American Giants

Famous quotes containing the words american and/or giants:

    “Smoking ... is downright dangerous. Most people who smoke will eventually contract a fatal disease and die. But they don’t brag about it, do they? Most people who ski, play professional football or drive race cars, will not die—at least not in the act—and yet they are the ones with the glamorous images, the expensive equipment and the mythic proportions. Why this should be I cannot say, unless it is simply that the average American does not know a daredevil when he sees one.”
    —Fran Lebowitz (b. 1950)

    “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)