I fantasised about F. Scott Fitzgerald's 'The Great Gatsby'

I fantasised about F. Scott Fitzgerald's 'The Great Gatsby' - I loved it, and then

I read everything J. D. Salinger had to offer. Then I was turned on to Kerouac, and his spontaneous prose, his stream of consciousness way of writing. I admired him so much, and I romanticised so much about the '40s and '50s. Garrett Hedlund

When I take a picture I take 10 percent of what I see. Annie Leibovitz

I'm convinced that if we don't define ourselves, other people will do it for us, and inaccurately. Hasan M. Elahi

There's an army story in me, and I think there's a WWII Brooks film somewhere. Mel Brooks

Since being quite young, I've had a very strong sense of independence and survival. As a child, I was on my own two feet emotionally. Lena Headey

I'm a leftover junkie. Kris Carr

If you are supposed to be villainous and have some sort of agenda, I like the idea of delivering that kind of character in a perfectly well-mannered way. Bill Nighy

The flattery is nice, but awards don't add up to writing quality songs. Chantal Kreviazuk

I love acting because it's a bit of an escape. It gives you the ability to reinvent yourself. They say that acting is the shy man's revenge. Hayden Christensen

Bad's the best of us. Francis Beaumont

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When my grandfather was born, there was no healthcare. There were no airplanes.

There were no boats. There were no trains. There were no communications. No Internet. No widespread knowledge. It will be a completely different world but a much better place in a hundred years. Jamie Dimon This is sports. In sports, you win and you lose. That's the nature of sports. You can't get away from that part of it. And if you get too hung up on the losing part, then you miss the boat. The competition part, a game like that, is why you play sports. That is as good as it gets. David Robinson Climate change is a global crisis - one the international community and private sector must tackle together if we have any hope of averting the worst impacts on our health, our economies, and our communities. Tom Steyer I'm set in my own ways. I like to do the things I want to do when I want to do them. Dennis Farina I don't imagine myself, my work, or my life, fitting into any kind of standardized path. In fact, the idea of there even being a standard freaks me out a lot. ...

I love the way this sport has evolved and impacted every segment of society.

Now you have cross training and weight training in every sport and from middle school kids to senior citizens. Lee Haney People make a mistake thinking that two people with identical mindset gel well. Gautam Gambhir If money is tight, or you're on a limited budget, then consider DIY or used gifts. DIY could be something like baked goods for your friends, family, and neighbors. Plus, if you have children, it's a great activity to do with them during the holidays. John Rampton The custom of clasping hands is thought to date back thousands of years, as proof of not holding any weapons. Faith Salie I believe in term limits. I believe the country would be hugely better off if we had more turnover in Congress. Bill Flores When we demand Woman Suffrage, we can only do so on the ground, not that it should be a right attached to the possession of a certain amount of property, but that it should be inherent in the woman herself. Clara Zetkin I stopped acting a long time ago and my prim...

We were asked to believe that the variety and the novelty of even the crude

films of the early days would provide a means of entertainment which would cut out the stage. Ivor Novello Clearly, programming courses should teach methods of design and construction, and the selected examples should be such that a gradual development can be nicely demonstrated. Niklaus Wirth Why do you have to translate and decode things? Just let the image be. It will have a special kind of reality that it won't once it's decoded. Laurie Anderson Science, for hundreds of years, has spanned the differences between cultures and between countries. Laurel Clark Whatever I write, no matter how gray or dark the subject matter, it's still going to be a comic novel. John Irving I've never done an action show, really. On 'Jericho,' other people got to ride horses and shoot guns, but I never did. Sprague Grayden I'm obviously not a rapper, and I don't have any claims to be one, really. Al Yankovic I love the fact that I can go out there on ...

I think good artists know when they're on a roll, and they recognize when lightning

is striking. It's a very fortunate thing to have that inspiration and not to overanalyze it or mess with it; you just follow it if you love what you do. Johnny Marr My friendships and relationships in the conservative world are not predicated on political correctness and enforced conformity of thought. They are based, instead, on mutual respect, honesty and understanding - concepts many modern liberals should consider revisiting. Tammy Bruce I've been impressed, over the last 15 years, with how often the somewhat conspiratorial comments of Haitian villagers have been proven to be correct when the historical record is probed carefully. Paul Farmer Seeing that our thirst was increasing and the water was killing us, while the storm did not abate, we agreed to trust to God, Our Lord, and rather risk the perils of the sea than wait there for certain death from thirst. Alvar N. C. de Vaca Conflicting commercial regulations of the different States shackled and diminished b...

I served seven years as the chair of the Princeton economics department where I had

responsibility for major policy decisions, such as whether to serve bagels or doughnuts at the department coffee hour. Ben Bernanke Head Start is designed to ensure that all children - regardless of their family's income, race, or ethnic background - are able to enter kindergarten ready to learn. Lucille Roybal-Allard There was a time when meanings were focused and reality could be fixed; when that sort of belief disappeared, things became uncertain and open to interpretation. Bridget Riley The big risk to British lives in 2013 is in Afghanistan. Our troops, diplomats and aid workers have made a big contribution there. But while there is an end date for Western engagement, 2014, there isn't a proper end game. David Miliband Every president becomes a caricature. The press, partisans, late-night shows, and other arbiters of our culture these days boil down complicated and multi-faceted personalities into one-dimensional punchlines. Mark McKinnon My chefs don't ...

That's my personal view I would say most in my caucus agree with that but

there are some who don't and I've always said that on these kinds of moral issues, people have the right to their own opinions. Stephen Harper When you're not blond and thin, you come up with a personality real quick. Kathy Najimy The first ingredient in conversation is truth, the next good sense, the third good humor, and the fourth wit. William Temple I would hope they would be our fellow artists, rather than trying to emulate or idolize clowns like us. Maynard James Keenan Let me give you a definition of ethics: It is good to maintain and further life it is bad to damage and destroy life. Albert Schweitzer The disappearance of a sense of responsibility is the most far-reaching consequence of submission to authority. Stanley Milgram Life is not over because you have diabetes. Make the most of what you have, be grateful. Dale Evans I am certainly not an intellectual relativist, nor a moral relativist. Edward Tufte

I think we're in good shape, but the tragedy of Hurricane Katrina is in some

small way mitigated by the fact that we now have more people talking about it, thinking about it and working on it, so that we will be more vigilant and ready. John Hickenlooper If governments did not mislead their citizens so often, there would be less need for secrecy, and if leaders knew they could not rely on keeping the public in the dark about what they are doing, they would have a powerful incentive to behave better. Peter Singer I want to sound like an instrument. I want my voice and my words to marry the beat. I go with the rhythm of it and the words start to come to my mind and those words could be based on things that's been on my mind for the past year, the past month, the past week, whatever; I write it. Nas Everybody's got one killer story. It doesn't take talent to tell that story, it just takes experience. Kevin Smith Whatever our creed, we stand with admiration before the sublime character of Jesus. E. Stanley Jones It is an attention-getter....

America and the world are paying a high price for devotion to the extreme anti-government

ideology embraced by Donald Trump and his Republican party. Joseph Stiglitz Bitcoin is probably the most portable money in the history of the world. I can download any amount onto a thumb drive and walk across any border without any problems. Or, I could commit to memory a line of code that I can then input into the network and save or spend Bitcoins. Max Keiser You can laugh at anything. It depends on the joke. Ricky Gervais When you make a film, you never know how it will turn out, especially when you improvise it. Thomas Middleditch For any writer, a red pen is such a trigger. Jason Isbell For me, my music is fun. I don't really take my music that serious. Selena Gomez I can tell you I have dealt with mania my whole life. Juliette Lewis If given a chance, I would like to work with Surender Reddy. Varun Dhawan If you actually hang out in the countryside, which I did, it's actually quite peaceful. John Sandford I think, as an artist, I wear a lot of different hats, and people...

Whatever you may think of the proposed mosque and community center, lost in

the heat of the debate has been a basic question: Should government attempt to deny private citizens the right to build a house of worship on private property based on their particular religion? Michael Bloomberg Sometimes, when I have a lot of ideas and I want to do a lot of things, or when I'm traveling, I lose energy and I can't do as many things as I want. So I have to plan days when I'm not doing anything. I find that a bit boring, but it's necessary. Bjork And let me make this very clear - unlike President Obama, I will not raise taxes on the middle class. As president, I will protect the sanctity of life. I will honor the institution of marriage. And I will guarantee America's first liberty: the freedom of religion. Mitt Romney The intention was to shoot short films that can exist as shorts independently, but when I put them all together, there are things that echo through them like the dialogue repeats; the situation is always the same, the way they...