For me the form, the stanzaic shape, is an endorsement, proof that I'm engaged with the Latin or Greek at an original level, that my versions are explorations.
We live in a world of media that are constantly telling us it is only the shape of your body that matters to how attractive you are, and that's silly.
Art is magic, not logic. This craze for the logical spirit in irrational shape is part of the present harmful mania for uniformity.
Since the purpose of reading, of education, is to become good, our most important task is to choose the right books. Our personal set of stories, our canon, shapes our lives. I believe it is a law of the universe that we will not rise above our canon. Our canon is part of us, deeply, subconsciously. And the characters and teachings in our canon shape our characters--good, evil, mediocre, or great.
To me, acting is a matter of absolute concentration. You can laugh and giggle with your friends up to the minute the director says, "Action!" Then you snap your mind into shape and into the character that you're playing and relate to the people that you're acting with and forget everybody else that you've been joking with.
There are strange flowers of reason to match each error of the senses. Admirable gardens of absurd beliefs, forebodings, obsessions and frenzies. Unknown, ever-changing gods take shape there.
Many women seem to have hang-ups about going out with me because they feel they have to be in the same shape that I am. If they're overweight, they're insecure, because they don't understand that I don't look at women the same way I look at myself.
The shape that poems make in the mind is an echo of something powerful in the cosmos. I do believe that, and that is certainly irrational, so perhaps I am no wiser than Elizabeth Perkins as to the nature of poetry.
But our culture is in truly bad shape if we have come to define respecting something as the failure to set it on fire.
I've always been attracted to unusual eyewear. I thought glasses were an interesting accessory, depending on the shape of your face. People would always ask me, "Why are your frames so large?" And I would say, "The bigger to see you!" And that shut them up.
So I don't worry about, and people shouldn't worry about a draft I think we're in good shape, I really do. And, if not, we'll - I'll address the nation. But I don't see any need to right now.
On every journey you take, you are met with options. At every fork in the road, you make a choice. These are the decisions that shape your life.
I know when I've been playing a lot of golf it takes me a while to get back into cricket again. It's not so much the different shape of the swings, more the fact that you are stationary when you hit a golf ball. In cricket you have to move forward or back, which is an instinctive timing thing.
Human nature is like water. It takes the shape of its container.
My heart contains of good, wise, just, the perfect shape.
Simply put, we have to be smart about how we use our power. Not because we have less of it indeed, the might of our military, the size of our economy, the influence of our diplomacy, and the creative energy of our people remain unrivaled. No, it's because as the world has changed, so too have the levers of power that can most effectively shape international affairs.
It is the business of thought to define things, to find the boundaries; thought, indeed, is a ceaseless process of definition. It is the business of Art to give things shape.
Your brain does not manufacture thoughts. Your thoughts shape neural networks.
I don't get too upset or bent out of shape from things that go on on the field. But I think that you always want to try to keep it classy. You don't want to do any stupid fouls, and sometimes - sometimes the game gets to you; people react differently.
Acting is a tough business, and you need to be in good shape mentally and physically.