that backdated bag of quotes
Gilmore Girls:
○ Rory: We've got termites. They're eating our whole house.
Lorelai: But they always say thank you.
○ Lane: I'm going to get a soda, anybody want anything?
Lorelai: Yes, the night of my 14th birthday back so I can right the green hot pant-roller disco outfit wrong, ugh.
○ Lorelai: Well you know what they say when people assume things.
Emily: No, what do they say?
Lorelai: That... you shouldn't.
○ Oheste: So, Lorelai, are you a member of the DAR?
Lorelai: No, I'm not. D-A-R-N.
Mitch Albom:
○ "No life is a waste," the Blue Man said. "The only time we waste is the time we spend thinking we are alone. (The Five People You Meet in Heaven)
Antoine de Saint-Exupery:
○ "It is only with the heart that one can see rightly; what is essential is invisible to the eye." (The Little Prince)
John Webster:
○ "As majesty gives to adversity; you may discern the shape of her loveliness more perfectly in her tears than in her smiles."
○ "Men are oft valued high, when th' are most wretched."
○ "Pull, and pull strongly, for your able strength
Must pull down heaven upon me -
Yet stay, heaven gates are not so highly arched
As princes' palaces: they that enter there
Must go upon their knees."
○ "Man, like to Cassia, is proved best, being bruised."
(The Duchess of Malfi)
MercyMe:
○ "You'll never know why you're alive until you know what you would die for; I would die for You."
J.R.R. Tolkien:
○ "All that is gold does not glitter,
Not all those who wander are lost;
The old that is strong does not wither,
Deep roots are not reached by the frost.
From the ashes a fire shall be woken,
A light from the shadows shall spring;
Renewed shall be blade that was broken,
The crownless again shall be king." (The Fellowship of the Ring, Lord of the Rings)
Random:
○ "I'm a human being. Not a human doing, not a human thinking. A human being."
Leo Tolstoy:
○ "The worst thing about death is that fact that when a man is dead it's impossible any longer to undo the harm you have done him, or to do the good you haven't done him. They say: live in such a way as to be always ready to die. I would say: live in such away that anyone can die without you having anything to regret."
Janet Fitch:
○ "Loneliness is the human condition. Cultivate it. The way it tunnels into you allows your soul room to grow. Never expect to outgrow loneliness. Never hope to find people who will understand you, someone to fill that space. An intelligent, sensitive person is the exception, the very great exception. If you expect to find people who will understand you, you will grow murderous with disappointment. The best you'll ever do is to understand yourself, know what it is that you want, and not let the cattle stand in your way."
Jeffrey Eugenides:
○ "Historical fact: people stopped being human in 1913. That was the year Henry Ford put his cars on rollers and made his workers adopt the speed of the assembly line. At first, workers rebelled. They quit in droves, unable to accustom their bodies to the new pace of the age. Since then, however, the adaptation has been passed down: we’ve all inherited it to some degree, so that we plug right into joysticks and remotes, to repetitive motions of a hundred kinds.
But in 1922 it was still a new thing to be a machine." (Middlesex)
Arabelle of Fashion Pirate:
○ "I mean, I just assume it was someone who wasn't hugged very much as a child." (On the fear of teasing from kids at school or anonymous haters)
Don Marquis:
○ "A hypocrite is a person who--but who isn't?"
Mitch Albom:
○ " All parents damage their children. It cannot be helped. Youth, like pristine glass, absorbs the prints of its handlers. Some parents smudge, others crack, a few shatter childhoods completely into jagged little pieces, beyond repair." (The Five People You Meet In Heaven)
Karl Lagerfeld:
○ "New York Presbyterian Hospital." - Alexandra Kotur
"Maternal health." - Christy Turlington
"Amfar." - Carine Roitfeld
"Myself." - Karl Lagerfeld
(when asked which cause they support most for Vanity Fair's Best Dressed List)
Glenn O'Brien:
○ "But seriously, folks, flip-flops are for the beach or maybe washing the car or spaniel. They are not the next big thing. They are the last sad thing on the road to stylistic surrender." (GQ August 2008)
Mark Twain:
○ "Clothes make the man. Naked people have little or no influence on society."
Milton Glaser:
○ "You have spent some time with this person, either you have a drink or go for dinner or you go to a ball game. It doesn’t matter very much but at the end of that time you observe whether you are more energised or less energised. Whether you are tired or whether you are exhilarated. If you are more tired then you have been poisoned. If you have more energy you have been nourished."
"The test is almost infallible and I suggest that you use it for the rest of your life."
Cathy Horyn:
○ "The irony in fashion is that it loves change but it can’t actually change anything."
Paul Dirac:
○ "In science one tries to tell people, in such a way as to be understood by everyone, something that no one ever knew before. But in poetry, it's the exact opposite."
Kate Moss:
○ "People think your success is just a matter of having a pretty face. But it's easy to be chewed up and spat out. You've got to stay ahead of the game to be able to stay in it."
Oscar Wilde:
○ "Life is too important to be taken seriously."
John Mayer:
○ "What now, then? I can only really say for myself: Enjoy who I am, the talents and the liabilities. Stop acting careless. In fact, care more. Be vulnerable but stay away from where it hurts. Read. See more shows. Of any kind. Rock shows, art shows, boat shows. Create more art. Wear hoodies to dinner. Carry a notebook and hand it to people when they passionately recommend something and ask them to write it down for me. Root for others. Give more and expect the same in return, but over time. Act nervous when I'm nervous, puzzled when I don't know what the hell to do, and smile when it all goes my way. And never in any other order than that. And when it's all over, whether at the end of this fabulous career or of this life, which I hope takes place at the same time, I should look back and say that I had it good and I made the most of it while I was able. And so should you."
○ "This is about us all. Every one of us. Who all seem to know deep down that it's incredibly hard to be alive and interact with the world around us but will try and cover it up at any cost. For as badass and unaffected as we try to come off, we're all just one sentence away from being brought to the edge of tears, if only it was worded right. And I don't want to act immune to that anymore. I took the biggest detour from myself over the past year, since I decided that I wasn't going to care about what people thought about me. I got to the point where I had so much padding on that, sure, I couldn't feel the negativity, but that's because I couldn't feel much of anything. And I think I'm done with that.
I'm not the first person to admit we're all self conscious, Kanye was. But what I want to do is to shed a little light on why we're all in the same boat, no matter the shape of the life we lead: because every one of us were told since birth that we were special. We were spoken to by name through a television. We were promised we could be anything that we wanted to be, if only we believed it and then, faster than we saw coming, we were set loose into the world to shake hands with the millions of other people who were told the exact same thing.
And really? Really? It turns out we're just not all that special, when you break it down. Beautifully unspectacular, actually. And that truth is going to catch up with us whether we want to run from it or not. The paparazzo following me to the gym ain't gonna be Herb Ritts and the guy he's following ain't gonna be Bob Dylan. It's just a matter of how old you are once you embrace that fact. And for me, 30 sounds about right."
Jonathan Foreman, Switchfoot:
○ "A good evening is one where a conversation occurred"
○ (On Chad) "True brilliance and he sits behind the drums and doesn't say anything all day."
○ "The wise guy is the guy who doesn’t say much...so I'm going to keep on talking."
○ "I think for us growing up we never saw anything that was outside of God's vision. The idea that if he created this skin that I'm in, if He's created this moment for us to share right here, if He's created music and all these things, then suddenly every conversation becomes sacred instead of secular. Every time you go into the grocery store, every times you hop in your car...you're not turning off and on your Christianity. You're bringing the very temple of God with you. So suddenly playing shows down the street at the church becomes a sacred thing, just as much as playing down at the bar when we’d get kicked out because none of us were 21."
○ "I'm really only responsible to make sure that one person is clapping at the end of my life. Because I feel like as a performer, a lot of times you live for everyone else's applause. That's a dangerous thing within the church or outside the church."
○ "All music is worship. It just depends on what you're worshipping."
○ "The reason that I believe in God is not because I saw U2 in concert. It's always because I know this person that loved me."
○ "Yeah, I mean I always am writing songs. It's my favorite thing to do. It's like a chipmunk! You kinda store them all up and eat them later!"
○ "So down to business. Cause I got my business socks on. Cause it's business time..."
○ "This is sort of a sing-along song. A song you can sing around a campfire. If for some reason you smell something burning, it's your imagination, at least I hope it is."
○ "Less is more, more or less"
○ "Change is a risk, especially in our society, it's a risk to put yourself right on the edge. But that's what it takes. There are so many things that I want to see change in myself and on this planet. That's what these song are about. The Beautiful Letdown is the idea that, sometimes, it takes the painful things in life to change us. When our world falls apart, and we have no more faces left to wear. That's where these songs start."
○ "This a good old fashioned happy song about murder."
○ (On the Legend of Chin) "These are the songs of a nineteen year old kid who has nothing to prove and nothing to lose."
○ "You should be able to eat anything you want and look like what you want to and not have to work out"
○ "You sound beautiful! Very beautiful!" *loud cheering* "Okay now you're just making noise... you're like WAKA WAKA WAKA WAKA!"
○ "There's a certain amount of humility that is attached to wonder, and a certain amount of pride attached to knowledge and I think the moment you say 'we know beyond a shadow of a doubt this exists', you can't have faith that it exists. Faith is no longer possible. So faith is only possible when doubt is possible. Faith is only possible when humility and wonder is possible. And I feel like the musical world of humility and wonder is a much wider door to enter into than the narrow confines of epistemology and things like knowledge and these really narrow boxes. That's kind of where our songs are... [those are] the worlds our songs are trying to explore."
○ "For me it feels... I feel so comfortable in the clubs. It feels as though you are actually pushing against something. Alot of times when you play a show, you wonder, at the end of the night... sure maybe you made a couple dollars, maybe you sold a couple t-shirts or CDs, and maybe had some great conversations. But at the end of the night, did you actually impact the world? Did you actually change anything? Is anything going to be different tomorrow because you played a concert? I feel like we are really pushing up against something... you’re actually connecting with something at the other end."
○ "Remember I'm the one that smells like onions, not Jerome."
○ "Bubbles in your forehead. I'm no doctor but that doesn't sound like a good thing."
○ "Tonight our show is being recorded, so anything you say can, and will, be held against you."
○ (Introducing the band at a concert) "Jerome Fontamillas over here can play many instruments. But do not confuse him with Prince. He cannot shoot purple lasers out of his guitar."
○ "And this is my brother, Tim. Tim, do you have anything smart and sassy you want to say to the people?"
○ "It can kill the art, worrying about how a record's going to do. For us, success is making music that is gratifying to you. The break-even point for the record that my band made back in high school was selling 300 copies. To us, that was success."
○ "A lot of these songs come from arguments... just the idea that when you are happy and everything is fine you don't really feel like writing a song... you feel like hanging out with your friends or going for a surf... but when things go wrong it seems like, for me, that is a chance to right a song and explore where I am at."
○ (On being brothers with Tim) "We're getting a divorce. We're not going to be brothers any more. Actually Drew and I are going to be brothers from now on."
Drew: "Cool... I'm getting adopted!"
Jon: "So it's pretty cool..."
Tim: "I... I didn't hear about this!"
Jon: "Well I... I didn't want to tell you... it's hard." *slaps Tim’s knee* "No it's good! You know were good friends and we've been through a lot together. We have our ups and downs..." *pauses* "It sounds like a marriage again."
○ "I get the funniest songs stuck in my head. Especially surfing... you're stuck out there in the middle of the water and you find yourself with Mariah Carey in your head. It's kind of weird because then you start singing it out loud."
○ "I've never used music to sell my faith and I've never used faith to sell my music. I think they are both intrinsic parts of who I am. We've always tried to define our music outside of genres... what is a genre? A genre's a cage or a box and for us our music is best with fangs and some claws running free in the wild."
○ "You just write where you are at. You write the song that is on your mind and then you get your collection of tunes then afterwards you listen to them and go 'Wow! That one might actually fit on the radio' but you CAN'T write for the radio."
○ (On who would win a street fight with Green Day) "We've got five they've got three."
○ (Talking about how 40 of their songs have made it to TV and movies) "That's what they tell us. I don't get out much...I don't watch much TV. So it's the type of thing where your buddy calls up and he says "Yeah I heard your song on Felicity!" and you are like "Bro!...Bro what were you doing watching Felicity?"
○ "You can’t sleep in Berlin so you write a song."
○ "My name is Jon Foreman; I play the guitar and sing and write songs and shop for groceries."
○ "To eat deep dish chicago style pizza here in NY feels somehow ethically wrong- maybe like kissing your sister!? Probably not. No; probably not... Well, it tasted really great. The pizza. The pizza tasted really great."
○ "'He does not treat us as our sins deserve or repay us according to our iniquities. For as high as the heavens are above the earth so great is His love for us.' This is the spiritual world that we have been called to and the kindom of the heavens is here. We are learning to breathe in the atmosphere of grace."
○ "Drew and I share a lot of things... guitars.... toothbrushes.... well, not toothbrushes. Maybe toothpaste..."
○ "Information has become king, whereas wisdom should be king and there is a big difference between the two."
○ "A lot of these songs will be songs that I expect no one to relate to that I wrote at 3 o'clock in the morning trying to figure out my life. Couple of weeks later when I have the guts to play 'em for Tim, or Chad, or Jerome it will be the type of thing where it's-even though it's intensely personal, it's something that is universal. "
○ "Live rather that talk. Talk is cheap and the tabloids scream about it every day."
○ "Well, I am a very regular person. (Pauses.) I don't mean that in the dietary sense."
○ (On meeting Les Paul) "Even more than the award I got to shake his hand. He said, "Now, son, tell me why a Les Paul is better than a Fender." And then I was like (makes face), and then he starts laughing. "I wish you the best, son." Gave me a little hug. Yeah, that was an amazing moment."
○ "I think of myself as a farmer who waters, plants, and writes songs every day. None of the songs are my own, they just pop up and grow. And then I get to talk about them. Since they aren't really mine to take credit for, I just say, "Aren't they great? Look at them! A great crop this year!"
○ "If you're the clapping type... and the type who wears deodorant... you can put your hands in the air on this next one."
○ "Our world spins upside down and sometimes we have to lose our grip on the things we value in this life in order to grab on to true life."
○ "I fulfill the singing/guitar/broken strings part of the band. I'm the missing passport guy... Yeah, that's my main role, really."
○ "Entropy is one of the laws of thermodynamics. It's a physical law that says everything in nature is moving from order to disorder. In our lives this same principle is at work. As time moves on, things break down as we make mistakes. This is the 'letdown' every person experiences because of sin. For Christians this concept doesn't end there because we realize God's 'beautiful' mercy and grace restores the order in our lives."
○ "I believe every person goes through a defining moment in high school where the direction of his life can be significantly affected by one decision. Time slips away so easily, but the decisions you make will have consequences. One of the assets teens have is a confidence that they can help change the world for the better. I never want to become so jaded and grown-up that I lose the joy and peace teens have of knowing their choices can make a difference."
○ "It's not because we play rock'n'roll that we have a responsibility. It's just because you're alive. Somebody is looking up to you and watching what you're doing and what you're singing about. Even if it's 5 kids that came to a show, and no one else cares but those 5 kids, you better sing your heart out."
○ "It's hard to remember where you put your wallet let alone your parts to a song."
○ "I think the role of the prophet (not to say that I'm a prophet) is to say the eternal truths in a way that their generation can understand. That's what we're all called to do here on earth - speak truth in relevant ways."
○ "I've heard that we only use a small part of our brain. Maybe our soul is the same way. And maybe we're half asleep most of our lives, simply reacting to the stimulus our brain receives. Action, true action is rare indeed."
○ "I was thinking about going for a swim in the lake, but then Tim reminded me that's where all the good horror movies start. Who wants to join me?"
○ "Seven years ago we decided that the world didn't need any more rock bands: we wanted to change the world. We are the same men attempting to sing that same song, still longing for a home that I will never find in this life. Be patient or otherwise: I know of only one who can lead me on."
○ "To be honest, this question grieves me because I feel that it represents a much bigger issue than simply a couple SF tunes. In true Socratic form, let me ask you a few questions: Does Lewis or Tolkien mention Christ in any of their fictional series? Are Bach's sonata's Christian? What is more Christ-like, feeding the poor, making furniture, cleaning bathrooms, or painting a sunset? There is a schism between the sacred and the secular in all of our modern minds. The view that a pastor is more 'Christian' than a girls volleyball coach is flawed and heretical. The stance that a worship leader is more spiritual than a janitor is condescending and flawed. These different callings and purposes further demonstrate God’s sovereignty. Many songs are worthy of being written. Switchfoot will write some, Keith Green, Bach, and perhaps yourself have written others. Some of these songs are about redemption, others about the sunrise, others about nothing in particular: written for the simple joy of music.
None of these songs has been born again, and to that end there is no such thing as Christian music. No. Christ didn’t come and die for my songs, he came for me. Yes. My songs are a part of my life. But judging from scripture I can only conclude that our God is much more interested in how I treat the poor and the broken and the hungry than the personal pronouns I use when I sing. I am a believer. Many of these songs talk about this belief. An obligation to say this or do that does not sound like the glorious freedom that Christ died to afford me. I do have an obligation, however, a debt that cannot be settled by my lyrical decisions. My life will be judged by my obedience, not my ability to confine my lyrics to this box or that. We all have a different calling; Switchfoot is trying to be obedient to who we are called to be. We're not trying to be Audio A or U2 or POD or Bach: we're trying to be Switchfoot. You see, a song that has the words: 'Jesus Christ' is no more or less 'Christian' than an instrumental piece. (I've heard lots of people say Jesus Christ and they weren't talking about their redeemer.) You see, Jesus didn't die for any of my tunes. So there is no hierarchy of life or songs or occupation only obedience. We have a call to take up our cross and follow. We can be sure that these roads will be different for all of us. Just as you have one body and every part has a different function, so in Christ we who are many form one body and each of us belongs to all the others. Please be slow to judge 'brothers' who have a different calling."
○ "Well, the funny thing is, you are never the same person that you were the day before."
○ (on defining Redemption) "Well, I go back to the bottle at the store getting redeemed for just five cents or whatever it is. It's the ongoing eternal hand of God reaching down and recreating what was lost into something beautiful."
○ "[I have come to] a realization that the letdowns in life we experience are beautiful when we view them as letdowns, realizing that our hope is deeper than the two-dimensional TV screen in front of us."
○ (On the song 24) "I wrote this song near the end of my 24th year on this planet. Wherever we run, wherever the sun finds us when he rises, we remain stuck with ourselves. That can be overwhelming. Sometimes I feel like my soul is polluted with politicians, each with a different point of view. With all 24 of them in disagreement, each voice is yelling to be heard. And so I am divided against myself. I feel that I am a hypocrite until I am one, when all of the yelling inside of me dies down. I've heard that the truth will set you free. That's what I'm living for: freedom of spirit. I find unity and peace in none of the diversions that this world offers. But I've seen glimpses of truth and that's where I want to run."
○ (On meeting Bono) "I handed him forty dollars and told him, 'This is for sneaking into your show in London.'"
○ "My dying planet needs to see what the body of Christ looks like."
○ "The kingdom of heaven is comprised of the broken, the fatherless, the poor, the starving... Nothing that could create good ratings for NBC."
○ "4 AM is a great time of night. The day before is long dead but the morning is yet to come. All the commotion from the night before has died down and every sane upstanding citizen is asleep. It's a great time to go for a walk. You've got the planet to yourself for an hour or so, so peaceful... even the stars look different: waiting dawn. I feel the same way that the stars do sometimes. Anticipating... the night is nearly over, the day is almost here."
○ "You have a human being who was created in the image of God, who will spit in the face of the same image, who will kill and murder and steal from that same image. I think it was Paschal who said, 'If you look at the atrocity of man without also looking at the fact that he was created in the image of a deity, you will be depressed. If you look at the beautiful aspects of man and forget about the terrible atrocities and what it means to be human, then you have not looked at life realistically.'"
○ "I used to think that great art happened without argument, and maybe that's not the case. Maybe the things that are most important in this life, you have to fight for."
○ "It's a good thing my parents named me Jon because that's what everyone calls me."
○ "Jekyll and Hyde had it far too easy. The reality is that many more faces confront me; there are many more voices inside my head. An angel on my right, the devil on my left, and a host of others dressed in fancier garb than these - all proclaiming their virtue, all decrying the wisdom of another's opinions."
○ "Every day of your life, you change the world. Absolutely, yes, we're out to change the world. I mean, you change it whether you like it or not. You wake up and you talk to the grocer. You either kick your dog or you pet him. There's a million decisions you have every day where you change the world."
○ "Well, as far as the timing of positivity or hope... hope is always relevant. I think the problem with hope is that oftentimes, we get sold a hope that is only skin-deep; it's kind of like a band-aid. Things will get better and you kiss it and hope it feels better--but the problems still remain and the wars are still going on."
○ "The biggest questions in life are often times avoided... 'What are you living for? What is your life worth? What have you spent it on? What is the meaning of life?'...the things that you think about at two in the morning when you can't sleep, or I do at least. I think it's sad that the God who is often times presented in contemporary Christianity, is a God who is not big enough to answer these questions. So we don't ask them, because we're afraid that the whole thing isn't going to stand up. But I've always been encouraging people to ask the biggest questions, because that's when our roots are going deep into reality... and there is no question that is bigger than the God that I believe in."
○ "I don't hear so good, I'm in a rock band."
○ "Neither Death nor Hope know any boundaries in this life. However, one of them will not pass beyond into the next. We all try to block it out: breath is a fragile thing, a gift not an obligation."
○ "I always wished I could sing like Aretha Franklin. That's what I'm trying to do with my voice. I'd like to sing like a big black woman."
○ "I think of myself as more of a lover rather than a fighter, but sometimes you have to fight for what you love."
○ "I am directly connected to switchfoot. In fact Tim, (the bass player) is my brother."
○ "You can call me Jon... or Trogdor, either one works."
○ "We're in the process of planning our world domination tour right now. Muahahaha!"
○ "No, I don't write songs for the people that are in the cool club or the self-righteous club. This music is for the recovering failures who know they need a savior."
○ "Every breath you take, you breathe out a little bit of life, and with every heartbeat, you die a little bit."
○ "Hope is not a substitute for pain. Hope is in spite of pain."
○ "Sometimes its good to get things off your chest, but I don’t feel that vomiting is something edifying to everyone in the room."
○ "Prowess?! I don't think that's the word I would use for my piano skills. I had to study when I was a kid and then I took it again when I was in college. It was so funny to be playing all these Bach songs that I used to blaze through when I was a kid and now I'm just in college, struggling. Can't even play 'em! So it's more of a lesson to everyone out there - follow your mother's advice. Keep playing your piano."
○ "I think there's definitely a spiritual element to the songs and the best songs are the ones that don't have my fingerprints on them. I've recently been equating songwriting with archaeology, where you're just digging. Every day you wake up and you dig. Some days you discover the city that's buried beneath the ground and it's beautiful, amazing base and the castle wall and skeletons of this and that. And then other days you just get dirt. I think for me, I have a very objective perspective on these songs. Where I can look and them and say, wow that's amazing how that happened! I don't feel like I'm wrapped up in it. I feel like they're outside of me. I feel like almost the goal for the concert is to crawl inside the song and roll around in it. Rather than to try and be bigger than life it's actually to be smaller and allow the song to speak bigger. I don't know; it's hard to explain. But the idea is that I need to decrease to be able to sing these songs. I've always taken the approach with music that the person listening is a co-conspirator in the process. So I've got a great deal of respect for the people that listen to our music and take things from these songs that have been given to us. Because I feel like we take from them as well.
An example of a song that has a bit of me in it but doesn't really have my fingerprints on it is 'Faust, Midas And Myself'. That was one of those songs that 10 minutes later it was written. It's not a song that I would sit down and write but it wrote itself. It's like, with the archaeology theme; you're just digging and you dig this thing up. I hear what you're saying about copping out and letting all songs mean everything but there's a certain sense that from a songwriting perspective, you want the other person to have to meet you halfway and think a little bit. Actually dive in and think: Maybe it's a metaphor? Maybe there could be this? When I was a kid I'd write a song and play it and my mom would say, 'What is that about?' And I would always say, 'Well what do you think?' And then, 'Sure I've got my meaning and I'll tell you that afterwards.'"
○ "When you write a song you're not attempting to write a song, you're attempting to explode the Atomic Bomb. You're attempting to make people float and cry and explode and disappear. You don't write a song to write a song, you want to change the world. And yet every song comes out and it's just a song. And I guess that's what keeps you coming back."
○ "I think 'Nothing Is Sound' is a lot better record than 'The Beautiful Letdown'. To use a different metaphor, as a comedian, if you think the joke is funny you tell it. It doesn't mean that everyone is going to laugh, you know? It's not good to explain the joke. It's good to just move on. I think a lot of people didn't understand 'Nothing Is Sound'."
last updated november 9, 2008.
○ Rory: We've got termites. They're eating our whole house.
Lorelai: But they always say thank you.
○ Lane: I'm going to get a soda, anybody want anything?
Lorelai: Yes, the night of my 14th birthday back so I can right the green hot pant-roller disco outfit wrong, ugh.
○ Lorelai: Well you know what they say when people assume things.
Emily: No, what do they say?
Lorelai: That... you shouldn't.
○ Oheste: So, Lorelai, are you a member of the DAR?
Lorelai: No, I'm not. D-A-R-N.
Mitch Albom:
○ "No life is a waste," the Blue Man said. "The only time we waste is the time we spend thinking we are alone. (The Five People You Meet in Heaven)
Antoine de Saint-Exupery:
○ "It is only with the heart that one can see rightly; what is essential is invisible to the eye." (The Little Prince)
John Webster:
○ "As majesty gives to adversity; you may discern the shape of her loveliness more perfectly in her tears than in her smiles."
○ "Men are oft valued high, when th' are most wretched."
○ "Pull, and pull strongly, for your able strength
Must pull down heaven upon me -
Yet stay, heaven gates are not so highly arched
As princes' palaces: they that enter there
Must go upon their knees."
○ "Man, like to Cassia, is proved best, being bruised."
(The Duchess of Malfi)
MercyMe:
○ "You'll never know why you're alive until you know what you would die for; I would die for You."
J.R.R. Tolkien:
○ "All that is gold does not glitter,
Not all those who wander are lost;
The old that is strong does not wither,
Deep roots are not reached by the frost.
From the ashes a fire shall be woken,
A light from the shadows shall spring;
Renewed shall be blade that was broken,
The crownless again shall be king." (The Fellowship of the Ring, Lord of the Rings)
Random:
○ "I'm a human being. Not a human doing, not a human thinking. A human being."
Leo Tolstoy:
○ "The worst thing about death is that fact that when a man is dead it's impossible any longer to undo the harm you have done him, or to do the good you haven't done him. They say: live in such a way as to be always ready to die. I would say: live in such away that anyone can die without you having anything to regret."
Janet Fitch:
○ "Loneliness is the human condition. Cultivate it. The way it tunnels into you allows your soul room to grow. Never expect to outgrow loneliness. Never hope to find people who will understand you, someone to fill that space. An intelligent, sensitive person is the exception, the very great exception. If you expect to find people who will understand you, you will grow murderous with disappointment. The best you'll ever do is to understand yourself, know what it is that you want, and not let the cattle stand in your way."
Jeffrey Eugenides:
○ "Historical fact: people stopped being human in 1913. That was the year Henry Ford put his cars on rollers and made his workers adopt the speed of the assembly line. At first, workers rebelled. They quit in droves, unable to accustom their bodies to the new pace of the age. Since then, however, the adaptation has been passed down: we’ve all inherited it to some degree, so that we plug right into joysticks and remotes, to repetitive motions of a hundred kinds.
But in 1922 it was still a new thing to be a machine." (Middlesex)
Arabelle of Fashion Pirate:
○ "I mean, I just assume it was someone who wasn't hugged very much as a child." (On the fear of teasing from kids at school or anonymous haters)
Don Marquis:
○ "A hypocrite is a person who--but who isn't?"
Mitch Albom:
○ " All parents damage their children. It cannot be helped. Youth, like pristine glass, absorbs the prints of its handlers. Some parents smudge, others crack, a few shatter childhoods completely into jagged little pieces, beyond repair." (The Five People You Meet In Heaven)
Karl Lagerfeld:
○ "New York Presbyterian Hospital." - Alexandra Kotur
"Maternal health." - Christy Turlington
"Amfar." - Carine Roitfeld
"Myself." - Karl Lagerfeld
(when asked which cause they support most for Vanity Fair's Best Dressed List)
Glenn O'Brien:
○ "But seriously, folks, flip-flops are for the beach or maybe washing the car or spaniel. They are not the next big thing. They are the last sad thing on the road to stylistic surrender." (GQ August 2008)
Mark Twain:
○ "Clothes make the man. Naked people have little or no influence on society."
Milton Glaser:
○ "You have spent some time with this person, either you have a drink or go for dinner or you go to a ball game. It doesn’t matter very much but at the end of that time you observe whether you are more energised or less energised. Whether you are tired or whether you are exhilarated. If you are more tired then you have been poisoned. If you have more energy you have been nourished."
"The test is almost infallible and I suggest that you use it for the rest of your life."
Cathy Horyn:
○ "The irony in fashion is that it loves change but it can’t actually change anything."
Paul Dirac:
○ "In science one tries to tell people, in such a way as to be understood by everyone, something that no one ever knew before. But in poetry, it's the exact opposite."
Kate Moss:
○ "People think your success is just a matter of having a pretty face. But it's easy to be chewed up and spat out. You've got to stay ahead of the game to be able to stay in it."
Oscar Wilde:
○ "Life is too important to be taken seriously."
John Mayer:
○ "What now, then? I can only really say for myself: Enjoy who I am, the talents and the liabilities. Stop acting careless. In fact, care more. Be vulnerable but stay away from where it hurts. Read. See more shows. Of any kind. Rock shows, art shows, boat shows. Create more art. Wear hoodies to dinner. Carry a notebook and hand it to people when they passionately recommend something and ask them to write it down for me. Root for others. Give more and expect the same in return, but over time. Act nervous when I'm nervous, puzzled when I don't know what the hell to do, and smile when it all goes my way. And never in any other order than that. And when it's all over, whether at the end of this fabulous career or of this life, which I hope takes place at the same time, I should look back and say that I had it good and I made the most of it while I was able. And so should you."
○ "This is about us all. Every one of us. Who all seem to know deep down that it's incredibly hard to be alive and interact with the world around us but will try and cover it up at any cost. For as badass and unaffected as we try to come off, we're all just one sentence away from being brought to the edge of tears, if only it was worded right. And I don't want to act immune to that anymore. I took the biggest detour from myself over the past year, since I decided that I wasn't going to care about what people thought about me. I got to the point where I had so much padding on that, sure, I couldn't feel the negativity, but that's because I couldn't feel much of anything. And I think I'm done with that.
I'm not the first person to admit we're all self conscious, Kanye was. But what I want to do is to shed a little light on why we're all in the same boat, no matter the shape of the life we lead: because every one of us were told since birth that we were special. We were spoken to by name through a television. We were promised we could be anything that we wanted to be, if only we believed it and then, faster than we saw coming, we were set loose into the world to shake hands with the millions of other people who were told the exact same thing.
And really? Really? It turns out we're just not all that special, when you break it down. Beautifully unspectacular, actually. And that truth is going to catch up with us whether we want to run from it or not. The paparazzo following me to the gym ain't gonna be Herb Ritts and the guy he's following ain't gonna be Bob Dylan. It's just a matter of how old you are once you embrace that fact. And for me, 30 sounds about right."
Jonathan Foreman, Switchfoot:
○ "A good evening is one where a conversation occurred"
○ (On Chad) "True brilliance and he sits behind the drums and doesn't say anything all day."
○ "The wise guy is the guy who doesn’t say much...so I'm going to keep on talking."
○ "I think for us growing up we never saw anything that was outside of God's vision. The idea that if he created this skin that I'm in, if He's created this moment for us to share right here, if He's created music and all these things, then suddenly every conversation becomes sacred instead of secular. Every time you go into the grocery store, every times you hop in your car...you're not turning off and on your Christianity. You're bringing the very temple of God with you. So suddenly playing shows down the street at the church becomes a sacred thing, just as much as playing down at the bar when we’d get kicked out because none of us were 21."
○ "I'm really only responsible to make sure that one person is clapping at the end of my life. Because I feel like as a performer, a lot of times you live for everyone else's applause. That's a dangerous thing within the church or outside the church."
○ "All music is worship. It just depends on what you're worshipping."
○ "The reason that I believe in God is not because I saw U2 in concert. It's always because I know this person that loved me."
○ "Yeah, I mean I always am writing songs. It's my favorite thing to do. It's like a chipmunk! You kinda store them all up and eat them later!"
○ "So down to business. Cause I got my business socks on. Cause it's business time..."
○ "This is sort of a sing-along song. A song you can sing around a campfire. If for some reason you smell something burning, it's your imagination, at least I hope it is."
○ "Less is more, more or less"
○ "Change is a risk, especially in our society, it's a risk to put yourself right on the edge. But that's what it takes. There are so many things that I want to see change in myself and on this planet. That's what these song are about. The Beautiful Letdown is the idea that, sometimes, it takes the painful things in life to change us. When our world falls apart, and we have no more faces left to wear. That's where these songs start."
○ "This a good old fashioned happy song about murder."
○ (On the Legend of Chin) "These are the songs of a nineteen year old kid who has nothing to prove and nothing to lose."
○ "You should be able to eat anything you want and look like what you want to and not have to work out"
○ "You sound beautiful! Very beautiful!" *loud cheering* "Okay now you're just making noise... you're like WAKA WAKA WAKA WAKA!"
○ "There's a certain amount of humility that is attached to wonder, and a certain amount of pride attached to knowledge and I think the moment you say 'we know beyond a shadow of a doubt this exists', you can't have faith that it exists. Faith is no longer possible. So faith is only possible when doubt is possible. Faith is only possible when humility and wonder is possible. And I feel like the musical world of humility and wonder is a much wider door to enter into than the narrow confines of epistemology and things like knowledge and these really narrow boxes. That's kind of where our songs are... [those are] the worlds our songs are trying to explore."
○ "For me it feels... I feel so comfortable in the clubs. It feels as though you are actually pushing against something. Alot of times when you play a show, you wonder, at the end of the night... sure maybe you made a couple dollars, maybe you sold a couple t-shirts or CDs, and maybe had some great conversations. But at the end of the night, did you actually impact the world? Did you actually change anything? Is anything going to be different tomorrow because you played a concert? I feel like we are really pushing up against something... you’re actually connecting with something at the other end."
○ "Remember I'm the one that smells like onions, not Jerome."
○ "Bubbles in your forehead. I'm no doctor but that doesn't sound like a good thing."
○ "Tonight our show is being recorded, so anything you say can, and will, be held against you."
○ (Introducing the band at a concert) "Jerome Fontamillas over here can play many instruments. But do not confuse him with Prince. He cannot shoot purple lasers out of his guitar."
○ "And this is my brother, Tim. Tim, do you have anything smart and sassy you want to say to the people?"
○ "It can kill the art, worrying about how a record's going to do. For us, success is making music that is gratifying to you. The break-even point for the record that my band made back in high school was selling 300 copies. To us, that was success."
○ "A lot of these songs come from arguments... just the idea that when you are happy and everything is fine you don't really feel like writing a song... you feel like hanging out with your friends or going for a surf... but when things go wrong it seems like, for me, that is a chance to right a song and explore where I am at."
○ (On being brothers with Tim) "We're getting a divorce. We're not going to be brothers any more. Actually Drew and I are going to be brothers from now on."
Drew: "Cool... I'm getting adopted!"
Jon: "So it's pretty cool..."
Tim: "I... I didn't hear about this!"
Jon: "Well I... I didn't want to tell you... it's hard." *slaps Tim’s knee* "No it's good! You know were good friends and we've been through a lot together. We have our ups and downs..." *pauses* "It sounds like a marriage again."
○ "I get the funniest songs stuck in my head. Especially surfing... you're stuck out there in the middle of the water and you find yourself with Mariah Carey in your head. It's kind of weird because then you start singing it out loud."
○ "I've never used music to sell my faith and I've never used faith to sell my music. I think they are both intrinsic parts of who I am. We've always tried to define our music outside of genres... what is a genre? A genre's a cage or a box and for us our music is best with fangs and some claws running free in the wild."
○ "You just write where you are at. You write the song that is on your mind and then you get your collection of tunes then afterwards you listen to them and go 'Wow! That one might actually fit on the radio' but you CAN'T write for the radio."
○ (On who would win a street fight with Green Day) "We've got five they've got three."
○ (Talking about how 40 of their songs have made it to TV and movies) "That's what they tell us. I don't get out much...I don't watch much TV. So it's the type of thing where your buddy calls up and he says "Yeah I heard your song on Felicity!" and you are like "Bro!...Bro what were you doing watching Felicity?"
○ "You can’t sleep in Berlin so you write a song."
○ "My name is Jon Foreman; I play the guitar and sing and write songs and shop for groceries."
○ "To eat deep dish chicago style pizza here in NY feels somehow ethically wrong- maybe like kissing your sister!? Probably not. No; probably not... Well, it tasted really great. The pizza. The pizza tasted really great."
○ "'He does not treat us as our sins deserve or repay us according to our iniquities. For as high as the heavens are above the earth so great is His love for us.' This is the spiritual world that we have been called to and the kindom of the heavens is here. We are learning to breathe in the atmosphere of grace."
○ "Drew and I share a lot of things... guitars.... toothbrushes.... well, not toothbrushes. Maybe toothpaste..."
○ "Information has become king, whereas wisdom should be king and there is a big difference between the two."
○ "A lot of these songs will be songs that I expect no one to relate to that I wrote at 3 o'clock in the morning trying to figure out my life. Couple of weeks later when I have the guts to play 'em for Tim, or Chad, or Jerome it will be the type of thing where it's-even though it's intensely personal, it's something that is universal. "
○ "Live rather that talk. Talk is cheap and the tabloids scream about it every day."
○ "Well, I am a very regular person. (Pauses.) I don't mean that in the dietary sense."
○ (On meeting Les Paul) "Even more than the award I got to shake his hand. He said, "Now, son, tell me why a Les Paul is better than a Fender." And then I was like (makes face), and then he starts laughing. "I wish you the best, son." Gave me a little hug. Yeah, that was an amazing moment."
○ "I think of myself as a farmer who waters, plants, and writes songs every day. None of the songs are my own, they just pop up and grow. And then I get to talk about them. Since they aren't really mine to take credit for, I just say, "Aren't they great? Look at them! A great crop this year!"
○ "If you're the clapping type... and the type who wears deodorant... you can put your hands in the air on this next one."
○ "Our world spins upside down and sometimes we have to lose our grip on the things we value in this life in order to grab on to true life."
○ "I fulfill the singing/guitar/broken strings part of the band. I'm the missing passport guy... Yeah, that's my main role, really."
○ "Entropy is one of the laws of thermodynamics. It's a physical law that says everything in nature is moving from order to disorder. In our lives this same principle is at work. As time moves on, things break down as we make mistakes. This is the 'letdown' every person experiences because of sin. For Christians this concept doesn't end there because we realize God's 'beautiful' mercy and grace restores the order in our lives."
○ "I believe every person goes through a defining moment in high school where the direction of his life can be significantly affected by one decision. Time slips away so easily, but the decisions you make will have consequences. One of the assets teens have is a confidence that they can help change the world for the better. I never want to become so jaded and grown-up that I lose the joy and peace teens have of knowing their choices can make a difference."
○ "It's not because we play rock'n'roll that we have a responsibility. It's just because you're alive. Somebody is looking up to you and watching what you're doing and what you're singing about. Even if it's 5 kids that came to a show, and no one else cares but those 5 kids, you better sing your heart out."
○ "It's hard to remember where you put your wallet let alone your parts to a song."
○ "I think the role of the prophet (not to say that I'm a prophet) is to say the eternal truths in a way that their generation can understand. That's what we're all called to do here on earth - speak truth in relevant ways."
○ "I've heard that we only use a small part of our brain. Maybe our soul is the same way. And maybe we're half asleep most of our lives, simply reacting to the stimulus our brain receives. Action, true action is rare indeed."
○ "I was thinking about going for a swim in the lake, but then Tim reminded me that's where all the good horror movies start. Who wants to join me?"
○ "Seven years ago we decided that the world didn't need any more rock bands: we wanted to change the world. We are the same men attempting to sing that same song, still longing for a home that I will never find in this life. Be patient or otherwise: I know of only one who can lead me on."
○ "To be honest, this question grieves me because I feel that it represents a much bigger issue than simply a couple SF tunes. In true Socratic form, let me ask you a few questions: Does Lewis or Tolkien mention Christ in any of their fictional series? Are Bach's sonata's Christian? What is more Christ-like, feeding the poor, making furniture, cleaning bathrooms, or painting a sunset? There is a schism between the sacred and the secular in all of our modern minds. The view that a pastor is more 'Christian' than a girls volleyball coach is flawed and heretical. The stance that a worship leader is more spiritual than a janitor is condescending and flawed. These different callings and purposes further demonstrate God’s sovereignty. Many songs are worthy of being written. Switchfoot will write some, Keith Green, Bach, and perhaps yourself have written others. Some of these songs are about redemption, others about the sunrise, others about nothing in particular: written for the simple joy of music.
None of these songs has been born again, and to that end there is no such thing as Christian music. No. Christ didn’t come and die for my songs, he came for me. Yes. My songs are a part of my life. But judging from scripture I can only conclude that our God is much more interested in how I treat the poor and the broken and the hungry than the personal pronouns I use when I sing. I am a believer. Many of these songs talk about this belief. An obligation to say this or do that does not sound like the glorious freedom that Christ died to afford me. I do have an obligation, however, a debt that cannot be settled by my lyrical decisions. My life will be judged by my obedience, not my ability to confine my lyrics to this box or that. We all have a different calling; Switchfoot is trying to be obedient to who we are called to be. We're not trying to be Audio A or U2 or POD or Bach: we're trying to be Switchfoot. You see, a song that has the words: 'Jesus Christ' is no more or less 'Christian' than an instrumental piece. (I've heard lots of people say Jesus Christ and they weren't talking about their redeemer.) You see, Jesus didn't die for any of my tunes. So there is no hierarchy of life or songs or occupation only obedience. We have a call to take up our cross and follow. We can be sure that these roads will be different for all of us. Just as you have one body and every part has a different function, so in Christ we who are many form one body and each of us belongs to all the others. Please be slow to judge 'brothers' who have a different calling."
○ "Well, the funny thing is, you are never the same person that you were the day before."
○ (on defining Redemption) "Well, I go back to the bottle at the store getting redeemed for just five cents or whatever it is. It's the ongoing eternal hand of God reaching down and recreating what was lost into something beautiful."
○ "[I have come to] a realization that the letdowns in life we experience are beautiful when we view them as letdowns, realizing that our hope is deeper than the two-dimensional TV screen in front of us."
○ (On the song 24) "I wrote this song near the end of my 24th year on this planet. Wherever we run, wherever the sun finds us when he rises, we remain stuck with ourselves. That can be overwhelming. Sometimes I feel like my soul is polluted with politicians, each with a different point of view. With all 24 of them in disagreement, each voice is yelling to be heard. And so I am divided against myself. I feel that I am a hypocrite until I am one, when all of the yelling inside of me dies down. I've heard that the truth will set you free. That's what I'm living for: freedom of spirit. I find unity and peace in none of the diversions that this world offers. But I've seen glimpses of truth and that's where I want to run."
○ (On meeting Bono) "I handed him forty dollars and told him, 'This is for sneaking into your show in London.'"
○ "My dying planet needs to see what the body of Christ looks like."
○ "The kingdom of heaven is comprised of the broken, the fatherless, the poor, the starving... Nothing that could create good ratings for NBC."
○ "4 AM is a great time of night. The day before is long dead but the morning is yet to come. All the commotion from the night before has died down and every sane upstanding citizen is asleep. It's a great time to go for a walk. You've got the planet to yourself for an hour or so, so peaceful... even the stars look different: waiting dawn. I feel the same way that the stars do sometimes. Anticipating... the night is nearly over, the day is almost here."
○ "You have a human being who was created in the image of God, who will spit in the face of the same image, who will kill and murder and steal from that same image. I think it was Paschal who said, 'If you look at the atrocity of man without also looking at the fact that he was created in the image of a deity, you will be depressed. If you look at the beautiful aspects of man and forget about the terrible atrocities and what it means to be human, then you have not looked at life realistically.'"
○ "I used to think that great art happened without argument, and maybe that's not the case. Maybe the things that are most important in this life, you have to fight for."
○ "It's a good thing my parents named me Jon because that's what everyone calls me."
○ "Jekyll and Hyde had it far too easy. The reality is that many more faces confront me; there are many more voices inside my head. An angel on my right, the devil on my left, and a host of others dressed in fancier garb than these - all proclaiming their virtue, all decrying the wisdom of another's opinions."
○ "Every day of your life, you change the world. Absolutely, yes, we're out to change the world. I mean, you change it whether you like it or not. You wake up and you talk to the grocer. You either kick your dog or you pet him. There's a million decisions you have every day where you change the world."
○ "Well, as far as the timing of positivity or hope... hope is always relevant. I think the problem with hope is that oftentimes, we get sold a hope that is only skin-deep; it's kind of like a band-aid. Things will get better and you kiss it and hope it feels better--but the problems still remain and the wars are still going on."
○ "The biggest questions in life are often times avoided... 'What are you living for? What is your life worth? What have you spent it on? What is the meaning of life?'...the things that you think about at two in the morning when you can't sleep, or I do at least. I think it's sad that the God who is often times presented in contemporary Christianity, is a God who is not big enough to answer these questions. So we don't ask them, because we're afraid that the whole thing isn't going to stand up. But I've always been encouraging people to ask the biggest questions, because that's when our roots are going deep into reality... and there is no question that is bigger than the God that I believe in."
○ "I don't hear so good, I'm in a rock band."
○ "Neither Death nor Hope know any boundaries in this life. However, one of them will not pass beyond into the next. We all try to block it out: breath is a fragile thing, a gift not an obligation."
○ "I always wished I could sing like Aretha Franklin. That's what I'm trying to do with my voice. I'd like to sing like a big black woman."
○ "I think of myself as more of a lover rather than a fighter, but sometimes you have to fight for what you love."
○ "I am directly connected to switchfoot. In fact Tim, (the bass player) is my brother."
○ "You can call me Jon... or Trogdor, either one works."
○ "We're in the process of planning our world domination tour right now. Muahahaha!"
○ "No, I don't write songs for the people that are in the cool club or the self-righteous club. This music is for the recovering failures who know they need a savior."
○ "Every breath you take, you breathe out a little bit of life, and with every heartbeat, you die a little bit."
○ "Hope is not a substitute for pain. Hope is in spite of pain."
○ "Sometimes its good to get things off your chest, but I don’t feel that vomiting is something edifying to everyone in the room."
○ "Prowess?! I don't think that's the word I would use for my piano skills. I had to study when I was a kid and then I took it again when I was in college. It was so funny to be playing all these Bach songs that I used to blaze through when I was a kid and now I'm just in college, struggling. Can't even play 'em! So it's more of a lesson to everyone out there - follow your mother's advice. Keep playing your piano."
○ "I think there's definitely a spiritual element to the songs and the best songs are the ones that don't have my fingerprints on them. I've recently been equating songwriting with archaeology, where you're just digging. Every day you wake up and you dig. Some days you discover the city that's buried beneath the ground and it's beautiful, amazing base and the castle wall and skeletons of this and that. And then other days you just get dirt. I think for me, I have a very objective perspective on these songs. Where I can look and them and say, wow that's amazing how that happened! I don't feel like I'm wrapped up in it. I feel like they're outside of me. I feel like almost the goal for the concert is to crawl inside the song and roll around in it. Rather than to try and be bigger than life it's actually to be smaller and allow the song to speak bigger. I don't know; it's hard to explain. But the idea is that I need to decrease to be able to sing these songs. I've always taken the approach with music that the person listening is a co-conspirator in the process. So I've got a great deal of respect for the people that listen to our music and take things from these songs that have been given to us. Because I feel like we take from them as well.
An example of a song that has a bit of me in it but doesn't really have my fingerprints on it is 'Faust, Midas And Myself'. That was one of those songs that 10 minutes later it was written. It's not a song that I would sit down and write but it wrote itself. It's like, with the archaeology theme; you're just digging and you dig this thing up. I hear what you're saying about copping out and letting all songs mean everything but there's a certain sense that from a songwriting perspective, you want the other person to have to meet you halfway and think a little bit. Actually dive in and think: Maybe it's a metaphor? Maybe there could be this? When I was a kid I'd write a song and play it and my mom would say, 'What is that about?' And I would always say, 'Well what do you think?' And then, 'Sure I've got my meaning and I'll tell you that afterwards.'"
○ "When you write a song you're not attempting to write a song, you're attempting to explode the Atomic Bomb. You're attempting to make people float and cry and explode and disappear. You don't write a song to write a song, you want to change the world. And yet every song comes out and it's just a song. And I guess that's what keeps you coming back."
○ "I think 'Nothing Is Sound' is a lot better record than 'The Beautiful Letdown'. To use a different metaphor, as a comedian, if you think the joke is funny you tell it. It doesn't mean that everyone is going to laugh, you know? It's not good to explain the joke. It's good to just move on. I think a lot of people didn't understand 'Nothing Is Sound'."
last updated november 9, 2008.