When you write down your ideas you automatically focus your full attention on them. Few

if any of us can write one thought and think another at the same time. Thus a pencil and paper make excellent concentration tools.
Michael LeBoeuf

I thought I had a clear picture of death, but now I know it's a mystery and it will always be a mystery, although it is something we all have in common: everybody knows that life ends with death.
Beth Gibbons

In the lead up to the Iraq war and its later conduct, I saw at a minimum, true dereliction, negligence and irresponsibility, at worse, lying, incompetence and corruption.
Anthony Zinni

I learned that you should feel when writing, not like Lord Byron on a mountain top, but like child stringing beads in kindergarten, - happy, absorbed and quietly putting one bead on after another.
Brenda Ueland

Whoever benefits his enemy with straightforward intention that man's enemies will soon fold their hands in devotion.
Henry Wadsworth Longfellow

You must have been warned against letting the golden hours slip by; but some of them are golden only because we let them slip by.
James M. Barrie

The true picture of the past flits by. The past can be seized only as an image which flashes up at the instant when it can be recognized and is never seen again.
Walter Benjamin

The idea is, if I can't heal from my art, then how can you heal?
Maynard James Keenan

No one can harm the man who does himself no wrong.
John Chrysostom

Gemeoss

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...

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...

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...

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

Chris Hemsworth is like Christopher Reeve in that he can do two things:

he can wear a big red cape without a shred of self-consciousness. But he's also funny as hell, and he's so sweet. So with all the fish-out-of-water stuff, he's so funny. So he does almost two jobs in a way. Tom Hiddleston I would say that, in the future, the book will be reserved for things that function best as a book. So, if I need a textbook that's going to be out of date because of new technological inventions, you're better off having it where you can download the supplements or the update. Art Spiegelman Although I may find the type of programming seen during the 2004 Super Bowl and the 2003 Golden Globe Awards disgusting and disturbing, we must always work hard to defend the cherished freedoms so clearly outlined in our Constitution, including a healthy and free press. Mike Rogers I think once you're in the public eye, whether you're a boss, a teacher or whatever you do, that you're automatically in the position of role model. You have pe...

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...

I went to meet Joe Johnston, the director, and he's charming. I've been very lucky.

Most of the directors I've worked with are charming. But Joe's a particularly charming man, and he showed me lots of designs and, rather memorably, welcomed me to the Marvel Universe. Toby Jones The iambic line, with its characteristic forward movement from short to long, or light to heavy, or unstressed to stressed, is the quintessential measure of English verse. James Fenton I turned down many chances to be on TV before 'Pop Idol' because I really wasn't interested in being famous. I didn't need it and didn't want it. Simon Cowell My argument would be that I don't think there is much that's genuinely political art that is good art. Thom Yorke I have a tendency to run after people who are completely unattainable and uninterested and make a complete fool of myself. Martha Wainwright Never try to be witty with U.S. airport officials. It's always lost on them and you'll find yourself being put back on the plane. Johnny Vegas E...

It's Toby Jones playing Alfred Hitchcock, not Alfred Hitchcock. We all felt that

his silhouette was crucial, so his nose and lips were crucial as well. We had to build it out a bit to get the silhouette. But, with my nose being so small within the proportion of my face, the first nose was too big. I felt like a nose on parade. Toby Jones I feel less alone when I read the books of Ratzinger. Oriana Fallaci I never was obsessive about anything I watched when I was a kid, except maybe 'The A-Team' and 'Airwolf'... And I loved 'Knight Rider' and then later 'Baywatch.' Benedict Cumberbatch I'm like a shark. I've got to be constantly moving. Kenny Chesney For behaviorist films, that's been much more useful - the change of technology - but for my kind of films, doing them on film is much better, because it's more beautiful. Michael Apted Even when I was in my 20s and at my most beautiful, I was never obsessed with my looks. I didn't dye my hair or wear make-up. Koo Stark A lot of times when you keep it ...

Many novice writers try to avoid using 'said' by substituting synonyms: 'he uttered,' 'she murmured,'

'he questioned.' It's true that any word repeated too often becomes monotonous, but substitutions for 'said' can be worse than its repetition. Nancy Kress Daft Punk's 'One More Time' remains one of my favorite 'getting ready to go out tonight' songs. Aslaug Magnusdottir Stand-up is still my favorite, but the podcast is a close second. It's so fun, and it's given me the opportunity to have three-hour conversations with people I wouldn't have otherwise been able to talk to. When I talked to Maynard Keenan from Tool, I almost couldn't believe it was happening. Joe Rogan The truth is I'm not really interested in travel writing as it's generally conceived, and even less so in female travel writing. Robyn Davidson When you have to work with and exist amongst cynical, burned-out personnel on a set, it doesn't matter what you're shooting or how much you're being paid - it's not worth it. Henry Rollins ...

I think every athlete has their window of opportunity, and you just have to jump

on it. You never know when it can end. So I'm just trying to live large while I have the opportunity. Hope Solo With the first act of cruelty committed in the name of revolution, with the first murder, with the first purge and execution, we have lost the revolution. Kate Millett I had to find a diet that would kick me back into dating shape, because I know that I can't date at size 8. I have to date at size 2. And it's just a fact of nature. Go get your injections and your chemical peels. You gotta look good to attract a man. Patti Stanger What's a soup kitchen? Paris Hilton Islam is a dangerous religion. Michel Houellebecq Who hears me, who understands me, becomes mine, a possession for all time. Ralph Waldo Emerson Quality is easy to talk but hard to make. Terry Gou Nothing matures a military force quicker than actual military operations. Duncan Hunter TV was my hobby. I loved the glitz. I loved how hot everybody was. Andy Cohen I think the ...