Top 70 Twain Quotes

Mark Twain gave us an insight into the life on the Mississippi at the turn of the century.

I grew up reading Shakespeare and Mark Twain.

I particularly admire are Mark Twain and Jerome K. Jerome who wrote in a certain tone of voice which was humane and understanding of humanity, but always ready to annotate its little foibles. I think I’d lay my cards down on that, and say that it’s that that I’m trying to do.

No, no, no separate but equal… never the twain shall meet. And the pendulum kept swinging and it came to rest in the bastard hybrid known as the Daily Show.

‘White Christmas’ is the best holiday song and I’ve grown up listening to Michael Buble’s version with Shania Twain.

I wouldn’t be an artist if I didn’t have Shania Twain, Faith Hill, Taylor Swift to look up to.

I’m a big John Steinbeck fan. Cormac McCarthy. I’ve always loved the stories of regular people. Mark Twain, too. When you look back at some of the epic writers of our country’s history, very rarely do you find upper-class royalty. We seem to delve into the struggle of life and the labor of life much more frequently.

But really, it was reading that led me to writing. And in particular, reading the American classics like Twain who taught me at an early age that ordinary lives of ordinary people can be made into high art.

Shania Twain brought a whole other fan base to country music with her sound, the way the videos were produced.

I grew up reading Shakespeare and Mark Twain.

My parents were big music fans, and my dad plays music, so I grew up with Madonna, Frank Zappa, the Beatles, Alice In Chains… it was all over the place. I had a Third Eye Blind record, but I also had Korn, Courtney Love, and Shania Twain.

I agree with what Mark Twain said – we’re all mad at night.

All modern American literature comes from one book by Mark Twain called Huckleberry Finn.

I read everything I could find in English – Twain, Henry James, Hemingway, really everything. And then after a while I started writing shorter pieces in English, and one of them got published in a literary magazine and that’s how it got started. After that, graduate school didn’t seem very important.

Someone asked why I invited Jon Stewart to be the first guest on the ‘Journal”s premiere in 2007. ‘Because Mark Twain isn’t available,’ I answered. I was serious.

Shakespeare, Dickens, Mark Twain, and so many others were my dearest friends and greatest teachers.

Bob Hope, like Mark Twain, had a sense of humor that was uniquely American, and like Twain, we’ll likely not see another like him.

Mark Twain had a way of telling stories that shifts your consciousness away from labels.

Mark Twain created a new type of literature and not a lot of people can say that. Not a lot of people can say they’re absolutely original and completely self-made.

My favorite singer was Shania Twain. I would love for her to sing with me. And J. Lo – they are my favorites.

Right from the start, I loved the works of Mark Twain. Every time I read about Tom Sawyer, I’d go out and do something low-level naughty, just like him.

Mark Twain cannot be defined.

We all like all kinds of music. Like, I love Shania Twain.

Mark Twain is as big as America. He really is.

I’m a big John Steinbeck fan. Cormac McCarthy. I’ve always loved the stories of regular people. Mark Twain, too. When you look back at some of the epic writers of our country’s history, very rarely do you find upper-class royalty. We seem to delve into the struggle of life and the labor of life much more frequently.

Lincoln was the Twain of our politics.

I’d love for us to be on our way to having a career like Reba McEntire or Shania Twain; to be Entertainer of the Year, to have headlined big tours, and really be women when we’re doing it.

I grew up with Mark Twain, and we had the complete Hemingway at home, of course in German translation.

Mark Twain is as big as America. He really is.

Every Shania Twain interview ends with someone asking, ‘Which Beatles album have you always wanted to cover, given the chance?’

I read everything I could find in English – Twain, Henry James, Hemingway, really everything. And then after a while I started writing shorter pieces in English, and one of them got published in a literary magazine and that’s how it got started. After that, graduate school didn’t seem very important.

I’ve had to stop going to the nearest grocery store that seems to play Shania Twain’s ‘Forever and For Always’ whenever I’m there. It’s hard to shop for frozen entrees through cold-air blasted tears. Feels good on a flushed face though.

Mark Twain was a great traveler and he wrote three or four great travel books. I wouldn’t say that I’m a travel novelist but rather a novelist who travels – and who uses travel as a background for finding stories of places.

I have never been one for musicians. I know girls are supposed to go crazy for frontmen who close their eyes when they sing and nod their heads when the drums kick in, but I’m like Shania Twain with that stuff: That don’t impress me much. I’ll take wit and brains over the ability to carry a tune any day.

If it wasn’t for the Mark Twain Masquers, I don’t know where my life would have gone.

If it wasn’t for the Mark Twain Masquers, I don’t know where my life would have gone.

When you study history in American schools, very rarely is the name John Brown mentioned. We know who Kanye West is or Twyla Tharp or Shania Twain.

Twain’s ‘A Connecticut Yankee in King Arthur’s Court’ made me long to wake in an era when my Casio wristwatch would strike folks as sorcery, and Martin Amis’s ‘Time’s Arrow’ wrecked my assumption that all narratives had to proceed from Then to More-Recently-Than-Then.

Those who have heard me speak from time to time know that quite often I cite the observation of that great American author, Mark Twain, who said, history does not repeat itself, but it rhymes.

In the end, censoring a comedian’s jokes is on par with censoring ‘Huckleberry Finn.’ Now, I’m not comparing myself to Mark Twain – he had much wavier hair and a slightly thicker mustache. But when you deny an artist the chance to explore his art, you’re forcing your beliefs on him.

Students don’t know who Mark Twain was because he wasn’t on the test.

My favorite singer was Shania Twain. I would love for her to sing with me. And J. Lo – they are my favorites.

My office walls are covered with autographs of famous writers – it’s what my children call my ‘dead author wall.’ I have signatures from Mark Twain, Earnest Hemingway, Jack London, Harriett Beecher Stowe, Pearl Buck, Charles Dickens, Rudyard Kipling, Alfred, Lord Tennyson, to name a few.

My office walls are covered with autographs of famous writers – it’s what my children call my ‘dead author wall.’ I have signatures from Mark Twain, Earnest Hemingway, Jack London, Harriett Beecher Stowe, Pearl Buck, Charles Dickens, Rudyard Kipling, Alfred, Lord Tennyson, to name a few.

Madeleine L’Engle’s ‘A Wrinkle in Time’ has been targeted by censors for promoting New Ageism, and Mark Twain’s ‘Adventures of Huckleberry Finn’ for promoting racism. Gee, where does that leave the kids?

But really, it was reading that led me to writing. And in particular, reading the American classics like Twain who taught me at an early age that ordinary lives of ordinary people can be made into high art.

Mark Twain was very unhappy with himself for various reasons. He was very unhappy with America of this time. He thought it was terrible we had no anti-lynching laws, and he was also a feminist, and he was also very concerned with anti-Semitism. He was a good man, but he was hard on himself.

Whether will the twain will ye that I release unto you?

Well, I was in the generation of CDs, so when I moved to L.A., I think I probably brought my Shania Twain ‘Come on Over’ CD and that’s about it.

I was writing waltzes at a time when the most popular thing was Shania Twain and the very pop edge of country. I didn’t really know how to do much of that.

Mark Twain had a way of telling stories that shifts your consciousness away from labels.

But I can tell you that my favourite singer is Shania Twain and my favourite band is Lonestar.

The first album I owned was probably a Backstreet Boys album, and shortly after was Shania Twain.

Well, I was in the generation of CDs, so when I moved to L.A., I think I probably brought my Shania Twain ‘Come on Over’ CD and that’s about it.

Lift others and yourself as you rise above this mess of comparison. Thank God for those who embraced their true selves and gave us gifts that only they could give: from Steve Jobs to Michael Jackson to Ray Charles to Mark Twain. There are so many more, and the list goes on.

Mark Twain’s Roughing It is a book that many people don’t know about, but I highly recommend to anybody at any age.

Twain’s ‘A Connecticut Yankee in King Arthur’s Court’ made me long to wake in an era when my Casio wristwatch would strike folks as sorcery, and Martin Amis’s ‘Time’s Arrow’ wrecked my assumption that all narratives had to proceed from Then to More-Recently-Than-Then.

When I was a young child and before he had left us for the U.S., my father would give me Mark Twain novels. In the characters, the weather and the context, my father must have seen many parallels to his own youth in the Caribbean in the 1930s and 40s.