Juliet isn't deep. But it must ride a rush of believable emotions that seem freshly minted. They certainly needn't be restricted to actors wearing tights and tunics. This version, however, seems little more than a long, revved-up jeans ad."

One of Shakespeare's more famous lines - from As You Like It - relates to the theatre being a metaphor for life in general ...

"All the world's a stage and all the men and women merely players."

Like much about Shakespeare, this classic line has been requoted and misquoted over the years ...

"All the world's a stage, but the play is badly cast."
Oscar Wilde

"All the world's a stage, we act but can't rehearse."
David McCord, Ultimate Necessity (1941)

"All the world's a stage, and most of us are desperately under-rehearsed."
Sean O'Casey

"If all the world's a stage and all the men and women merely players, where do the audiences come from?"
Denis Nordern

For more quotes about the Bard ... look out for the forthcoming book The Complete Quirks of Shakespeare

For more quotes about Dr Who ... look out for the forthcoming book The Quotable Doctor Who

For more misquotations and requotations ...
look out for the forthcoming book Duckbilled Platitudes - Misquotable Quotables

to be published by Blue Eyed Books

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The Quotable Hugh Laurie ... from Bertie Wooster to Gregory House.

2010-06-11T10:01:00.001+01:00

The Quotable Hugh Laurie ... from Bertie Wooster to Gregory House.

British actor Hugh Laurie (born this day in 1959) is best known for his Golden Globe-award winning role of Dr. Gregory House in House MD and as Stephen Fry's comedic partner but he is also an accomplished musician, a University rower, a published novelist, and a Perrier Award winning comedian.

Here is a selection of Laurie's Wit, Wisdom and Waggishness ...

On acting with an American accent - "It's as if you're playing left-handed. Or like everyone else is playing with a tennis racket and you have a salmon."

On his TV character - "I don't talk like House, or walk like him. I certainly don't think like him. I don't like to think for more than 15 minutes at a stretch actually; I am a fragile flower."

"There’s an undeniable pleasure in stepping into an open-topped sports car driven by a beautiful woman. It feels like you’re stepping into a metaphor."
in The Gun Seller (1996)

"The facts in this case, ladies and gentlemen, are simple. The first thing you should know, and probably the last, too, is that P.G. Wodehouse is still the funniest writer ever to have put words on paper. Fact number two: with the Jeeves stories, Wodehouse created the best of the best. I speak as one whose first love was Blandings, and who later took immense pleasure from Psmith, but Jeeves is the jewel, and anyone who tries to tell you different can be shown the door, the mini-cab, the train station, and Terminal 4 at Heathrow with a clear conscience. The world of Jeeves is complete and integral, every bit as structured, layered, ordered, complex and self-contained as King Lear, and considerably funnier."
Hugh Laurie in The Daily Telegraph (1999)

On raising his daughter Rebecca - "Girls are complicated. The instruction manual that comes with girls is 800 pages, with chapters 14, 19, 26 and 32 missing, and it`s badly translated, hard to figure out."

"I've always thought of Hugh as a panda, probably because he's not naturally aggressive. Either a panda or an Opel Kadett."
Stephen Fry in The Radio Times (1990)

For more great quotes, go to A2Z of Quotes or Blue Eyed Books.

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The Quotable Judy Garland

2010-06-10T09:56:00.002+01:00

The Quotable Judy Garland

Hollywood legend Judy Garland (born on this day in 1922) was most famous for starring in A Wizard of Oz as a teenager though I prefer to remember Ms. Garland in her mid-20s co-starring in Easter Parade with Fred Astaire.

To celebrate her tragic life, here is a selection of quotations by and about the Hollywood legend ...

Quotes by Judy Garland ...

"I was born at the age of twelve on an MGM lot."

"Always be a first-rate version of yourself, instead of a second-rate version of somebody else."

"I can live without money, but I cannot live without love."

"I try to bring the audience's own drama - tears and laughter they know about - to them."

"If you have to be in a soap opera try not to get the worst role."

"You are never so alone as when you are ill on stage. The most nightmarish feeling in the world is suddenly to feel like throwing up in front of four thousand people."

"I've never looked through a keyhole without finding someone was looking back."

"My life, my career has been like a roller coaster. I've either been an enormous success or just a down-and-out failure."

"If you sit down for 20 minutes in this business now it's a comeback."

"If I'm such a legend, then why am I so lonely? Let me tell you, legends are all very well if you've got somebody around who loves you."

"In the silence of night I have often wished for just a few words of love from one man, rather than the applause of thousands of people."

"I've always taken The Wizard of Oz very seriously, you know. I believe in the idea of the rainbow. And I've spent my entire life trying to get over it."

Quotes about Judy Garland in Easter Parade ...

"The tramp number 'We’re a Couple of Swells', 'I Love a Piano', 'Snooky Ookums', 'Waiting for the Robert E. Lee', 'Easter Parade' all with Judy remain with me as high spots of enjoyment in my career. Judy’s uncanny knowledge of showmanship impressed me more than ever as I worked with her."

Fred Astaire, Steps in Time (1959)

"Irving Berlin, Fred Astaire and Judy Garland have pooled their musical and dancing talents in a smart and fetching screen carnival ... Astaire is hoofing more superbly than ever and Miss Garland is giving him the staunchest of support. Miss Garland has matured to a remarkable degree in Easter Parade ... a handsome and knowing actress. Her latest film performance is altogether her best."

Howard Barnes in The New York Herald Tribune (1948)

"In one of her last, great MGM movies, Easter Parade, she careers from goofy comic (as in the 'We’re a Couple of Swells' routine) to romantic heroine with no apparent effort, eclipsing even Fred Astaire."

Elizabeth Kendall in The New York Times (2000)

Don Hewes [Fred Astaire]: "A girl dancer has to be exotic; she has to be … a peach."
Hannah Brown [Judy Garland]: "I suppose I’m a lemon!"
in Easter Parade (1948)

Some quotations taken from Dancing On Astaire - The Quotable Fred Astaire

(2000 Biographical Quotations about the World's Greatest Dancer)

published by Blue Eyed Books

Quote of the Day: June 9th - Cole Porter, Patricia Cornwell and Aaron Sorkin

2010-06-09T08:49:00.000+01:00

QUOTE OF THE DAY: June 9th

Cole Porter, Patricia Cornwell and Aaron Sorkin

Today marks the birth days of three of my favourite wordsmiths - each from a different sphere of the writing world.

Lyricist Cole Porter (b. 1891) produced some of the greatest songs of the 1930s like I've Got You Under My Skin, Night And Day, Anything Goes and I Get A Kick Out of You.

"When the little blue clerk in the middle of his work starts a tune to the moon up above
It is nature that is all simply telling us to fall in love
And that's why birds do it, bees do it, even educated fleas do it ... Let's do it, let's fall in love!"
Let's Do It (Let's Fall In Love)

Crime thriller novelist Patricia Cornwell (b. 1956) created the character of forensic examiner Kay Scarpetta in books such as Postmortem, Body of Evidence and All That Remains, although her Portrait of a Killer: Jack the Ripper - Case Closed slightly blotted her record book.

"I do not outline my books; the characters direct the story as I write. They know better than I do."

Screenwriter Aaron Sorkin (b. 1961) created TV shows The West Wing, Studio 60 on the Sunset Strip and Sports Night, as well as writing the movies A Few Good Men and Malice.

"There's a great tradition in storytelling that's thousands of years old, telling stories about kings and their palaces, and that's really what I wanted to do."

"Any time you get two people in a room who disagree about anything, the time of day, there is a scene to be written. That's what I look for."

President Bartlet: "C.J., on your tombstone it's gonna read 'Post hoc ergo propter hoc.' "
C.J.: "Okay, but none of my visitors are going to be able to understand my tombstone."
Bartlet: "Twenty-seven lawyers in the room, anybody know 'post hoc, ergo propter hoc'? Josh?"
Josh: "Ah, post, after hoc, ergo, therefore ... After hoc, therefore something else hoc."
Bartlet: "Thank you. Next? Leo."
Leo: " 'After it, therefore because of it'."
Bartlet: " 'After it, therefore because of it'. It means one thing follows the other, therefore it was caused by the other. But it's not always true. In fact it's hardly ever true. We did not lose Texas because of the hat joke. Do you know when we lost Texas?"
C.J.: "When you learned to speak Latin?"
Bartlet: "Go figure."
The West Wing: Post Hoc, Ergo Propter Hoc (1999)

For more great quotes, go to A2Z of Quotes or Blue Eyed Books.

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Quote of the Day: June 8th - Timothy Berners-Lee

2010-06-08T08:44:00.000+01:00

QUOTE OF THE DAY: June 8th - Timothy Berners-Lee

London-born M.I.T. professor Sir Timothy Berners-Lee (born on this day in 1955) is credited with creating the World Wide Web and has often shared his thoughts on the W.W.W. and its evolution ...

"I don't believe in the sort of eureka moment idea. I think it's a myth. I'm very suspicious that actually Archimedes had been thinking about that problem for a long time. And it wasn't that suddenly it came to him."

"I just had to take the hypertext idea and connect it to the TCP and DNS ideas and ... Ta-Da! - the World Wide Web."

"Legend has it that every new technology is first used for something related to sex or pornography. That seems to be the way of humankind."

"Anyone who has lost track of time when using a computer knows the propensity to dream, the urge to make dreams come true and the tendency to miss lunch."

"The Web does not just connect machines, it connects people."

Quote of the Day: June 7th - Dorothy Parker

2010-06-07T11:10:00.000+01:00

QUOTE OF THE DAY: June 7th - Dorothy Parker

A sad day for all quotation fans as Dorothy Parker died on this day in 1967.

One of the greatest comic writers of the 20th century and a member of the Algonquin Round Table, Dorothy was famous for her acerbic wit and her withering book & play reviews for The New Yorker , Vanity Fair and Esquire magazine and is still the go to role model for female critics today ...

The Autobiography Of Margot Asquith [1920-22] - "Four volumes, neatly boxed, suitable for throwing purposes."

"Marion Davies has two expressions: joy and indigestion."

"To me, Edith Evans looks like something that would eat its young."

"Merle Oberon speaks eighteen languages, and can’t say 'No' in any of them. "

The Lake [1933] - "Go to the Martin Beck Theatre and watch Katharine Hepburn run the gamut of emotions from A to B."

"Dorothy was a tangled fishnet of contradictions: she liked the rich because she liked the way they looked, their clothes, the things in their houses, and she disliked them with an open and baiting contempt; she believed in socialism but seldom, except in the sticky sentimental minutes, could stand the sight of a working radical."
Lillian Hellman

"Being a bitch is a tricky business. Dorothy Parker at the Algonquin? Good. Jade Goody in the Big Brother house? Bad."
Viv Groskop in The Observer (2007)

For more Bitchy comments go to ... To Bitch or Not To Bitch!?

published by Blue Eyed Books

Quote of the Day - June 6th: Sandra Bernhard

2010-06-06T15:26:00.000+01:00

QUOTE OF THE DAY - June 6th: Sandra Bernhard

Comedian and actor Sandra Bernhard (born on this day in 1955) has a reputation for straight-talking and telling it like it is (well, from her p.o.v. anyway). Here's a selection of some of the personal and more outrageous things she has had to say ...

"I think people are a little bit intimidated by me. You know, I`m not exactly a wilting flower, so I think they`re a little bit scared of me sometimes."

“On one side you have book burners, Congressional wives and Pat Robertson. On the other side, you have vulgar comedians, foul-mouthed rap groups and Dennis Hopper - all your choices should be so easy."

"I tend to go against the grain because when I start to see that everybody`s trying to shock, I try not to. I just do stuff that`s subtler, more emotional, and I think that shocks people."

On Cindy Crawford's marriage to Richard Gere - "He’s elastic and she’s plastic."

On Madonna - I look at my friendship with her as like having a gall stone. You deal with it, there is pain, and then you pass it. That’s all I have to say about Schmadonna."

For more Humorous Showbiz Insults go to ... The Quotable Critic

For more Bitchy comments go to ... To Bitch or Not To Bitch!?

published by Blue Eyed Books

Quote of the Day

2010-06-05T08:24:00.000+01:00

QUOTES OF THE DAY - June 5th

Welsh-born thriller writer Ken Follett (born this day in 1949) paid tribute to one of his great literary inspirations and his greatest character ...

"Ian Fleming is the best. The spy novel is about a hundred years old and it really peaked with Ian Fleming - he was the greatest writer of the mainstream, popular spy story. Fleming said that he had been influenced by John Buchan … but of course, Fleming brought a completely different atmosphere to the genre. It was much more liberated, much more sensual. Buchan’s stories were rather like schoolboy heroics, and James Bond was a real grown up."

"It was often said about James Bond that he exploited women because he was promiscuous, but I thought he was a romantic. He really cherished women and he often risked his life to protect them."

Taken from James Bond: Quotino Royale

(4000 Biographical Quotations about the world's favourite secret agent)

to be published by Blue Eyed Books

Quote of the Day

2010-06-04T11:38:00.000+01:00

QUOTE OF THE DAY - June 4th

Polish-born actress Izabella Scorupco (born this day in 1970) played Bond Girl Natalya Simonova in Goldeneye and made a great impression in the iconic supporting role to 007 ...

"I was the good Bond girl, but I wanted to have the dresses and the high heels. I wanted the funky, sexy name."

Izabella Scorupco

"Bond has a girlfriend with advanced computer skills (Izabella Scorupco, a deep-voiced model who looks as good as Mr. Brosnan, which is saying a lot)."

Janet Maslin in The New York Times (1995)

Taken from James Bond: Licence To Quote

(1500 Humorous Quotations about 007)

published by Blue Eyed Books

Quotations: Love Quotes, Funny Quotes, Famous Quotes, Inspirational, Motivational

Quotable Valentine Day - Quotes about Feb 14 and why we're so stupid about Cupid!

THE QUOTABLE VALENTINE

Great Quotes about Valentine's Day - February 14th

"I don't understand why Cupid was chosen to represent Valentine's Day. When I think about romance, the last thing on my mind is a short, chubby toddler coming at me with a weapon."Anon

The Quotable Listener - great quotes on the power of not talking

THE QUOTABLE LISTENER

A selection of inspirational quotations on the power of not talking may seem to be a strange choice considering The Quotable Listener is an oxymoron ... and that is just the point that these thought-provoking quotes are trying to make. So don't talk, listen to what these people are saying ...

Quotable New Year - Quotations from New Year's Eve to Last Year's Resolutions.

THE QUOTABLE NEW YEAR

Twelve great quotations to see in the New Year ...

The Quotable Lady Gaga - quotes from her sexuality to her fashion sense, from her music to her muses.

THE QUOTABLE LADY GAGA

THE QUOTABLE FATHER CHRISTMAS - Santa Claus quotes for some Xmas cheer

THE QUOTABLE FATHER CHRISTMAS

In celebration of the patron saint of Christmas, here is a seasonal selection of quotations about Santa Claus, Kris Kringle, Pere Noel, Kerstman, Yule Elder, Old Man Frost, Papa Noel, Saint Nicholas, Father Christmas ...

QUOTABLE QUOTES #1 - Random Quotations linked by a common thread.

QUOTABLE RANDOM QUOTES #1

Quotations about eBooks from Franz Kafka to Stephen Fry

eBOOK eQUOTES

What's so 'Special' about the Doctor Who Christmas Specials?

What's so 'Special' aboutthe Doctor Who Christmas Specials?

The Christmas Invasion (2005)

The Runaway Bride (2006)

Voyage of the Damned (2007)

The Next Doctor (2008)

The End of Time (2009)

FAVOURITE LITERARY QUOTATIONS from Hemingway to Vonnegut

FAVOURITE LITERARY QUOTATIONS

A to Z OF HUMOROUS TV QUOTES

A to Z of HUMOROUS TV QUOTES

The Twelve Quotes of Christmas - Seasonal Quotations for Festive Cheer

The Twelve Quotes of Christmas

BLUE EYED BOOKS

The Quotable Motorist - funny quotations about cars and their drivers.

THE QUOTABLE MOTORIST

Funny quotations about cars and their drivers.

"I come to praise Celebrity, not bury it!" - A collection of celebrity praise.

PRAISE BE !

ARE YOU SMARTER THAN A 900-YEAR-OLD? A Dr Who Quiz to win a copy of The Quotable Doctor Who

ARE YOU SMARTER THAN A 900-YEAR-OLD ?

THE QUOTABLE DOCTOR WHO QUIZ - TV Show

Funny Xmas Quotes and Christmas Cheer: Putting Fun and Laughter into the Festive Season

FUNNY XMAS QUOTES

Top Ten Quotations about Libraries, Books and Knowledge

FUNNY LIBRARY QUOTATIONS

Dr Who Quotes Book - The Quotable Doctor Who: 2000 quotations about the world's favourite Time Lord.

Funny Quotes Books make Great Christmas Gift Ideas from James Bond to Doctor Who, from Poker to Dancing and more!

Fun Quotations Books for Best Xmas Gifts

Poker Quotes - A to Z of Poker Quotations

A to Z of Poker Quotes

The Quotable Bikini

The Quotable Bikini

The Quotable Fourth of July and the U.S.A.

The Quotable Fourth of July and the U.S.A.

The Quotable Dave Barry

The Quotable Dave Barry ... humorist, parodist, columnist and syndicatist

The Quotable Hemingway - In Ernest or In Jest?

The Quotable Hemingway - In Ernest or In Jest?

The Quotable Princess Diana

The Quotable Princess Diana

The Quotable Cheryl Cole - the Geordie goddess and X Factor judge who has nailed it.

The Quotable Cheryl Cole ... Geordie goddess, pop princess and X Factor judge who has nailed it.

In Quotes: Jayne Mansfield, Lana Turner and Katharine Hepburn - three legends, one fateful date with destiny.

IN QUOTES: Jayne Mansfield, Lana Turner and Katharine Hepburn - three legends, one fateful date with destiny.

The Quotable A.A. Gill - The food & TV critic with an acerbic taste in insults

The Quotable A.A. Gill ... the food / TV critic with an acerbic taste in insults

The Quotable 'Cubby' Broccoli - Mastermind behind the James Bond movies

The Quotable 'Cubby' Broccoli ... the Mastermind behind the James Bond movies

The Quotable Babe Zaharias - The Greatest All-Round Female Athlete

The Quotable Babe Zaharias ... the Greatest All-Round Female Athlete

The Quotable George Orwell ... The Father of Big Brother.

The Quotable George Orwell ... The Father of Big Brother

The Quotable Mindy Kaling - Another Funny Day at The Office?

The Quotable Mindy Kaling ... another funny day at The Office?

The Quotable Bob Fosse

The Quotable Bob Fosse

The Quotable Fred Astaire ... style and class on the dancefloor

The Quotable Fred Astaire ... style and class on the dancefloor

The Quotable Prince William of Wales

"I don't understand why Cupid was chosen to represent Valentine's Day. When I think about romance, the last thing on my mind is a short, chubby toddler coming at me with a weapon."
Anon

A selection of inspirational quotations on the power of not talking may seem to be a strange choice considering The Quotable Listener is an oxymoron ... and that is just the point that these thought-provoking quotes are trying to make.

So don't talk, listen to what these people are saying ...

What's so 'Special' about
the Doctor Who Christmas Specials?

ARE YOU SMARTER THAN A
900-YEAR-OLD ?

**The Quotable Cheryl Cole ... Geordie goddess, pop princess and X Factor judge who has nailed it.**

**The Quotable Tim Allen ... from Tool Time to Toy Story and beyond !**