Closely Observed Trains

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

    It had been cold since December. Snow fell, first,
    At New Year and, from then until April, lay
    On everything. Now it had melted, leaving
    The gray grass like a pallet, closely pressed;
    And dirt. The wind blew in the empty place.
    Wallace Stevens (1879–1955)

    Often on bare rocky carries the trail was so indistinct that I repeatedly lost it, but when I walked behind him I observed that he could keep it almost like a hound, and rarely hesitated, or, if he paused a moment on a bare rock, his eye immediately detected some sign which would have escaped me. Frequently we found no path at all at these places, and were to him unaccountably delayed. He would only say it was “ver strange.”
    Henry David Thoreau (1817–1862)

    Ever notice how these European trains always smell of eau de cologne and hard boiled eggs?
    Billy Wilder (b. 1906)