Torture is banned but in two-thirds of the world's countries it is still being committed

in secret. Too many governments still allow wrongful imprisonment, murder or 'disappearance' to be carried out by their officials with impunity.
Peter Benenson

The fixed stars signify the angel in man. That is why man orients himself by them; and that is why women have no appreciation for the starry sky; because they have no sense of the angel in man.
Otto Weininger

I came in here and a fella asked me to have a drink. I said I don't drink. Then another fella said hear you and Joe DiMaggio aren't speaking and I said I'll take that drink.
Casey Stengel

Although native Africans domesticated some plants in the Sahel and in Ethiopia and in tropical West Africa, they acquired valuable domestic animals only later, from the north.
Jared Diamond

Some people have a knack of putting upon you gifts of no real value, to engage you to substantial gratitude. We thank them for nothing.
Charles Lamb

When I told my friends I was going to be a comedian, they laughed at me.
Carrot Top

Mirror, mirror on the wall, who's the dumbest of you all?
Anne Robinson

A child understands fear, and the hurt and hate it brings.
Nadine Gordimer

Ireland and England are like two sisters; I would have them embrace like one brother.
Boyle Roche

Gemeoss

When you're writing, you're only a brain and some fingers, but drumming, you're involving all

four limbs, and you're hearing stuff and you're converting your ideas into physical motions, getting physical feedback from things you are touching - it's pretty cool. It's a really a nice contrast to writing. Michael Azerrad The work of artists is to find what's humanly possible - possibility's furthest reaches. Tony Kushner If you look at the way people behave at shows, icons are now musicians; they are the people that we worship. Grimes As much as I long for a sort of security and consistency sometimes, I do enjoy sort of being busted around. I really don't know what's happening sometimes next week, let alone this year. Matthew Macfadyen On Wall Street, fraudulent schemes tend to thrive during economic booms, and to blow up when times turn tough. James Surowiecki I want a guy who can clean my gutters and kill my spiders - who's simple yet layered. Kelli Garner Politics is the art of controlling your environment. Hunter S. Thomps...

You can make people feel valued or cared for by design alone. It's not purely

about money. It's about how we choose to value human experience.Thomas Heatherwick I do a big roast of Trump during my set now - which I clearly expanded on - because there's so much to make fun of him about now.Lisa Lampanelli A vaccine that prevented tuberculosis would merit a Nobel Prize, but it's just very difficult to develop.Tom Frieden I go through the same kind of situations as other people. I have to give that to people, because people have this facade, this mirage, this mirror about me.Tory Lanez The wild thing is that when I'm in the band, I can control my destiny with four other guys. As a composer sitting in the audience, you can throw good vibes at everybody, but you can't control anybody's destiny, so it's really unsettling.David Bryan I'm an actor, and I don't judge my parts.Swara Bhaskar As a competitor, you want to be out there in the fire with your teammates.Brock Osweiler We wish to be treated 'not as ordi...

I'm not handsome in the classical sense. The eyes droop, the mouth is crooked, the

teeth aren't straight, the voice sounds like a Mafioso pallbearer, but somehow it all works. Sylvester Stallone What we've seen this season is that if something that will enhance performance is available, some players will indulge... unless the penalty is an absolute deterrent. Michael Wilbon I think the reason why people love 'Downton Abbey' is because all the characters are given the same weight. Some are nice, some are not, but it has nothing to do with class or oppressors versus the oppressed. Julian Fellowes In the Seventies and Eighties we all had our fun, and now and then we went really too far. But, ultimately, it required a certain amount of clear thinking, a lot of hard work and good make-up to be accepted as a freak. Grace Jones When I worked in the White House for President Carter, we tried to do comprehensive tax reform and we made some progress, and other presidents have as well. David Rubenstein What brought me to L.A. was work! I moved to ...

My parents moved to American Samoa when I was three or four years old. My

dad was principal of a high school there. It was idyllic for a kid. I had a whole island for a backyard. I lived there until I was eight years old and we moved to Santa Barbara. Eric Stoltz If you accept the belief that baptism incorporates us in the mystical body of Christ, into the divine DNA, then you might say that the Holy Spirit is present in each of us, and thus we have the capacity for the fullness of redemption, of transformation. Thomas Keating My first name, Benjamin, dates back a thousand years earlier to Benjamin - Binyamin - the son of Jacob, who was also known as Israel. Jacob and his 12 sons roamed these same hills of Judea and Sumeria 4,000 years ago, and there's been a continuous Jewish presence in the land ever since. Benjamin Netanyahu I was cast in 'Thor' and I'm cast as a Nordic god. If you know anything about the Nords, they don't look like me but there you go. I think that's a sign of the times for the future. I think we will see...

Go out and find a copy of 'The Shrinking Of Treehorn' and its sequel, 'Treehorn's

Treasure.' Written by Florence Parry Heide and illustrated by the great Edward Gorey, master of the gothic and the macabre, these books are small masterpieces. Chris Riddell When I set up my first restaurant, I was so inspired by Wolfgang Puck, who is also based in L.A. and is now a good friend of mine, and the way he would engage with his customers and greet them personally. Nobu Matsuhisa A perfect weekend in London has to start on Friday night, by going to the theatre, the Donmar or the National. It's a cliche for an actor, but I enjoy going as much as possible. Helen McCrory I suppose most crime writing is urban. There's not a lot... certainly not in Australia, people don't often set books in the countryside. Peter Temple 'Revolutionary Road' is a fascinating study of the human condition of a fragmenting marriage and the torment that these two people put themselves through in their efforts to try and find happiness and try and stay together, actu...

Joy Division finished the 1970s on a high. Our debut album, 'Unknown Pleasures,' was doing

well; we'd just finished a hugely enjoyable and successful tour. The band's profile was higher than it had ever been, and it seemed to be growing by the day. Bernard Sumner I was inspired by my dad; he played trumpet in high school. Bria Skonberg I'd like to think that if I were in prison for a crime I didn't commit, someone would be trying to get me the hell out of there. Lisa Lutz I would never, ever call myself a createur or a designer. I'm more of an amalgamator or a D.J., taking two things that don't go together and making them go together. Nick Wooster In my whole career, all I wanted was acceptance from Kid Cudi. I don't care about nothing else! This dude saved my life. Travis Scott When a pointed question is beaten back with an attack or threat of, 'How dare you...' it's a reliable signal that deception is involved. Trump is a master at this. Pamela Meyer I've played a worrying number of orphans, children who have be...

I'm often asked where my nickname 'Kun' comes from. My parents says it

was a Japanese cartoon I used to watch on television when I was very young, set in the Stone Age, where the main character was a boy called Kum Kum, the little caveman. Sergio Aguero In actuality, 'Sammy's House' can and should be read as an entirely fictional comedy set in a fascinating political world. Kristin Gore When you shampoo your hair, you're trying to get the oil out of your roots, but you really want the rest of your hair to maintain its moisture. When you put coconut oil on the ends, the shampoo gets oil out of the roots, but also protects the ends. Blake Lively I make cameos in all my movies for no particular reason other than a joke. It's just a Hitchcock thing. Peter Jackson No matter how beautiful the theory, one irritating fact can dismiss the entire formulism, so it has to be proven. Michio Kaku The short story is very good at looking at shadow psychologies and how the system breaks down underneath. Sarah Hall I always had to wait...

I have ballet class every other day for two hours. And for 'Six Feet Under',

last week there was a sequence where I had to do a whole choreographed dance number, so I had four hours of dance practice every day. Michelle Trachtenberg Salman Rushdie, indeed any writer who abuses the prophet or indeed any prophet under Islamic law, the sentence for that is actually death. Cat Stevens I have always liked shows that have laughter in them. David Walliams People working in the private sector should try to save money. There remains the possibility that it may someday be valuable again. Norman Ralph Augustine The Roman Catholics must know as well as we do that 'Popery' when encouraged by government has always been dangerous to the liberties of the people. Lord George Gordon

The film I think was a good film for what it was designed for. It

was for kids. Unfortunately the critics slashed it before it even started but that is just the way the cookie crumbles. Justin Guarini All institutions have lapses, even great ones, especially by individual rogue employees - famously in recent years at 'The Washington Post,' 'The New York Times,' and the three original TV networks. Carl Bernstein I was obsessed with this idea that these things that you collect, they just say so much about who you are. I can't say it came from hard-nosed business analysis... It was just something I really want to see built. Ben Silbermann You are not going to get peace with millions of armed men. The chariot of peace cannot advance over a road littered with cannon. David Lloyd I definitely have a family. I have a boyfriend who has kids, and we do normal things every day, like get up and go to school. Eat breakfast, lunch and dinner. Tina Yothers When we talk about the healthcare crisis in America we've got to also ...

George Carlin's album, 'Class Clown,' came out when I was in high school. I memorized

a lot of that album. I'd come home from school, put it on, and listen over and over. I started memorizing it. I don't even know why. I loved it so much I memorized it. Steven Wright Old Filey lies around the Ravine, a glacial gash running down to Coble Landing. This is the fishing Filey of centuries past, with neat little terraced cottages and a cluster of attractive 18th century houses. David Hewson I am a member of the London Library, and on almost every single job I do, there is some benefit to be had in going there and pulling two or three books off the shelves. Ed Stoppard A well-designed 401(k) plan is an enormous competitive edge when recruiting and retaining employees. Barry Ritholtz Well, unfortunately, my father passed away before my first book was published, so he never lived to see me as an author. But I think my mum was suitably pleased because she was mad about words. If she ever came across a word that she didn't know, she would always look it up ...