American Giants

Famous quotes containing the words american and/or giants:

    “For most Northerners, Texas is the home of real men. The cowboys, the rednecks, the outspoken self-made right-wing millionaires strike us as either the best or worst examples of American manliness.... The ideal is not an illusion nor is it contemptible, no matter what damage it may have done. Many people who scorn it in conversation want to submit to it in bed. Those who believe machismo reeks of violence alone choose to forget it once stood for honor as well.”
    —Edmund White (b. 1940)

    “But can see better there, and laughing there
    Pity the giants wallowing on the plain.
    ...
    Pygmies expand in cold impossible air,
    Cry fie on the giantshine, poor glory which
    Pounds breast-bone punily, screeches, and has
    Reached no Alps: or, knows no Alps to reach.”
    —Gwendolyn Brooks (b. 1917)