In the old days, when a star left a still-thriving hit show, they'd celebrate by

killing him or her off. But 'The Office' dispatched Michael Scott in a crueler and more final way: they made him normal. Since we're talking about Michael Scott, 'normal' might be stretching it, obviously. Rob Sheffield

For scientists, growing cells took so much work that they couldn't get much research done. So the selling of cells was really just for the sake of science, and there weren't a lot of profits. Rebecca Skloot

I just consider being one of the luckiest people in the sense that creativity came to me and it flowed. Vidal Sassoon

I'll put it frankly - Britain has more influence in China than Norway or Switzerland, with all respect for the other countries. Jose Manuel Barroso

No one can make me work harder than I do, so I'm generally not interested in who I am competing with. Victoria Principal

I don't want to lose myself in football and that's what a coach has to do to be successful. Dennis Bergkamp

It takes only a few seconds to make history new again. Amity Shlaes

Consultant: any ordinary guy more than fifty miles from home. Eric Sevareid

I stand by every decision I've made throughout my career and my life, good or bad, up or down. David Coverdale

I came out the womb dancing. Michael K. Williams

Gemeoss

When I was 17, I worked in a mentoring program in Harlem designed to improve

the community. That's when I first gained an appreciation of the Harlem Renaissance, a time when African-Americans rose to prominence in American culture. For the first time, they were taken seriously as artists, musicians, writers, athletes, and as political thinkers. Kareem Abdul-Jabbar I only make movies that are interesting to me. Brian Grazer I wouldn't say I was organised at all. I just have to prioritise. Is it more important for them to be organised, or to have their dinner, do you know what I mean? Jo Brand The courage in journalism is sticking up for the unpopular, not the popular. Geraldo Rivera A happy life must be to a great extent a quiet life, for it is only in an atmosphere of quiet that true joy dare live. Bertrand Russell I think Mick Jagger would be astounded and amazed if he realized that to many people he is not a sex symbol, but a mother image. David Bowie I enjoy my job as long as I can create a character, otherwise it's boring. Jav...

It had to happen to me sometime: sooner or later, I would have to lose

sight of the cutting edge. That moment every technical person fears - the fall into knowledge exhaustion, obsolescence, techno-fuddy-duddyism - there was no reason to think I could escape it forever. Ellen Ullman Innovation and its allure can be dangerous. It can draw you away from the user, from the intended outcome, and may be the ultimate demise of otherwise great intentions. Mark Brand My voice is different, but I don't think I'm the only one with a different take on pop music. Charli XCX In South Africa, we drive on the left-hand side, and most of the cars are standard, so I learned with a full-gear transmission with a clutch and hill starts. I've never driven an automatic until I came to Canada. Jodi Balfour Mexico has 44 treaties with other countries that make it very advantageous to do international shipping from Mexico rather than from the United States. Wilbur Ross Winning HOYS set me up for the future and prepared me for riding in front of lots of ...

Given Pounds and five years, and an ordinary man can in the ordinary course, without

any undue haste or putting any pressure upon his taste, surround himself with books, all in his own language, and thence forward have at least one place in the world. Augustine Birrell Everyone should know that most cancer research is largely a fraud, and that the major cancer research organizations are derelict in their duties to the people who support them. Linus Pauling A Bush Administration will, I believe, enjoy a better relationship with the new Congress, although President-elect Bush will be faced with real challenges in getting along with the Congress. Richard V. Allen I once thought that I was the only man that persevered to be the friend of the white man, but since they have come and cleaned out our lodges, horses, and everything else, it is hard for to believe the white man any more. Black Kettle When you finish a poem, it clicks shut like the top of a jewel box, but prose is endless. I haven't experienced an awful lot of clicking shut! Kenneth Koch I thin...

As a Midlander and a big walker, I'd always loved ridge and furrow

fields, the plough-marked land as it was when it was enclosed. It is the landscape giving you a story of lives that ended with the arrival of sheep. Jim Crace I think it's really rare to see women on television who are brilliant, selfish, vain, fallible - and I feel like I have all those capacities in myself, so it's good to see people in the media representing all of those things. Kerry Bishe I never went after fame. It fell into my lap. Caitlyn Jenner My mom and dad were actors when they were younger and had a horrible experience of it. My dad became a literary agent and my mom a casting director. Daniel Radcliffe I have this idea of trying to catalog all the genes on the planet. Craig Venter The wind from the Kingdom of Heaven has blown all over the world, and shall blow for centuries yet. George William Russell I always said if I played a drag queen, I'd want to create a template with the realness they talk about in 'Paris Is Burning.' Billy P...

I didn't have any aspirations of becoming famous or successful; in fact I was scared

to death of all that. I remember somebody once said that if a rock musician goes on tour, he goes insane. I was very impressionable and I carried this useless weight of fear around with me about going on tour, all because of this thing somebody said. Steve Vai In 1940 I came across a record by Jimmy Yancey. I can't say how important that record is. From then on, all I wanted to do was play the blues. Alexis Korner If the greatest god is the stillness all the motions add up to, then we must ineluctably be included. A. R. Ammons The effect of studying masterpieces is to make me admire and do otherwise. Gerard Manley Hopkins Being in the public eye, I have certainly gone through the tabloid situation where they come out with stories that are not true. I don't read or pay attention to it. Cheryl Tiegs If I wasn't a film-maker, I'd be a film critic. It's the only thing I'd be qualified to do. Quentin Tarantino New discoveries in science will continue to c...

I wish that I had known back then that a mastery of process would lead

to a product. Then I probably wouldn't have found it so frightening to write. Elizabeth George We feel that, with Sidney, we have a great opportunity over the next few years to put a great team on the ice. We're prepared to lose some money along the way. Eventually we're going to need some help. Mario Lemieux With the increasing importance of standards for system-level objects such as COM and CORBA, it is particularly important that the C++ bindings to those be clean, well documented, and simple to use. Bjarne Stroustrup The Web as I envisaged it, we have not seen it yet. The future is still so much bigger than the past. Tim Berners-Lee I don't think of myself as a brand. Branding to me feels like a position or identity that's frozen in time. I'm more interested in transitions. David Rockwell I actually had a Bobby Orr action figure. You could put the pads on him and skates and all that. I was 7, and he was still playing. Mike Weir Reagan won b...

I don't think the entire world respects women in sport. But if FIFA start respecting

the women's game more, others will follow. Alex Morgan I have been making hip-hop since I was a kid growing up in New York in the '80s and '90s. It's always been a hobby of mine - I've been making beats and writing songs for as long or longer than I've been acting. Dash Mihok I listen to some Hank Williams before I go out. I tell some jokes. I have fun. I don't waste too much energy thinking about it - I like to save that all for the ring. Dean Ambrose I've decided that I'm completely rock n' roll. Katherine Ryan Advertising is a nebulous beast at the best of times. Antony Johnston Why should we take options off the table in advance? Gillian Turner To me, fashion is ceaselessly fascinating because it is an expression of self. Anna Wintour More than any other poet, Whitman is what we make him; more than any other poet, his greatest value is in what he suggests and implies rather than in what he portrays, and more than any othe...

I think it's a luxury when you love the thing you're promoting, and then you

don't have to try to think of something, try and find some angle. Katherine Waterston I think 2020 can still be my time. Katarina Johnson-Thompson Sophie does more of the writing, lyrical stuff; I do more of the sitting at the computer and the board stuff. But it blurs. If we're both really feeling it, then we'll keep going with the song. Tucker Halpern It's funny: I don't listen to too much rap. I don't listen to too much older hip-hop. If I do, it's Ja Rule. Kehlani I'm on record that it didn't really traumatize me to do away with some people. Jim Mattis I was pretty naive about how hard it would be to get out from under the family name. Not that I'm complaining. Owen King Poor families are living above their means, in apartments they cannot afford. The thing is, those apartments are already at the bottom of the market. Matthew Desmond I am very bullish on India because of its people, its culture, and the leadership. I love...

If someone looks genuinely interested and asks me a deeply personal question, I'll give the

answer. I'm too open. Sam Taylor-Wood New Year's Day. A fresh start. A new chapter in life waiting to be written. New questions to be asked, embraced, and loved. Answers to be discovered and then lived in this transformative year of delight and self-discovery. Today carve out a quiet interlude for yourself in which to dream, pen in hand. Only dreams give birth to change. Sarah Ban Breathnach We like long-form narrative journalism, and we feel there aren't enough high-profile outlets in Canada running the kind of stories we want to showcase - long, meaty, thoughtful, investigative. Lynn Coady You have to create characters - certainly in series TV - who people engage with. They don't have to be nice; you don't have to agree with them. But they do have to be compulsively watchable and believable and human, and you want to know what happens to them. Michael Hirst When I was younger, I behaved a bit strangely sometimes - lost my temper, did silly things - but...

I always take part in the creative process of every film of mine. Gone are

the days where an actor would walk into the sets, finish his portions, take the money, and leave. In fact, I've been accused of being interfering - but that's the way I am. It is important for every actor to get involved with the script. R. Madhavan Only be an artist if you have no choice! Marilyn Minter Some scenes are just more people's thing than others, and I know that my Gay New York is truly whatever I make of it. If I want her loud and lively, she's there. If I want sunsets and starlight, Battery Park, here I come. Gavin Creel I used to share my everyday life on the first social media platforms, and I had a pretty big following. Chiara Ferragni This will sound really funny, but I'm so used to shooting in Hindi that shooting in English took a while to get used to. Jacqueline Fernandez I think health care is a mess. I think that, as a free market person, you can't even have that discussion unless you know what the service costs. Rick Santell...