Kenneth Rexroth Quotes

You try to do the best with what you've got and ignore everything else. That's why horses get blinders in horse racing: You look at the horse next to you, and you lose a step.

First and foremost, we have to focus on what we're doing and not worry about what Bayern - or any other clubs - are doing.

I focus on my work. If I let myself get distracted by the insults and slanders I wouldn't get anything substantive done.

When you run a race, you hurt your ability to compete when you turn your head to look at the competition chasing you, you lose a step physically and psychologically. Run the race always stretching to do your best, imitations will come in last, no one can catch an original.

If the most important thing for your project is to put on a circus, then you have less chance of winning things.

I don't like the glamour. I just like the game.

When I have occasionally set myself to consider the different distractions of men, the pains and perils to which they expose themselves I have discovered that all the unhappiness of men arises from one single fact, that they cannot stay quietly in their own chamber.

Cannot possibly attend first night, will attend second... if there is one.

I need noise and interruptions and irritation: irritation and discomfort are a great starter. The loneliness of doing it any other way would kill me.

One thing that often disrupts momentum and really shouldn't is competitors.

Can a woman entertain a man and a pet at the same time? I say unto thee, one of the twain shall suffer jealousy.

To me, a good event is governed by the audience.

Why be second best at anything?

We get off track. Capitalism takes us off track. You get off the "real" and get on the "wheel." The "wheel" becomes the winning and losing, the succeeding and failing, the "I will achieve." All that stuff becomes so preoccupying, particularly if you're born with low self-esteem, or no sense of yourself, or even if you're just born in the consumer culture. It's very powerful.

I never aspired to be 2nd. I was taught... you can do whatever you want in this world, so why not be the best in the world?

It takes an extraordinary amount of attention to manifest any ambition. But life intervenes - distractions and obligations pull us away from the ambition we originally had.

It is hard to produce work in New York. You kind of have to center yourself - do some Zen meditation exercises and just focus. It is very distracting, and money, of course, is an issue.

Writing is a deep-sea dive. You need hours just to get into it: down, down, down. If you're called back to the surface every couple of minutes by an email, you can't ever get back down. I have a great friend who became a Twitterer and he says he hasn't written anything for a year.

There can be distractions, but if you're isolated from the heart of the Games, the Olympics become just another competition.

Winners don't eat wieners.

It's really hard to get any work done in my apartment when my bed is also in my apartment.

Sex doesn't interfere with your tennis; it's staying out all night trying to find it that affects your tennis.

Staring Girl I once knew a girl who would just stand there and stare. At anyone or anything, she seemed not to care She'd stare at the ground, She'd stare at the sky. She'd stare at you for hours, and you'd never know why. But after winning the local staring contest, she finally gave her eyes a well-deserved rest.

I did actually sit down with a blank sheet of paper once. I think the phone rang and that was the end of my literary career.

It really doesn't matter or concern me what people are saying or who thinks who is the favorite. The bottom line is you have to play.