Wilde Quotes - Page 2

• Of course, both [Oscar] Wilde & [Vladimir] Nabokov believe in many things, and these things emerge in their writing clearly - for Wilde, the folly of humankind and the (romantic) grandeur of the heroic, lone individual (not unlike Wilde himself); for Nabokov, the possibility of a kind of transcendence through a great, prevailing, superior sort of love (especially in Ada, the most self-congratulatory of novels.)

  Joyce Carol Oates

  Believe, Writing, Self

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• Money as such is, as Oscar Wilde said, perfectly useless. You can't eat it, drink it, shelter yourself from the cold with it, wear it, or make love with it unless deeply disturbed. In and of itself, it has no emotions, no mind, and no conscience. It doesn't put out flowers or have children, and it makes a lousy pet. It has meaning only when it circulates, and is exchanged for other things; and money doesn't do that for itself. People do that, using money as a symbolic token.

  Margaret Atwood

  Children, Flower, People

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• My toils in the quotation field have led me to formulate two or three laws about the way people use and abuse quotations. My first law is: When in doubt, ascribe all quotations to Bernard Shaw - which I don't mean to be taken literally, but as a general observation of the habit people have of attaching remarks to the nearest obvious speaker. Churchill, Wilde, Orson Welles and Alexander Woollcott are other useful figures upon whom to father remarks when you don't know who really said them.

  Nigel Rees

  Father, Taken, Mean

  "Sayings of the Century". Book by Nigel Rees, 1984.

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• [Oscar Wilde's Salome screenplay] is not autobiographical in a sense where you go to my house and see my kids and stuff like that, but that's why I guess it's semi-autobiographical.

  Al Pacino

  Kids, House, Oscars

  Source: www.rawkblog.net

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• The key to making up Oscar Wilde quotes is to add '~ Oscar Wilde' at the end.

  Oscar Wilde

  Keys, Add, Oscars

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• There is no such thing as a heterosexual male, only men who haven't met Oscar Wilde yet.

  Oscar Wilde

  Men, Males, Oscars

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• A winning wave, (deserving note.)
  In the tempestuous petticote,
  A careless shoe-string, in whose tye
  I see a wilde civility,--
  Doe more bewitch me than when art
  Is too precise in every part.

  Robert Herrick

  Art, Winning, Shoes

  Robert Herrick, “Delight In Disorder”

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• The part of [Oscar] Wilde was exceptionally important to me; the man, his achievements, his wisdom, but his downfall, his disgrace and the tragic and bitter end to it have always fascinated, appalled and attracted me since childhood. It was he who first in some measure vindicated my sexuality.

  Stephen Fry

  Men, Childhood, Important

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• What other developed democracy has such a ridiculous and squalid history of intolerance? From the imprisonment and roasting of heretics, witches and poachers, to the censorship of literature, art and television: from St Alban through Wilde, Joyce and Lawrence I think we can point with pride to as grim a catalogue of intemperate, bigoted repression as any nation on earth.

  Stephen Fry

  Art, Pride, Thinking

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• If every witty thing that's said was true, Oscar Wilde, the world would worship You!

  Michael R. Burch

  Witty, Worship You, World

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• Oscar Wilde said the rich and the poor are equal - they can both sleep under the bridge. Right? Do they have a right? You're damn right they have a right!

  Al Lewis

  Sleep, Bridges, Oscars

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• Whether it's Dorothy Parker or Oscar Wilde, they're brilliant with genius bon mots. Of course, I find them extraordinary.

  Duncan Roy

  Oscars, Genius, Brilliant

  Source: www.indiewire.com

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• Everyone says Oscar Wilde was a dandy, but he wasn't, he was an aesthete. He took pleasure in food and stuff like that. Dandyism is much more austere-much more Calvinistic, more neurotic - it oscillates between narcissism and neurosis.

  Sebastian Horsley

  Neurosis, Oscars, Stuff

  Source: www.interviewmagazine.com

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• Oscar Wilde said that the gods punish us in two ways: first, they don't give us what we want, then, they do. He forgot the third way: we finally see the cost of getting it.

  Perry Brass

  Two, Giving, Cost

  Perry Brass (1998). “The Lover of My Soul: A Search for Ecstasy and Wisdom”, p.30, Perry Brass

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• When in doubt, I read Oscar Wilde.

  Camille Paglia

  Doubt, Oscars, When In Doubt

  Camille Paglia (2011). “Sex, Art, and American Culture: Essays”, p.10, Vintage

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• The Oscar Wilde of Welfare State gentility.

  Joe Orton

  Oscars, Welfare, States

  Joe Orton (1998). “The Visitors: Fred and Madge : Two Plays”, p.13, Grove Press

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• If you put on an Oscar Wilde [play], it will interest those who are interested in Oscar Wilde. But it won't interest anybody else, because they won't get that wit.

  John Hurt

  Play, Oscars, Wit

  Source: www.themarysue.com

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• Back in Kansas City, I associated Harvard with sort of gnarly guys who wore capes for effect in a kind of Oscar Wilde scene. Even though I also knew there was such a thing as the Harvard-Yale game, I was still a little surprised that Harvard had a football team. I just assumed if there were such a thing as gay people, that they were nothing like us. Little did I know that probably half the swim team at Yale was gay.

  Kevin Sessums

  Football, Team, Gay

  Source: fourtwonine.com

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• If there was criticism about [Oscar Wilde], it was because it was written by a straight man who wasn't very educated about the gay world.

  Kevin Sessums

  Gay, Men, Criticism

  Source: fourtwonine.com

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• [Vincent Price] did Oscar Wilde on Broadway, and I think he probably did it because he was almost like an Oscar Wilde. He had that brilliant humor.

  Cassandra Peterson

  Thinking, Broadway, Oscars

  Source: www.avclub.com

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• The way to stop feeling guilty is to read stuff - I'm not saying my book, but works by Bertrand Russell or Oscar Wilde, people who weren't losers but who didn't believe in the work ethic, and argued this thing about guilt or wrote philosophy about idleness.

  Tom Hodgkinson

  Philosophy, Believe, Book

  "How To Be Idle: An Interview with Tom Hodgkinson". Interview with Katie Renz, www.motherjones.com. June 8, 2005.

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• I would have liked to have known Oscar Wilde because I think he must have been very amusing and entertaining.

  Truman Capote

  Thinking, Oscars, Amusing

  Source: www.interviewmagazine.com

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• As Oscar Wilde should have said, when bad ideas have nowhere else to go, they emigrate to America and become university courses.

  Frederic Raphael

  Should Have, Ideas, America

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• I love physical comedy. I love Oscar Wilde, I love Shakespeare comedies, I love improv.

  Elizabeth Banks

  Oscars, Comedy, Physical Comedy

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• A careless shoe string, in whose tie I see a wilde civility.

  Robert Herrick

  Shoes, Ties, Cuffs

  'The End'

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