The more film I watch, the more John Ford looks like a giant. His politics aren't so good, and you have to learn to accept John Wayne as an actor, but he's a poet in black and white.
quote by Jonathan Lethem
Submitted by Lucian Velea
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Related quotes
If everything isn't black and white, I say, 'Why the hell not?'
quote by John Wayne
Submitted by Veronica Serbanoiu
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On Reading Blake's 'Little Black Boy
Two centuries or even more gone by
Since William Blake wrote 'The little black boy'
He told in verse how black skin equalled white
And in what he wrote of course the poet was right.
He wrote the famous verses at a time
When to be black was looked on as a crime
A lesson in human love perhaps one day
That others might learn from what he had to say.
His verses put him in a higher place
When he wrote of the equality of race
And in history the great poet made his mark
When he preached that white was no greater than dark.
But even in the twenty first century
Some with the Poet's views still do not agree
Some still say black is not as good as white
But of course these people live in darker light.
A lesson here for all humanity
From bard who lived in eighteenth century
That racial discrimination is unwise
As all different races equal in God's eyes.
poem by Francis Duggan
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It is easier to get an actor to be a cowboy than to get a cowboy to be an actor.
The Sixth Sense is not a good white film. Insomnia is not a good white film. They're just good films. So why we can't we have good films that happen to have black people, or Asian, or Latino, or any other minority group in them?
quote by Eriq La Salle
Submitted by Lucian Velea
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Before a Poetry Reading
'Poet! Poet! Poet! Poet! '
I'm feeling nervous but I mustn't show it!
'Poet! Poet! Poet! Poet! '
I hope to heaven that I won't blow it!
'Poet! Poet! Poet! Poet! '
I mustn't reveal that I'm a second-rate poet!
I'm only a rhymer, but they don't know it!
If you've got no talent you'll have to grow it!
'Poet! Poet! Poet! Poet! '
poem by John Thorkild Ellison
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I read the script, and I knew it was a good part. It was written for a white actor. That's what I'm up against - I have to try to make roles happen for me that aren't written black.
quote by Gregory Hines
Submitted by Lucian Velea
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There aren't many American directors here trying to direct a Japanese yakuza film. When you combine that with the fact that I don't speak much Japanese and this was an independent film I was financing myself - people were curious about what I was doing.
quote by John Foster
Submitted by Lucian Velea
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Cowboy and Dad
cowboy films
they were dad's favourite
and he did want me
to be a cowboy
each time giving
me that smart pose
of john wayne
and speaking in his tongue
dad's golden years
we spent quite a lot
of time in the theatres
watching nothing
but cowboy movies
those movies with
plenty of gunshots
bravemen and cowards
a lost child
and his gun toting dad
i was a mere three foot tall
but dad did want me
to be a cowboy even then
ever enthusiastic in
showing me
that smart pose
with his leather hat
that bent upwards
tipped
at an angle
i tried them all
gun, imagined horse,
and that round little black patch
with a rubber strip
that i worn over an eye
crying in my prebuscent voice
'bang! bang! bang! '
our seating room
the battle field
a giant and a little cowboys
acting out the scenes
in the cowboy movies
one day neighbour george
walked into the house
and were caught
between in a flurry of bullets
to say sorry, we told him
he could be the next wayne
in our own movie
poem by John Tiong Chunghoo
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Jim Of Maribyrnong
They were forthright days when Jim was born,
When they called a spade a spade.
And statesmen held in lofty scorn
he trickster's sticky trade.
For their eyes were clear and their views were strong,
And they'd be no party's too!
And big, bluff Jim of Maribyrnong
Learned wisdom in this school.
For black was black, and white was white,
When good Victoria reigned,
And argument made no wrong right,
No demagogue explained
That good might ever come of wrong,
Or black be painted white,
When big, bluff Jim of Maribyrnong
Went out to fight the fight.
'Twas thus Jim learned his politics;
And he's little changed today;
For he failed to learn those subtle tricks
That modern 'statesmen' play.
To aid the folk who'd suffered long
Thro' tyranny's base laws,
Marched big, bluff Jim of Maribyrnong,
Staunch for the Labor cause.
But times have changed a deal of late,
And the 'art' of politics;
And they say that Jim is out of date,
And will not learn new tricks.
But still unswayed by wrangling throng,
Forthright and conscience free,
Goes simple Jim of Maribyrnong
With his crude, blunt honesty.
poem by Clarence Michael James Stanislaus Dennis
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If a film doesn't play, people aren't going to be that nice.
quote by John Turturro
Submitted by Lucian Velea
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Early Works - Big John
Across the silver screen, he rode
a man hell bent for leather.
The idol of generations young and old,
a broad shouldered man with raunchy face
who always fought the good fight.
For fifty years, he rode the screen trail,
but now he’s gone, his name will remain,
as there was only one John Wayne.
13 June 1979
Author’s note:
I wrote this tribute to John Wayne who died on the 12th June 1979. Whom for half a century gave enjoyment to millions. Yes, I was a fan as well.
poem by David Harris
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Touchdowns and Fumbles
My poetry teacher tells me he isn’t a poet
He just writes poetry
I tell him I want to transfer out immediately
He shouldn’t be teaching
I mean anyone can write poetry
And if you say you write it good but aren’t a poet
Than you’re an arrogant prick
Give me a poet to learn from
Good or not, they still stand by their writing
While people who write poetry are weak.
Standing behind what people believe is good
And tossing away what people don’t like
A football player takes it all with him.
Touchdowns and fumbles, passes and interceptions
While couches talk about years when they
Were the best, but forget about all the others.
I can’t learn from a poetry writer
I need to know the mistakes and shortcomings
Or else history is damned to repeat itself in me
Give me a poet any day.
poem by Reyes Suarez
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I firmly believe that as voters come to learn more and more about John Kerry and learn more and more about his message that they're going to want a President who is willing to address the fact that we didn't have a post-war plan in Iraq.
quote by Harold Ford
Submitted by Lucian Velea
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Have A Banana!
[Speech]
Brian Matthew: Is that it? Is that the end?
Paul: Yeah, yeah, that's it.
John: Fade, fade!
Brian: Good track. Oh, well, we'll stop there, stop there, stop there.
John: What an end!
Brian: Quiet! All right, George.
John: Fade!
Brian: Hold it!
George: Oh, thank you.
John: Fade, you silly.
Brian: Well, we did. We did that. Oh, no! No! We've done that bit!
John: The train comes in now.
Brian: We did that.
John: Yeah.
Brian: To pove we weren't playing the record, then, you see. 'Cause, otherwise, there's no point in you being here, is there? Ha, ha, ha!
John: Yeah, we did that, 'cause it sounds just like it, don't it?
Brian: Pretty cool lot of fellows, aren't you? Here, Ringo, have a banana, catch!
song performed by by Beatles
Submitted by Lucian Velea
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Poem about Poetry - A poet's death
where does a poet
go after he dies?
the gap of your thoughts
between the words
on white, black or blue
paper or computer
poem by John Tiong Chunghoo
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You know the actor John Garfield? In one movie he walked up to this train station, the ticket booth, and the guy says, 'Yes, where are you going?' And he says, 'I want a ticket to nowhere.' I thought: that's it. The freedom to do that. I want a ticket to nowhere.
quote by Wayne Shorter
Submitted by Lucian Velea
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I have found that I always learn more from my mistakes than from my successes. If you aren't making some mistakes, you aren't taking enough chances.
quote by John Sculley
Submitted by Lucian Velea
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Little Brown Brother
I've always wanted to play the part
of that puckish pubescent Filipino boy
in those John Wayne Pacific-War movies.
Pepe, Jose, or Juanito would be smiling,
bare-chested and eager to please
for most of the steamy jungle scenes.
I'd be the one who would cross
the Japanese lines and ask for tanks,
air support, or more men. I'd miraculously
make it back to the town where John Wayne
is holding his position against the enemy
with his Thompson machine-gun. As a reward,
he'd rub that big white hand on my head
and he'd promise to let me clean
his Tommy gun by the end of the night. But
then, a Betty Grable look-a-like love
interest would divert him by sobbing
into his shoulder, saying how awfully scared
she is about what the "Japs" would do
to her if she were captured. In one swift
motion, John Wayne would sweep her off
her feet to calm her fears inside his private quarters.
Because of my Hollywood ability
to be anywhere, I'd be under the bed
watching the woman roll down her stockings
as my American hero unbuckles his belt.
I'd feel the bottom of the bed bounce off my chest
as small-arms fire explodes outside the walls.
Submitted by Samuel Hamada
poem by Nick Carbo
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The Old Box
Whatever is on the old box
It don't matter,
Some people just sit there
Their eyes getting fatter;
Their brains being dulled
By the flickering screen,
By the adverts that urge them
To buy what they've seen;
They worship their telly
And won't move an inch;
If the house caught on fire
Well I doubt if they'd flinch.
It's a puzzle to me
How it has so much power
To keep people glued to it
Hour after hour;
Film upon film and then
Soap after soap,
With a life such as that
I don't think I could cope;
Like the old saying goes:
'They'll end up with square eyes; '
And to me it will be
No great loss, or surprise.
Some programmes can teach
I admit that it's true;
But of excellent ones
There are only a few;
Still, if children can learn
As they sit there and drool,
It's a start, 'cause they learn
Very little at school;
Had it not been invented
Not a soul would have cared;
But it was,
And the blame lies with John Logi Baird.
Written Jan 1995
poem by John Carter Brown
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One of the first lessons you learn as an actor is to listen.
quote by John Frankenheimer
Submitted by Lucian Velea
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