Quote Investigator® – Tracing Quotations

Dialogue Origin: “I Could Have Done That” “Ahhh, But You Didn’t!”

Damien Hirst? Christo Javacheff? Jeanne-Claude Denat de Guillebon? William Quinn? Elizabeth Marr Goldman? Anonymous?

Question for Quote Investigator: Harsh critics of readymade art, installation art, and other forms of modern art assert that the works are trivial. Skeptics also claim that only a miniscule amount of serious effort is required to conceive this type of art. However, artists and sympathetic commentators counter this viewpoint by arguing that substantial original and creative thought is needed to envision a novel artwork. This disagreement is aptly represented via the following concise dialogue:

“I could do that.” “Yeah, but you didn’t.”

Did a famous artist ever deliver this rejoinder? The remark has been attributed to English artist Damien Hirst and Bulgarian artist Christo Javacheff? Would you please help me to find a citation?

Reply from Quote Investigator: In 1975 journalist Pete Golismet met with the controversial artist Christo Javacheff who was collaborating with his wife Jeanne-Claude Denat de Guillebon on a spectacular large-scale installation artwork called “Running Fence” in California. Golismet and Christo discussed a previous artwork constructed and sold by Christo. Boldface added to excerpts by QI:¹

A friend of mine likes to interrupt constructive dialogue by asking brightly, “But what does it all mean?” That’s sort of the way I feel about Christo Javacheff’s cross country curtain.

What does it all mean?

Christo once showed me a photo of an old motorcycle he wrapped in rope and plastic sheets, and sold for several thousand dollars.

“But I could have done that,” I said, “Ahhh,” he smiled, “but you didn’t!”

QI believes that Christo Javacheff deserves credit for this response. He was conversing with journalist Pete Golismet. Other artists such as Damien Hirst have made similar responses as shown in the remainder of this article.

Here are additional selected citations in chronological order.

Quote Origin: Those Big-Shot Writers Could Never Dig the Fact That There Are More Salted Peanuts Consumed Than Caviar

Mickey Spillane? Hy Gardner? Frank Smikel? Apocryphal?

Question for Quote Investigator: Popular writers endure a litany of complaints directed at their prose, e.g., mediocre, clumsy, crude, uninteresting, and undemanding. A bestselling writer once employed a clever analogy to explain this antagonism.

The writer contended that literary darlings were trying to market caviar, whereas popular writers were peddling salted peanuts. Jealousy occurred because the latter always pleased the crowd more than the former. Would you help me to find a citation?

Reply from Quote Investigator: In 1961 syndicated columnist Hy Gardner of the “New York Herald Tribune” interviewed top-selling U.S. crime novelist Mickey Spillane who was best known for creating the hard-boiled detective character Mike Hammer. Gardner asked Spillane about the prominent author Ernest Hemingway who had died recently:¹

We wondered if Spillane and Hemingway had ever met face-to-face. “No, I never met Hemingway. And from the nasty cracks he was quoted as making about me I doubt if either of us missed anything.”

Spillane commented on the barbs aimed at him by fellow authors. Boldface added to excerpts by QI:

“Funny thing. Those big-shot writers—pardon me, authors—never could understand why the Mike Hammer books outsold their works. They could never dig the fact that there are more salted peanuts consumed than caviar.

Below are additional selected citations in chronological order.

Headline Origin: Sticks Nix Hick Pix

Variety? Abel Green? Lin Bonner? Apocryphal?

**Famous headline from the magazine “Variety”**

Question for Quote Investigator: A famous headline appeared in the U.S. show business periodical “Variety” in 1935:

STICKS NIX HICK PIX

STICKS referred to rural audiences. NIX meant reject. HICK referred to a rural theme. PIX meant a motion picture. Thus, the headline was stating that rural audiences were not going to see films with rural themes.

I have seen other versions of this headline, e.g., STIX NIX HIX PIX. The situation is perplexing. Would you please determine the precise original text together with a citation?

Reply from Quote Investigator: Here is a sampling of close matches for this headline which have appeared over the years. The similarity of these candidates has caused confusion. Boldface added to excerpts by QI:

1935: STICKS NIX HICK PIX
1936: STIX NIX HICK PIX
1937: STIX NIX HIX PIX
1949: STIX NIX HICKS PIX
1953: STICKS NIX HICKS PICS
1955: STICKS NIX HIX PIX

The original headline appeared on the front page of “Variety” on July 17, 1935. The following was the main banner together with the subheading:¹

STICKS NIX HICK PIX
NOT INTERESTED IN FARM DRAMA

In 1935 the editor of “Variety” was Abel Green, and the person assigned to construct the headline was Lin Bonner. Green was still the editor when he wrote on the topic of authorship thirty years later in 1965. The term “streamer” meant headline:²

The story itself was anything but one of this paper’s best and Lin Bonner was assigned to come up with a lively streamer. Bonner had only just been transferred from the Hollywood to the New York staff, coming east in the hope a change of climate would help his health. After he groped half an afternoon for the right swing and size of caption this editor applied the final touch. All unanticipated, a VARIETY classic was born.

Thus, Abel Green took credit for crafting the headline although he may have received some input from Lin Bonner. Sadly, Bonner died from cancer within three weeks of the headline appearance according to Green. Thus, Bonner’s testimony remains unavailable.

Below are additional selected citations in chronological order.

Quote Origin: Anger Is an Acid That Can Do More Harm To the Vessel In Which It’s Stored Than To Anything On Which It’s Poured

Mark Twain? Ann Landers? Turkish Proverb? Mohandas Gandhi? Seneca the Younger? Frederica Mathewes-Green? Anonymous?

**Picture of a campfire cauldron from Pixabay**

Question for Quote Investigator: Intense feelings of anger affect the body and mind negatively. This notion can be expressed metaphorically:

Anger is an acid that can do more harm to the vessel in which it is stored than to anything on which it is poured.

Mark Twain, Ann Landers, and Mohandas Gandhi have received credit for this saying, but I am skeptical because I have not seen any solid citations. Would you please explore this topic?

Reply from Quote Investigator: QI has found no substantive evidence that Mark Twain employed this saying. It does not appear on the Twain Quotes website edited by Barbara Schmidt,¹ nor does it appear in the large compilation “Mark Twain at Your Fingertips” edited by Caroline Thomas Harnsberger.²

The earliest close match located by QI appeared in May 1955 within the “Daily News-Post” of Monrovia, California. Boldface added to excerpts by QI:³

Corrosive
Anger is an acid that can do more harm to the vessel in which it’s stored than to anything on which it’s poured.

The saying above also appeared on the same day in other newspapers such as the “San Pedro News-Pilot”⁴of San Pedro, California and the “Evening Vanguard”⁵of Venice, California. The creator was anonymous.

The central metaphor of this expression has a long history in the Turkish language. A compact instance appeared in “A Dictionary of Turkish Proverbs” compiled by Metin Yurtbaşı:⁶

Keskin sirke küpüne/kabına zarar.
Sour vinegar harms its jar.
[A bad temper harms its possessor most!]

The dictionary provided a nineteenth century citation and a twentieth century citation for this proverb in Turkish:

ÖAA 1402 < Ş 3037
Ş. = Şinasi, Durüb-ı Emsâl-i Osmaniyye (Ottoman Proverbs), Istanbul, 1863.
ÖAA = Ömer Asim Aksoy, Atasözleri Sözlüyü (Dictionary of Proverbs), Ankara, 1965.

Below are additional selected citations in chronological order.

Quote Origin: There’s No Point in Having Sharp Images If You’ve Got Fuzzy Ideas

Jean-Luc Godard? Ansel Adams? Richard Roud? Apocryphal?

**Blurry image of Sydney, Australia from Unsplash**

Question for Quote Investigator: When you create a photograph or film your intentions should be well defined. Here are three pertinent statements which may be grouped together:

(1) There is nothing worse than a sharp image of a fuzzy concept.
(2) There’s no point in having a sharp image if intentions are blurred.
(3) There’s no point in having sharp images if you’ve got fuzzy ideas.

This notion has been attributed to French New Wave filmmaker Jean-Luc Godard and U.S. photographer Ansel Adams. Would you please explore this topic?

Reply from Quote Investigator: In 1963 the French journal “Cahiers du Cinéma” published a review by Jean-Luc Godard of recent works by the British documentary director Richard Leacock. Godard criticized Leacock’s style of cinéma-vérité because it did not embody a viewpoint or attitude. The following excerpt in French is accompanied with one possible English translation. Boldface has been added by QI:¹

Privée ainsi de conscience, la caméra de Leacock, malgré son honnêteté, perd les deux qualités fondamentales d’une caméra ; l’intelligence et la sensibilité. Rien ne sert d’avoir une image nette si les intentions sont floues. Son manque de subjectivité conduit d’ailleurs Leacock à manquer finalement d’objectivité.

Thus deprived of conscience, Leacock’s camera, for all its honesty, loses the two fundamental qualities of a camera: intelligence and sensitivity. There’s no point in having a sharp image if intentions are blurred. Indeed, Leacock’s lack of subjectivity ultimately leads to a lack of objectivity.

Godard’s analysis of Leacock’s films also included the following statements:

On peut l’expliquer facilement en disant que l’équipe de Leacock met en scène au niveau d’un Gordon Douglas, même pas d’un Hathaway ou d’un Stuart Heisler. Avec en plus ce défaut qu’ils ne savent même pas qu’ils mettent en scène, et que le reportage pur n’existe pas.

This can easily be explained by saying that Leacock’s team directs at the level of a Gordon Douglas, not even a Hathaway or a Stuart Heisler. With the added flaw that they don’t even know they’re directing, and that pure reportage doesn’t exist.

In 1968 U.S. film critic Richard Roud published “Jean-Luc Godard”. Roud was a movie enthusiast who co-founded the New York Film Festival. In his book about Godard, Roud discussed cinéma vérité, and he included a germane quotation in English attributed to Godard. No citation was specified for the commentary, but the likely source was the “Cahiers du Cinéma” passages presented previously in this article:²

The implication, of course, is that cinéma vérité does not give us the truth. It, too, is a kind of counterfeit passed off as the real thing . . . Or like Godard’s view of Richard Leacock:

“There’s no point in having sharp images if you’ve got fuzzy ideas. Leacock’s lack of subjectivity leads him ultimately to a lack of objectivity. He doesn’t even know that he is a metteur en scène, that pure reportage doesn’t exist.”

Below are additional selected citations in chronological order.

Quote Origin: I Have Been Misquoted Everywhere, and the Inaccuracies Are Chasing Me Round the World

George Bernard Shaw? Ritchie Calder? Apocryphal?

Question for Quote Investigator: Prominent Irish playwright George Bernard Shaw is a misquotation magnet. Numerous remarks have been ascribed to him that he never said. Apparently, he once grumbled about being “misquoted everywhere”. He believed that the inaccuracies were chasing him around the world. Would you please help me to find a citation.

Reply from Quote Investigator: In 1933 the “Daily Herald” of London printed a piece about George Bernard Shaw who complained that his recent conversation with Helen Keller had been misreported. Boldface added to excerpts by QI:¹

“I remember meeting her in London, as they say in their attacks, at Lady Astor’s. Conversation was difficult, as you would suppose, considering that she is both blind and deaf, and everything has to be spelt out by someone else on her fingers.

“She ‘sees’ you by feeling your face. It was rather embarrassing. It would have been in the worst possible taste to ignore her condition.

“I remarked, by way of a compliment, that she was wonderful, and added, jokingly, that she could see and hear better than her countrymen who could neither see nor hear.

“Someone takes a joking remark meant in all kindness and says I insulted Helen Keller by saying, ‘All Americans are deaf and blind—and dumb—anyway.’

“I tell you I have been misquoted everywhere, and the inaccuracies are chasing me round the world.”

Below are additional selected citations in chronological order.

Quote Origin: You May Encounter Many Defeats, But You Must Not Be Defeated

Maya Angelou? Claudia Tate? Apocryphal?

**Chessboard of defeat and victory from Unsplash**

Question for Quote Investigator: You will experience many setbacks and reversals in life, but you should never feel defeated. Encountering difficulties will help you to strengthen your power to endure and succeed. The prominent poet and memoirist Maya Angelou said something like this. Would you please help me to find a citation?

Reply from Quote Investigator: Maya Angelou spoke on this theme several times. In 1970 the “Los Angeles Times” reported on Angelou’s motivations for writing her autobiography “I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings”. Boldface added to excerpts by QI:¹

“I meant to write it to black girls, to say ‘you can win.’ But it came out the Chinese girl in Chinatown, the white girl in Texas, the farm girl In Iowa, the deb living up on the hill. All people harbor the same fears, dreams, hopes, goals.

They want to love. That is the human condition. I wanted to say to all girls, ‘You may encounter many defeats, but you just must never be defeated.’”

In 1979 the “Lexington Herald” of Kentucky presented an interview with Angelou during which she said the following:²

“Bitterness is like cancer,” said Ms. Angelou, when asked if the adversity in her early life had embittered her. “It eats away at you and doesn’t develop anything. But anger purges, and can help you.

“I believe it may be necessary to encounter many defeats,” Ms. Angelou said, “without being defeated by them. Trials shape and mold you. I think I am a result of the pressure I have endured.”

Below are additional selected citations in chronological order.

Quote Origin: The Word ‘No’ Is a Complete Sentence

Shonda Rhimes? Carol Burnett? Jane Fonda? Anne Lamott? Megan LeBoutillier? Bil Keane? Earl Wilson? Si Cornell? Anonymous?

Sign depicting a choice between “Yes” and “No”

Question for Quote Investigator: A negative response to a request often causes dissatisfaction. Hence the request is repeated many times. Some people do not wish to accept “No” for an answer. The following adage is favored by adamant respondents:

The word “No” is a complete sentence.

This statement has been attributed to prominent U.S. television producer Shonda Rhimes, well-known U.S. comedian Carol Burnett, and popular U.S. author Anne Lamott. Would you please explore this topic?

Reply from Quote Investigator: The earliest match located by QI appeared in 1958 within the newspaper column of Si Cornell in “The Cincinnati Post” of Ohio. Boldface added to excerpt by QI:¹

SIGN ON BANK official’s desk: “In this office, the word NO is a complete sentence.”

The creator of this quip remains anonymous. Shonda Rhimes, Carol Burnett, Anne Lamott, and many others employed this saying after it was already in circulation.

Below are additional selected citations in chronological order.

Quote Origin: Not a Day’s Work in All My Life. What I Have Done I Have Done, Because It Has Been Play

Mark Twain? Lawrence Pearsall Jacks? Apocryphal?

Mark Twain in academic regalia from Wikimedia Commons

Question for Quote Investigator: The famous author Mark Twain once surprisingly proclaimed that he had done “not a day’s work in all my life”. He stated that his efforts in life had “been play”. Would you please help me to find a citation for his fascinating comments?

Reply from Quote Investigator: In 1905 “The New York Times” published an interview with the well-known U.S. humorist under the title “Mark Twain: A Humorist’s Confession”. Boldface added to excerpts by QI:¹

Mark Twain will be 70 years old on Thanksgiving Day, and he has never done a day’s work in his life. He told me so himself, sitting in one of the cheerful, spacious rooms of the old-fashioned stately New York house which he will probably call his city home as long as he lives. I probably started upon hearing this unlooked-for statement from the lips of the good, gray humorist, for he repeated emphatically:

“No, Sir, not a day’s work in all my life. What I have done I have done, because it has been play. If it had been work I shouldn’t have done it.

“Who was it who said, ‘Blessed is the man who has found his work?’ Whoever it was he had the same idea in his mind. Mark you, he says his work—not somebody else’s work. The work that is really a man’s own work is play and not work at all. Cursed is the man who has found some other man’s work and cannot lose it. When we talk about the great workers of the world we really mean the great players of the world. The fellows who groan and sweat under the weary load of toil that they bear never can hope to do anything great. How can they when their souls are in a ferment of revolt against the employment of their hands and brains?”

Below are additional selected citations in chronological order.

Quote Origin: Life Is Not a Journey To the Grave With the Intention of Arriving Safely

Hunter S. Thompson? Bill McKenna? Anonymous?

Question for Quote Investigator: Gonzo journalist Hunter S. Thompson has received credit for a remark about living an exuberant life and sliding broadside amid a cloud of smoke into the grave. I am skeptical of this ascription because I have been unable to find a solid citation. Would you please help?

Reply from Quote Investigator: QI has been unable to find a match in the writings of Hunter S. Thompson who ended his life in 2005.

The earliest match located by QI appeared in the Usenet newsgroup rec.autos.makers.jeep+willys in October 1998. The quotation appeared within the signature section of a message from Jeff McRae, and no attribution was listed. Boldface added to excerpts by QI:¹

Life is not a journey to the grave with the intention of arriving safely in one pretty and well preserved piece, but to skid broadside, thoroughly used up, worn out, shouting “GERONIMO”.

Based on current knowledge the saying remains anonymous. Below are additional selected citations in chronological order.