Biographies are but the clothes and buttons of the man. The biography of the man himself cannot be written.
quote by Mark Twain
Submitted by Lucian Velea
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Related quotes
I hate biographies which say, I was called to such and such an office, and he offered me so and so, and I got so and so money. I find that very tedious. The best biographies are written by other people.
quote by Leslie Caron
Submitted by Lucian Velea
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King's biography
Kings’ biographies are seeds sown.
Beggars’ biographies are grains eaten.
Millions of grains are eaten
Against a grain planted.
10.01.2007
poem by Rm. Shanmugam Chettiar
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There's been a number of erroneous biographies, articles and so on written about Billy and we both thought it would be a good idea to produce a true one.
quote by Pamela Stephenson
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Biography should be written by an acute enemy.
quote by Arthur Balfour
Submitted by Lucian Velea
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Little Green Buttons
The honeymoon ended a decade ago,
If he still loves her he don't say so,
So she's taking her blues to the House af Tattoos,
Getting little green buttons on her birthday suit.
Little green buttons all in a row
From her face to the place they ain't never gonna slow.
Might sound crazy but they sure look cute,
Those little green buttons on her birthday suit.
She had supper in the oven when he came home,
Now he's snoring on the sofa to the Late, Late Show.
It was ten days later before he knew
'Bout those little green buttons on her birthday suit.
But now she's living in a house of love,
She's got his attention, he can't get enough
He spends every evening trying to undo
The little green buttons on her birthday suit.
poem by Sheldon Allan Silverstein
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The art of biography is different from geography. Geography is about maps, but biography is about chaps.
quote by Edmund Clerihew Bentley
Submitted by Lucian Velea
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It usually takes two people a little while to learn where the funny buttons are and testy buttons are.
quote by Matt Lauer
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Festa Major de Gracia
buttons buttons everywhere
never button up our creativity
haiku by John Tiong Chunghoo
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I'm not spitting in my own soup, I love having spent my life thinking about these things-but you don't have to know anything about his life, even though I've just written a biography!
quote by Stephen Greenblatt
Submitted by Lucian Velea
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Clothes
That party requires me to wear this and that
The dress code rules, the most annoying;
And if I have to deliver this news
Such as delivering newspapers
to be wearing a raincoat
How idiot-definitely-in times of rain and
the news was soaking
'How are you so? '
Weather folded pocket behind
The voice laughed, embarrassed the rigid rules..
What clothes should be removed
even though it
Giggles fly over the heads of
And golden perch in the cage
The owners of the kingdom of words;
Husband joked with another man's wife
In the pockets of his clothes there
1 box of cards,
mobile-phone numbers and streets with no name
'Excellent news today'
All nodding like dolls;
Made of tulips...
I say birds fly free
Dancing in my awkward silence
So what does it mean, all these dishes;
Presented after further ado completed
Or enjoy the embrace of the word..
After this we said go!
After this we remove the clothes;
And the buttons were scattered in the air
Became the new news about the clothes;
We laugh together..
(2009)
poem by Imam Setiaji Ronoatmojo
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For One Who Is Too Young To Write Poetry
i have one advice.
for you.
be the child who follows
the emperor
and be innocent enough
to tell him
that he has no clothes.
tell the truth.
the naked truth.
do not decorate it with plumes and
icy pearls.
and tell not
those who do not see
that the threads and buttons
are made of
pure gold
or his sweat
all diamonds.
poem by Ric S. Bastasa
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Buttons
I have been watching the war map slammed up for advertising in front of the newspaper office.
Buttons—red and yellow buttons—blue and black buttons—are shoved back and forth across the map.
A laughing young man, sunny with freckles,
Climbs a ladder, yells a joke to somebody in the crowd,
And then fixes a yellow button one inch west
And follows the yellow button with a black button one inch west.
(Ten thousand men and boys twist on their bodies in a red soak along a river edge,
Gasping of wounds, calling for water, some rattling death in their throats.)
Who would guess what it cost to move two buttons one inch on the war map here in front of the newspaper office where the freckle-faced young man is laughing to us?
poem by Carl Sandburg
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An Old-Fashioned Garden
Strange, is it not? She was making her garden,
Planting the old-fashioned flowers that day—
Bleeding-hearts tender and bachelors-buttons—
Spreading the seeds in the old-fashioned way.
Just in the old fashioned way, too, our quarrel
Grew until, angrily, she set me free—
Planting, indeed, bleeding hearts for the two of us,—
Ordaining bachelor’s buttons for me.
Envoi
Strange, was it not? But seeds planted in anger
Sour in the earth and, ere long, a decay
Withered the bleeding hearts, blighted the buttons,
And—we were wed—in the old-fashioned way.
poem by Ellis Parker Butler
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I have had the unfortunate experience of having someone write an unauthorised biography of me. Half of it is lies and the other half is badly written. My feeling is that if I'm going to write my life story, I ought to have my life first.
quote by Dawn French
Submitted by Lucian Velea
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Bruised
Your snide comments
Made our kisses taste of irony,
That hard metallic sting.
Gone with soft tenderness
Your hands savagely play a treasure hunt
For my clothes’ buttons.
No pale blushing
Just stark blunt blotches of bruises.
I miss the boy you once were
And hate the man you have become.
poem by Elizabeth Kudebeh
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All biographies are different, although all lives are so alike.
aphorism by Ramon Eder, translated by Dan Costinaş
Submitted by Dan Costinaş
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After a certain number of years, our faces become our biographies.
quote by Cynthia Ozick
Submitted by Lucian Velea
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Flying
(rod stewart, ron wood, ronnie lane)
Im flying across the ocean
And Im soaring back home
To the place I was born and probably raised.
And Im flying across the mountains and valleys,
Back home to the one that I love so happily.
Can ya blame me for feeling homesick
cause Ive been away such a very long long time ?
I served a while in the county jail, five years for
For bein hungry tired and poor, I got worried so.
On and on this I will follow with your buttons and bows.
On and on this I will follow, all alone,
You know I will follow with your buttons and bows,
With your buttons and your bows.
On and on Im flying across the ocean, going home.
Im flying across the ocean
Goin home, hoo hoo
song performed by by Rod Stewart
Submitted by Lucian Velea
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Great geniuses have the shortest biographies.
quote by Ralph Waldo Emerson
Submitted by Lucian Velea
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Shrinking
Have you ever had that feeling
you are growing,
or is it your clothes are shrinking?
You know when your trouser bottoms
start creeping up to your knees,
or your shirt sleeves
start climbing up to your elbows,
or your waistline begins to grow,
but your belt hangs loose,
or your chest is expanding
because the buttons keep popping of your shirt.
Oh yea, I know that feeling ever so well
as it happens to me all the time
just after my wife does the washing.
She follows the instructions to the letter,
but still they begin to shrink.
Nothing is unshrinkable when she goes to wash,
except once.
There always has to be one exception.
I had a nice towelin shirt
and when she had finished with it,
the shirt touched my knees
and looked like I was wearing a skirt.
Here I am six foot three,
yet my clothes will fit someone three feet three
and a lot thinner than me.
Now I am at my wits end wondering just what to do.
It feels like playing Russian roulette
when the next wash begins.
31 January 2011
poem by David Harris
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