Bowery Quotes

#1. It's nowhere near as intense as what I imagine an actor experiences backstage, but I feel a fluttering nervousness before a curtain goes up on a play. I mean, any play, anywhere - on Broadway or the Bowery or in a church basement.

Ben Brantley

#2. Roman Candles was shown in a church, and so was Eat Your Makeup, so was Mondo Trasho, and so was Multiple Maniacs (1970). It's hard to imagine that churches showed these movies but a few in the '60s, like St. Mark's Church, or on the Bowery, they always were left-wing.

John Waters

#3. Where they were going was a pigeon-shitted old bank building on an especially run-down stretch of the Bowery,

Garth Risk Hallberg

#4. When one wants to become cognizant of the color and the texture of the soil, one does not get a ladder; one gets a shovel. When one wants to get into touch with the texture of the universal mind, one does not go to Boston; one goes to the Bowery.

Djuna Barnes

#5. For me the most interesting thing about Leigh Bowery was the way he used his body as a style statement. He was a big guy, but, because he was tall and had long legs, he looked in proportion - even sexy - -despite being overweight by conventional -standards.

Boy George

#6. Leigh Bowery was actually quoted as saying, "Flesh is my most favorite fabric." I've seen many a freak make a scene and go, but Leigh was a special kind of exhibitionist because he was dedicated and saw it as an art form.

Boy George

#7. I will never again look at the homeless people the way I did before entering Bowery Mission.

Stevan V. Nikolic

#8. Then I moved down to the Bowery to this building where Debbie Harry lived. It was there that I started combining some clothes for her and continued doing the art and photography.

Stephen Sprouse

#9. Leigh [Bowery ] obviously loved having me in the club because I would attract media, and he loved and lived for his column inches.

Boy George

#10. Our original name was Wild Country, but when we first went to The Bowery, they had the name of all 50 states around the edge of the club, so we went to the sign that said 'Alabama' and stuck our band name underneath it.

Randy Owen

#11. Did you ever think about writing memoirs? You are a writer, and it may be interesting for people to read your story.
"I hate memoirs. But I am sure I will write a book about the Bowery Mission," Michael said.

Stevan V. Nikolic

#12. MEDICINE, n. A stone flung down the Bowery to kill a dog in Broadway.

Ambrose Bierce

#13. Leigh [ Bowery] would create fake guest lists and put the most ridiculous names on them - Joan Collins, or really naff soap stars who would never grace the door of Taboo.

Boy George

#14. I used to walk in the Bowery in the early 1980s, and it was not safe. It went from this to Disneyland under Giuliani and Bloomberg. This is now one of the best-run big cities in the world.

Mark Rutte

#15. The twelve months ...
Snowy, Flowy, Blowy,
Showery, Flowery, Bowery,
Hoppy, Croppy, Droppy,
Breeze, Sneezy, Freezy.

George F. R. Ellis

#16. I was approached by this guy Chris Renshaw, who had read my book and had read Leigh's book. He wanted to incorporate both characters - he probably felt Leigh wasn't famous enough and he realized Leigh [Bowery] and I were associated.

Boy George

#17. We'll see She-Hulk fighting evil everywhere from the boardroom to the Bowery, using her mind as much as her fists.

Charles Soule

#18. The Bowery station on the J line is what happens to a neighborhood once politicians realize the people who live there don't vote.

Andrew Vachss

#19. I'm not a nice girl; I'm a photographer. (On being told by a Federal Art Project official, after she photographed the Bowery, that a nice girl should not go into such neighborhoods )

Berenice Abbott

#20. Leigh [ Bowery] would make up stories about people committing suicide or going on hunger strikes because they were refused entry at the door.

Boy George

#21. The Bowery was a place that would let us do original songs - not just covers - but we would have to work for tips, so we learned how to work an audience. In order to keep our jobs, we had to keep people happy, so that meant playing the latest Lynyrd Skynyrd and ZZ Top or Merle Haggard.

Randy Owen

#22. Supposedly the term hobo comes from a description of the sketchy characters who were the main inhabitants on the cross streets of HOuston and BOwery. Hey, that's right where I live.

Jim Gaffigan

#23. I volunteered at a homeless shelter in preparation for 'Being Flynn,' and when I'm walking along the Bowery, that's the first thing that comes to mind. That's a nice memory.

Paul Dano

#24. Leigh Bowery created outfits that made him look deformed, which was very brave. I believe this was the main thing that gave Leigh his edge. His designs were often breath-taking, but it was the way he used his body that was so utterly new and refreshing.

Boy George

#25. Cookbooks are almost a substitution for a lost sense of culture. People want some other life than the one they're living, so they buy a cookbook with pictures and imagine themselves as part of that life.

Mark Miller

#26. I had an investor who said to me he'd keep his money with me as long as I didn't have a girlfriend and I didn't start combing my hair.

Martin Shkreli

#27. The stiff-witted and academic seem not to comprehend that it is entirely possible to be ironic and sincere at the same instant, that a knowing tongue in cheek does not necessarily preclude an affectionate glow in heart.

Tom Robbins

#28. Needs multiply as they are met. Woe to the man who would live a disentangled life. Be on guard, my soul, of complicating your environment so that you have neither time nor room for growth!

Elisabeth Elliot

#29. Also saw that the number of simpleminded men is greater than that of the prudent, and though it is better to be praised by a few wise men and mocked by many fools,

Miguel De Cervantes Saavedra

#30. Whatever has been discovered has to be put to use - otherwise, what is the use of the discovery?

Maharishi Mahesh Yogi

#31. I'm not a princess
This ain't a fairy tale
I'm not the one you'll sweep off her feet
Lead her up a stairwell
This ain't Hollywood
This is a small town
I was a dreamer before you went and let me down
Now it's too late for you and your white horse to come around

Taylor Swift

#32. Holy shit." Ethan's voice floated out to them through the open window. "Would the two of you just shut the fuck up and screw already?

Tess Bowery

#33. It's painful, man, for my daughters to say they're scared of me.

Tony Dorsett

#34. Performing an exorcism was like changing your oil. It's a drag, but necessary.

Keanu Reeves

#35. Survivors make it because they learn to adapt. Adaptation is coping. Coping is strength.

Lisa Gardner

#36. Tell them I've gone pig farming in Bolivia.

Leigh Bowery

#37. Broken! Busted! Everybody has something to repair. Before buying new, let Mighty Putty fix it for you.

Billy Mays

#38. I looked at her, wanting her with all the lust of my months alone and untouched. But I knew also that for that deeper hunger for companionship and understanding, she offered me no more solace than any man might find in his own hand.

Robin Hobb

#39. If you question any candid person who is no longer young, he is very likely to tell you that, having tasted life in this world, he has no wish to begin again as a "new boy" in another.

Bertrand Russell

#40. Sugar" he starts, before turning his attention back over to Dee, " I have thought about sex, hard fucking sex, about a hundred times since we sat down to eat." Looking back over to me, " Does that clear it up for you?

Harper Sloan