Robin Skelton Quotes

When I give a lot of speeches, they're always on the fly. I mean, I know what I'm going to say roughly, but I do not - will not read.

I'm just preparing my impromptu remarks.

I can't ad-lib, or not for long.

If somebody's dumb enough to ask me to go to a political convention and say something, they're going to have to take what they get.

The word got out that I can ad-lib very well.

I never plan my speech. Very often the audience triggers me into the mood.

It is not important to have said a thing first, or best - or even most interestingly. What is important is to say it on the right occasion.

You kind of half-prepare a speech in your head, and then you get up there and then you end up saying nothing that was in your head before you went up there. It's a very weird thing. I never do award speeches too well.

When I start a song, it's the first thought. It's the first thought and the first cadence, because that's the most natural.

When you're at the basketball court watching a game, one person may be talking about a fight he had with his wife, another is talking about the last hard-on he got, someone else is talking about the presidential election. The language and the tone and the voice - I'd love to be able to capture that spontaneity.

To endure life remains, when all is said, the first duty of all living being Illusion can have no value if it makes this more difficult for us.

There are two kinds of writers. There are architects and gardeners. The architects do blueprints before they drive the first nail. The gardeners just dig a hole and plant the seed and see what comes up.

Ye werena the first lass I kissed," he said softly. "But I swear you'll be the last.

There is never a specific theme or anything I have interest in. Really, I make decisions based on decisions that are made by other people and whatever is presented to me, and I do it on a first come, first serve basis, and go from there.

In drawing, nothing is better than the first attempt.

In composition you have all the time you want to decide what to say in 15 seconds, in improvisation you have 15 seconds.

So the first step out of childhood is made all at once, without looking before or behind, without caution, and nothing held in reserve.

When the heart dares to speak, it needs no preparation.

Having not said anything the first time, it was somehow even more difficult to broach the subject the second time around.

I said, "Oh well, I'll act." I started to study, but I didn't know what I was doing, and I don't know that I was taking it very seriously then.

From the very first, I knew that it would be so...I smiled to myself, and said, "That -- and none other.

Quentin Crisp said it to me; now I say it to you: say yes to everything.

Sometimes I like to go outside without even checking the weather first.

Unicorns," I said. "Very dangerous. You go first.

He said, first let's just unzip your religion down.