Closely Observed Trains

Famous quotes containing the words closely, observed and/or trains:

    “We should always remember that the work of art is invariably the creation of a new world, so that the first thing we should do is to study that new world as closely as possible, approaching it as something brand new, having no obvious connection with the worlds we already know. When this new world has been closely studied, then and only then let us examine its links with other worlds, other branches of knowledge.”
    —Vladimir Nabokov (1899–1977)

    “O, what a noble mind is here o’erthrown!
    The courtier’s, soldier’s, scholar’s,eye, tongue, sword,
    Th’ expectancy and rose of the fair state,
    The glass of fashion and the mold of form,
    Th’ observed of all observers, quite, quite down!”
    —William Shakespeare (1564–1616)

    “Every American travelling in England gets his own individual sport out of the toy passenger and freight trains and the tiny locomotives, with their faint, indignant, tiny whistle. Especially in western England one wonders how the business of a nation can possibly be carried on by means so insufficient.”
    —Willa Cather (1876–1947)