Oliver Quotes
The dream of my life is to lie down by a slow river and stare at the light in the trees - to learn something by being nothing
You have sat too long for any good you have been doing. Depart, I say, and let us have done with you. In the name of God, go!
Racial discrimination, South Africa's economic power, its oppression and exploitation of all the black peoples, are part and parcel of the same thing.
When you are trying to move mountains you want-and need-people on your side who want to move them with you.
If a man has lost a leg or an eye, he knows he has lost a leg or an eye; but if he has lost a self—himself—he cannot know it, because he is no longer there to know it.
I want to think again of dangerous and noble things. I want to be light and frolicsome. I want to be improbable and beautiful and afraid of nothing as though I had wings.
Success. Is not the position where you are standing, but which direction you are going.
You don't need people’s opinion on a fact. You might as well have a poll asking: ‘Which number is bigger, 15 or 5?’ or ‘Do owls exist?’ or ‘Are there hats?'
Every child should be taught to cook in school, not just talk about nutrition all day. Good food can be made in 15 minutes. This could be the first generation where the kids teach the parents.
Language, that most human invention, can enable what, in principle, should not be possible. It can allow all of us, even the congenitally blind, to see with another person’s eyes.
But how could anyone who's ever seen a summer - big explosion of green and skies lit up electric with splashy sunsets, a riot of flowers and wind that smells like honey - pick the snow?
We speak not only to tell other people what we think, but to tell ourselves what we think. Speech is a part of thought.
Much more of the brain is devoted to movement than to language. Language is only a little thing sitting on top of this huge ocean of movement.
So come to the pond, or the river of your imagination, or the harbor of your longing, and put your lips to the world. And live your life.
It may be that apartheid brings such stupendous economic advantages to countries that they would sooner have apartheid than permit its destruction.
Youth fades, love droops, the leaves of friendship fall; A mother's secret hope outlives them all.
Drug companies are a bit like high school boyfriends - they're much more concerned with getting inside you than being effective once they're in there.
Catholicism is more than a religion, it is a political power. Therefore I'm led to believe there will be no peace in Ireland until the Catholic Church is crushed
One writer, for instance, excels at a plan or a title page, another works away at the body of the book, and a third is a dab at an index.
Many kids can tell you about drugs but do not know what celery or courgettes taste like.
My work is the world. Here the sunflowers, there the hummingbird - equal seekers of sweetness. Here the quickening yeast; there the blue plums.
To reach a port we must sail, sometimes with the wind, and sometimes against it. But we must not drift or lie at anchor.
I write the lyrics based on what is going on in my life - I'm not going to write about the old hair metal stuff, like castles and stuff.
