O. Henry Quotes

What makes me uncomfortable about [Barack] Obama is what makes me uncomfortable about any young politician who has not yet been bloodied inside the Beltway.

If it were a choice between me getting killed or one of my friend's kids, I would happily take the shot.

All of the things that the bible warns you of being: jealous, covetous, murderous, selfish, etc., that's kind of how humans are.

I just write what I think is good and keep it at a thousand words.

I lay off a lot modern fiction and only rely on living writers for non-fiction work.

When I write lyrics, it's only when I'm angry or hurt or sad. So lyrically it's never really easy going. And the music is always really intense.

I like how I write better than how I speak.

It's hard to keep your backbone straight in America. It's easy to turn into that which you hate, and to get smashed.

For me, speaking to anyone - on a stage, in an elevator - I am looking for impact and connection. The same goes for writing.

I don't need music for the good times. I don't have that kind of need. Music doesn't serve me like that.

For myself, I can't understand a life without a job. I don't know what I would do without employment. Retirement is out of the question for me.

I live my life by the numbers. Not only am I an American, I am an Americanist.

The reality is that we are going to have problems with water in this century. And the fact that we are going to have problems with fossil fuel is a given.

I live my life through the prism of capitalism and physiological limits and eventualities.

We occupy the planet with a vengeance. We seek to dominate it.

For me, music was an age/time/place thing. One day I woke up and realized I was done. That was many years ago.

My whole access into culture was violent. Violence is something I understand. Don't like it, don't condone it, but I sure understand where it comes from.

I enjoy helping. I like doing benefits and things like that, but don't feel the need to be thanked or even meet the people I am doing the benefit for.

I was raised in Washington, DC, very violent place. I grew up with violence. My introduction to music was violent. The years I've spent on tours, some of that was extremely violent.

I'm a recognizable person and some people feel the need for some reason to take me to task. You're really messing with the wrong person on that one.

Can you imagine telling a woman she can't vote!? The women I hang out with would be going home with parts of your anatomy swinging from their rearview.

I think to write fiction, this is just how I see it, you have to have a powerful need/desire to connect. I can't. Wanting to and not being able to has lead to a lot of misery in my life.

I don't wish to be anything more or less than what I am. If this is how it is, then so be it.

Human beings should not be reduced to a state to where they almost get into a fight over a small bar of soap.

Almost all human who can form a sentence will eventually let you in on the fact that their lives are very difficult and sometimes very hard to manage.

What you do for yourself is one thing. What you do for others is something else entirely.

I'm not trying to say I'm a big tough guy... I'm a typical American-waist deep in this violent culture.

I see violence in myself; I've done some pretty violent things in my lifetime and I've been around some pretty severe violence all the way up to homicide.

I'm not like paparazzi. I never force myself on anyone. I always ask, and some places offer money. And so I try and get these photos to give you, the viewer, a real look at what I was seeing.

It's hard for me to sympathize with a young person who chooses to go into the military because they know where they're going. I think we need to start depopulating the military.

I spend a lot of time alone so I get a lot done. I don't do much else but work, check things out.

I really enjoy the lattitude I have with being a private citizen. I can get a lot done. I am good with that.

I'm just a guy. I get treated like I'm famous but I don't take it seriously. I take the time people take out to check me out very, very seriously.

I warn people, your 40s will require massive amounts of humor and humility.

I think Americans suffer for their lack of travel, awareness of the world. It has horribly warped our sense of place in the scheme of things.

I think Americans really need to start thinking globally. As resources become more dear, we will be pulled closer to the rest of the world anyway.

You never have to listen to a famous person, it's an elective.

I will take the acting work when I can get it. I am not really an actor, that's always apparent but it's work and I'll take it and am always glad for it.

An adult has the opportunity to enjoy the wisdom gleaned from previous decades of living and experience.

Quite often governments are one way and the people are another.

Most of the writers I like just intimidate and humble me but in that there's a good deal of inspiration to be had as well.

I'm not trying to amass people in the streets. I just want them to be more aware.

With writing, there are multiple drafts. On stage, there is one take. I do a lot of preparation for shows, so, for the most part, what you hear me say is pretty much what I wanted to get at.

I really like older writers, perhaps because they take me out of my element. I don't have a great deal of interest in reading a fictionalized present as it's pretty insane as it is.

I'm not much of an improv guy. That's a talent I don't have.

I'd like to rid myself of writing, to surrender, to release the venom. And hopefully at some point, I'll be a happy, well-adjusted guy and I'll have no need for all that 'art.'

I don't train to absorb the pain, I train to break the pain.

I draw a contrast between American shared governance with "the dictatorship of ministries" wherein policy and direction for the university is ordered by bureaucrats who have never taught a class.

The faculty know what they need to develop and they need to work with an administrator with the authority do get it done. To define everything in terms of these index numbers is ridiculous.

English is not the primary language for universities in China, Korea, and Japan, but they are being evaluated on the basis of publications in English and courses taught in English.