Jack London Quotes

Live dangerously and you live right.

I can be bolder on the page, as a character. I can gnash my teeth, I can scream and yell, in a way that I'm perhaps too timid to do in real life.

I wish that my life could be like the movies, like 'Bonnie and Clyde' or 'The Hunger' or 'Harold and Maude.' And... it can be! It maybe just takes somebody else who is as fearless as you. It takes a person who will not hesitate.

If I can't be daring in my work or the way I live my life, then I don't really see the point of being on this planet.

It is far better to live like a tiger for a day than to live like a jackal for a hundred years.

Slaves sing most when they are most unhappy. The songs of the slave represent the sorrows of his heart; and he is relieved by them, only as an aching heart is relieved by its tears.

Let's borrow life preservers and jump over. I think we should do something spectacular. I feel that all our lives have been too restrained.

When I'm old I'm never going to say,I didn't do this or, I regret that. I'm going to say,I don't regret a damn thing. I came, I went, and I did it all.

The speech of my heart will be carried on in murmurings of a song.

Life should not be a journey to the grave with the intention of arriving safely in a pretty and well preserved body, but rather to skid in broadside in a cloud of smoke, thoroughly used up, totally worn out, and loudly proclaiming "Wow! What a Ride!

When we sing, our hearts can lift and fly, over the troubled waters and over the years.

If I sing "you broke my heart, you left me flat," everyone knows exactly what that means - they know the story. But if I sing a line that's plaintive or wailing, people can experience their own set of emotions and their own story. Each of us might give that phrase a different meaning. It's open to interpretation, and one song becomes a thousand songs. I love that.

As she had been walking from the ward to that room, she had felt such pure hatred that now she had no more rancor left in her heart. She had finally allowed her negative feelings to surface, feelings that had been repressed for years in her soul. She had actually FELT them, and they were no longer necessary, they could leave.

Music is also one of the great heart openers. Sometimes, you hear the lyrics of a song and you dance, laugh, smile, or perhaps even cry.

Don't ask for security, ask for adventure. Better to live 30 years full of adventure than a 100 years safe in the corner.

Meanwhile music pounded / across hearts opening every valve to the desperate drama of being / a self in a song.

I'd break out in hives if I had to sing ('Stairway to Heaven') in every show. I wrote those lyrics and found that song to be of some importance and consequence in 1971, but 17 years later, I don't know. It's just not for me. I sang it at the Atlantic Records show because I'm an old softie and it was my way of saying thank you to Atlantic because I've been with them for 20 years. But no more of 'Stairway to Heaven' for me.

How do you explain what it feels like to get on the stage and make poetry that you know sinks into the hearts and souls of people who are unable to express it

You either have it or you don't. You play your horn just like you sing a song or a hymn. If it's in your heart, you express yourself in the tune.

When I finished [writing it], I was crying. I knew at long last, after ten years of trying, I had written something good.

Jazz is played from the heart. You can even live by it. Always love it.

When I first started writing the album, "Cry Baby" was a song that I really wanted to write because it represented all of these personal insecurities that I had for a long time.

I'm convinced that the only way to get ahead in this world is to live and sell dangerously. You've got to live beyond your means. You've got to commit yourself to an act or vision that pulls you further than you want to go and forces you to use your hidden strengths.

MOUTH, n. In man, the gateway to the soul; in woman, the outlet of the heart.