I want to give the audience a hint of a scene. No more than that. Give them too much and they won't contribute anything themselves. Give...

"Please--ma'am--the cat has put her kittens--in--your--bonnet!" Such a breach of discipline had never been known before in our...

Today a reader, tomorrow a leader. ~ Margaret Fuller ~ Image courtesy Library of Congress .

...I was to learn that Mama had an articulate theory about reading poetry aloud to children, a theory not surprising for she was a pianist. ...

I must be like the princess who felt the pea through seven mattresses; each book is a pea. ~ C. S. Forester ~ (Note: the poor man must have ...

Being a princess isn't all it's cracked up to be. ~ Princess Diana ~

I feel sure that no girl would go to the altar if she knew all. ~ Queen Victoria ~

More than 4.8 Billion Artifacts are held in public trust by more than 30,000 archives, historical societies, libraries, museums, scientific ...

I'm surrounded by morons. ~ Henri ~

Study nature, love nature, stay close to nature. It will never fail you. ~ Frank Lloyd Wright ~ Carol M. Highsmith photo of Wright's Chu...

The important thing about writing is the rewriting. In order to make a poem look unworked, you have to work a lot. ~ Kay Ryan ~

All photographs are accurate. None of them is the truth. ~ Richard Avedon ~

I was the conductor of the Underground Railroad for eight years, and I can say what most conductors can't say; I never ran my train off ...

Tofu can be used as a high-protein meat substitute, as well as a denture adhesive or tile grout. ~ Dave Barry ~ Photo by jazzijava .

    O, what may man within him hide, Though angel on the outward side! ~ William Shakespeare from Measure for Measure ~

Even Jenny, the ship's cat as part of the crew, had immediately found herself a comfortable corner; she varied her usual Christmas routi...

Painting is easy when you don't know how, but very difficult when you do. ~ Edgar Degas ~ "Waiting" courtesy J. Paul Getty Mus...

Poets are like baseball pitchers. Both have their moments. The intervals are the tough things. ~ Robert Frost ~

Papa, potatoes, poultry, prunes and prism, are all very good words for the lips. ~ Charles Dickens ~ Photo of Moroccan chicken with prunes b...

Instinct must be thwarted just as one prunes the branches of a tree so that it will grow better. ~ Henri Matisse ~

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

Treat a work of art like a prince. Let it speak to you first. ~ Arthur Schopenhauer ~ Photo by -Jeffrey- .

Easter greetings to all cats and their people! --KK Postcard courtesy riptheskill .

The basic line in any good verse is cadenced...building it around the natural breath structures of speech. ~ Kenneth Rexroth ~

Green technologies--going green--is bigger than the Internet. It could be the biggest economic opportunity of the 21st century. ~ John Doerr...

Q: Why did the chicken lay her egg on a axe? A: She wanted to hachet. ~ Anonymous ~ Photo courtesy Library of Congress .

Heaven knows we need never be ashamed of our tears, for they are rain upon the blinding dust of earth, overlying our hard hearts. ~ Charles ...

I don't know which is more discouraging, literature or chickens. ~ E. B. White ~ Photo courtesy Skokie Public Library .

Cats When I grow up, I plan to keep eleven cats, and let them sleep on any bedspread that they wish, and feed them peo...

A country without a memory is a country of madmen. ~ George Santayana ~ Graphic courtesy Open Clip Art Library .

I think there’s been a great denial of the kinds of poets and poetries that could speak to a lot more people. Poetry has been kind of hoarde...

Women’s studies and feminism have always been attacked. I think it was in 1970 that I remember seeing an article in Harper’s called "Re...

You know, you don't have to be the loser kid in high school to be bullied. Bullying and being picked on comes in so many different forms...

I tell writers to keep reading, reading, reading. Read widely and deeply. And I tell them not to give up even after getting rejection letter...

If you had to point to one thing that made it less likely that the Red Sox would win the World Series, I would say it was those people that ...

~ J. G. Francis from A Book of Cheerful Cats and Other Animated Animals ~

We have deferred to food companies the responsibility for ensuring that a good nutritional balance emerges. Voluntary guidelines and pieceme...

It doesn't seem right to weigh poems like cabbage or fish, but that is precisely what the final grueling work of an anthologist becomes....

I wanted so badly to study ballet, but it was really all about wearing the tutu. ~ Elle Macpherson ~ Image courtesy Open Clip Art Library

Everyone should consider his body as a priceless gift from one whom he loves above all, a marvelous work of art, of indescribable beauty, an...

A drawing is simply a line going for a walk. ~ Paul Klee ~ Klee drawing courtesy Museum of Fine Arts.

I think that being perceptive and having interests is nothing but an asset. ~ Ashley Judd ~

There is a crock of gold in the tomb of every chieftain, but they are all guarded by cats and fairies. ~ Irish proverb ~

Even when they have nothing, the Irish emit a kind of happiness, a joy. ~ Fiona Shaw ~

No moment is too brief, no object or happening too insignificant, for a poet to notice it. ~ Charles Sullivan ~ Graphic courtesy Open Clip A...

34.7 million Number of U.S. residents who claimed Irish ancestry in 2010. This number was more than seven times the population of Ireland it...

What keeps you going isn't some fine destination, but just the road you're on, and the fact that you know how to drive. ~ Barbara Ki...

In memory everything seems to happen to music. ~ Tennessee Williams ~ Image courtesy Open Clip Art Library .

Anatomy is destiny. ~ Sigmund Freud ~ So, if anatomy is destiny then testosterone is doom. ~ Al Goldstein ~

Fine words don't feed cats. ~ Italian proverb ~

I can promise you that women working together--linked, informed and educated--can bring peace and prosperity to this forsaken planet. ~ Isab...

No one expects a man to make a chair without first learning how, but there is a popular impression that the poet is born, not made, and that...

We adore chaos because we love to produce order. ~ M. C. Escher ~

Science is the great antidote to the poison of enthusiasm and superstition. ~ Adam Smith ~ Engraving courtesy Library of Congress .

We think too small, like the frog at the bottom of the well. He thinks the sky is only as big as the top of the well. If he surfaced, he wou...

Faith in oneself is the best and safest course. ~ Michelangelo ~ Photo by profzucker .

The pup was let out, and he ran all about So happy was he to be free. Then Punky said: "Meow!" the dog said: "Bow-wow!" ...

The animals of the world exist for their own reasons. They were not made for humans any more than black people were made for whites or wome...

You decide, says the poet. You do some of this work, but think carefully. ~ Lawrence Raab from "The Questions Poems Ask" ~

Creativity is not the finding of a thing, but the making something out of it after it is found. ~ James Russell Lowell ~

"...we have each other," said Mama, bringing the cubs close. "That's another blessing." ~ Stan and Jan Berenstain ~

To my mind, a picture should be something pleasant, cheerful, and pretty, yes pretty! There are too many unpleasant things in life as it is ...

I would hurl words into this darkness and wait for an echo, and if an echo sounded, no matter how faintly, I would send other words to tell,...

The cat seldom interferes with other people's rights. His intelligence keeps him from doing many of the fool things that complicate life...

I learned something from this healthcare debate--stupidity is a pre-existing condition. ~ Bill Maher ~

There is no single face in nature, because every eye that looks upon it, sees it from its own angle. So every man's spice-box seasons hi...

Sunshine is delicious, rain is refreshing, wind braces us up, snow is exhilarating; there is really no such thing as bad weather, only diffe...

And the first rude sketch that the world had seen was joy to his mighty heart, till the Devil whispered behind the leaves "It's pre...

She took a passage in a vessel to Portsmouth, N.H. and there married a man by the name of Staines, and had three children, who, with her hus...

Associate with men of good quality if you esteem your own reputation; for it is better to be alone than in bad company. ~ George Washington ...

She shall sit by my side, And I'll give her some food; And she'll love me because I am gentle and good. Jane Taylor from "I Lik...

The real democratic American idea is, not that every man shall be on a level with every other man, but that every man shall have liberty to ...

In this universe we are given two gifts: the ability to love, and the ability to ask questions. ~ Mary Oliver ~

Deep in their roots, all flowers keep the light. ~ Theodore Roethke ~ Photo © Diane Mayr.