R. H. Dana Quotes

If we accept imperfect food, we can indeed change the world for the better.

There's imperfect food out there that just needs a mouth to bite into it.

If more people start selling ugly produce we have a chance to crack the hunger and malnutrition problems in the U.S. (Almost 90% of us do not get enough fruits and veggies).

I have faith in my imperfections!

It's harder and harder to make a well-done romantic comedy these days because the conventions have been so played out.

I had amazing stuff happen right off the top. I thought this was how it worked. Hollywood is awesome! Cut to three years later: What happened?

I'm a believer in paying your dues.

My big philosophy is: Try and work with good people, because the process is your life. That's going to be really, really hard. I'm glad I learned the lesson, 'Failure is OK.

It's rare to find women who have that balance between work and life, who are really psyched for another woman's success.

Poetry is not a creed or dogma. It is a special way of speaking and listening.

What we conceal Is always more than what we dare confide. Think of the letters that we write our dead.

Being so deeply rooted in one place and culture allows a genuine writer to experiment wildly with the material without ever losing touch with its essence.

To speak from a particular place and time is not provincialism but part of a writer's identity.

Old empires always appeal to modern poets more than new ones.

Art is an irreplaceable way of understanding and expressing the world.

We offer you the landscape of your birth -- Exquisite and despoiled. We all share blame. We cannot ask forgiveness of the earth For killing what we cannot even name.

Poetry speaks most effectively and inclusively (whether in free or formal verse) when it recognizes its connection - without apology - to its musical and ritualistic origins.

The music that of common speech but slanted so that each detail sounds unexpected as a sharp inserted in a simple scale.

In America, the term younger poet is applied with chivalric liberality. It can be used to describe anyone not yet collecting a Social Security pension.

We are not as we were. Death has been our pentecost.

Coming to the civil rights movement in the twentieth century, we begin to have this idea that's still with us today, which is that the main purpose of public education is closing achievement gaps.

There are a lot of polls that show that actually Americans have a pretty high opinion of teachers, that Americans think teachers are just about as prestigious as doctors.

I believe everyone in the education sector should be looking at evidence, reassessing, making tweaks to figure out what works, I think it's a positive model.

Teaching is been seen as kind of a moral calling and not as an intellectual job.

Just in general, when we look at our school system, there is so much overlap with our criminal justice system in terms of our low-income youth.

I always make the point that teachers are people too, and that they don't just want to be in front of kids all day and have children be their only feedback loop.

I don't think school reform should be motivated by missionary zeal. I think it should be motivated by evidence of what works.

There's definitely a tension between the way teaching is talked about and understood at the political level and how everyday average Americans think about teachers.

Men are more salary-sensitive when they're choosing a job.

Younger teachers are definitely more likely to have worked at charter schools as opposed to have just heard of them. Charter schools explicitly look, often, to hire younger people.

The question is rarely asked, "Why is it that so few other Americans have these protections?" The question is more often asked, "Why do teachers have it so easy?"

I think a lot of people truly underestimate how much planning is involved in a teacher's work cycle.

The idea that because the school day is shorter or the school year is shorter than the sort of white collar workday or work year, that does not actually capture how teachers spend their time.

Just to deliver one high-quality 45 minute lesson requires many hours of planning in advance.

The man who invented instant pudding was moved to action by an inability to wait for pudding.

Our dog just wanders around the house with a concerned look on his face. Dogs are just people who can't find their phone.

As anyone who's ever adopted a dog will tell you, there's always the fear that one day the birth parents will come scratching at the door.

There's a big difference between poll workers and pole workers. Sadly.

I wanted to be a comedian. I wanted to meet waitresses and felt that being a comedian was my best way to go about it and I was right.

Every time I fold the baby's clothes I feel like a giant that got a housekeeping job with a nice family.

Egg nog. Because nothing satisfies like a cold glass of eggs.

There's nothing like a string of Xmas lights inside the house to make the whole family feel like they live in a vintage clothing store.

I used to pessimistically think I was going to die alone, but now I optimistically know I'm going to die hoping to meet someone.

Do people in the Ku Klux Klan who die and come back as ghosts have to wear two sheets when attending the rally?

If I ever go into a coma, one of you has to promise to come by occasionally and tweeze my unibrow.

If my dog wants to know why I didn't feed him this morning, he may want to rethink walking out of the room when I'm telling him a joke.

Our grocery store now has self-checkout, for your convenience. It's like getting punched in the throat, for your comfort.

Know someone you hate? Give their kid a kazoo!

We would have never gotten mace had someone not thought, There must be a good way to burn someone's eyes.

Whoever thought to name a candy bar Butterfinger has either never seen Last Tango In Paris or seen it far too many times.