My grandmother, who passed away at the beginning of November, had a core adage in

her life that 'life is not about what happens to you but about what you do with what happens to you.' She recently had been cajoling me and challenging me to do more with my life. To lead more of a purposefully public life. Chelsea Clinton

Way back in the '70s, I was approached to talk about the story I'd write for a Spider-Man movie. They also talked to me about Batman. I had to think about it, but that was way, way back when. John Carpenter

I hate golf to be tricked up. To me it's a fun game. Fuzzy Zoeller

I love to read, and I like the fact that there's some silence in my life. Giancarlo Esposito

There is something majestic in the bad taste of Italy. E. M. Forster

I knew I had the right material and I knew what I was going after. George Thorogood

I don't really cringe over any of my albums. Sheryl Crow

Tina Fey is one of my heroes. Aubrey Plaza

The way Shakespeare wrote Fallstaff is with a heightened language and everything. Ray Stevenson

Gemeoss

This battle for 'common-sense' gun control laws pits emotion and passion against logic and reason.

All too often in such a contest, logic loses. So, expect more meaningless, if not harmful, 'gun control' legislation. Good news - if you're a crook. Larry Elder I drive a lot. Just for pleasure. Sometimes I'll get in the Cadillac and drive around the city or the country, kind of trying to get lost basically. Y'know, just see where roads lead. Frank Black You and I will meet again, When we're least expecting it, One day in some far off place, I will recognize your face, I won't say goodbye my friend, For you and I will meet again. Tom Petty We must dare to think 'unthinkable' thoughts. We must learn to explore all the options and possibilities that confront us in a complex and rapidly changing world. J. William Fulbright Nothing contributes so much to tranquilize the mind as a steady purpose - a point on which the soul may fix its intellectual eye. Mary Shelley Never make friends with people who are above or below you in status. Such fr...

There's this wonderful first assistant and he'll be saying, 'Now Harry goes down among the

dragons.' You have to hold yourself together. Because if you lose it for a second then you're sunk. Maggie Smith We believe we've got the skill base and the techniques to supply the chips that really enable the end manufacturers to develop exciting, innovative products themselves. David Milne Oscar Wilde said the rich and the poor are equal - they can both sleep under the bridge. Right? Do they have a right? You're damn right they have a right! Al Lewis If we'd have said we were not upset, they would have thought we were so rich it meant nothing to us, and if we say we're upset about it, they'll say money is all we care about. John Bonham We... are not really free if we can't control our own government and its policies. And we will never do that if we remain ignorant. Charley Reese Our universities and museums are respected around the country. Jane Byrne George W. Bush bought the election - period. End of story. There is no argument. Yo...

It's a different thing playing in a smaller venue where you can actually see people's

faces and reactions. It's so much more intimate. You walk away with a more personal experience. Jann Klose I love the theater. I love being on stage; I love the live audience. I also love dressing up and all of the make-believe. Nicole Ari Parker This is sort of not expected, but I would love to produce a record for Missy Elliott. It would be totally different, but she makes party music. 'Lose Control' was my favorite song when I was in 5th or 6th grade. Ansel Elgort I sculpted for four or five years. Mostly for my own amusement, I decided to do a picture book, and that was kind of a turning point. Chris Van Allsburg Circumstances in life often take us places that we never intended to go. We visit some places of beauty, others of pain and desolation. Kristin Armstrong I like John McCain. He can always be counted on for a good quote. Ted Cruz Practices such as arranged marriages and restrictions on girls attending school have deep roots, and changing them i...

It's nice coming to Nashville, and we have four-bedroom house and a dog, and we

go swimming a lot. We get down here and spread out a lot, and I miss my sweet tea and my cornbread and my good southern cooking - but I'm down here eating pretty for two weeks and I'm ready to go back to New York City. Justin Townes Earle I hope everybody will go back to the negotiating table. I've always said this is the only way forward. Mohamed ElBaradei I'm the type of artist who touches people, that's the type of artist that I am. Jacob Lusk Writing is a fine therapy for people who are perpetually scared of nameless threats... for jittery people. William Styron Comedy wasn't something I chose - it chose me. Pauly Shore When I heard Aretha, I could feel her emotional delivery so clearly. It came from down deep within. That's what I wanted to do. Whitney Houston When I see old photos of me on the beach I don't look too bad... but it's hard trying to breathe in for such a long time when I spot the photographers! Gary Lineker St...

When you first start working, you take whatever job is offered, because you have to

build your resume. But you don't think about what you're building. Chris Hardwick I think it's important to find humor anywhere you can. In real life, with the darkest, scariest, most intense moments, if you can find something funny, that's good. Katie Lowes I am not racked with self-loathing. Some issues of guilt and shame, but I'm a pretty good guy. Marcus Brigstocke The long poem cannot be a digressive, expansive, boring exposition. It is really made of very sharp, Imagistic, quintessential poetic elements. Louis Dudek The day I entered St Columb's College, my parents bought me a Conway Stewart pen. It was a special afternoon, of course. We were going to be parting that evening; they were aware of it, I was aware of it, nothing much was said about it. Seamus Heaney I'm always wearing Spanx, eating ice cream and feeling a bit lonely. Sheridan Smith Writer's block! It doesn't exist. You just long for ideas to go away so you have an...

It's not just the kid who's spent every penny from his job to upgrade his

car to tell the world he cares about sports cars, it's also the person driving around in a fuel-conscious hybrid electric car, because it's more a message to the world than an effective means of saving fuel, to be quite honest. Richard Hammond Praise the bridge that carried you over. George Colman The power of an air force is terrific when there is nothing to oppose it. Winston Churchill 'A collected poems' is either a gravestone or a testimonial to survival. Al Purdy Hardship makes the world obscure. Don DeLillo I have a weird life because I live on songwriting royalties, which are a strange income. Sometimes it rains, sometimes it doesn't. Joe Strummer Girls we love for what they are; young men for what they promise to be. Johann Wolfgang von Goethe Always be smarter than the people who hire you. Lena Horne In the middle ages people were tourists because of their religion, whereas now they are tourists because tourism is their religion. Ro...

As long as we're focused on spending, there are only two ways to do that:

One is spend less, and Democrats have no solutions for that. Or we have pro-growth policies that make the economy grow so the dead-weight cost of government becomes a smaller percentage of the economy and therefore less expensive. Grover Norquist Models are like athletes: You burn hard and fast. Elettra Rossellini Wiedemann I've become saucy. Emma Bunton It's hard to juggle being a businessperson with being a creative person. You have to organize yourself - PR needs me for PR, and the licensing division needs me for licensing, the bridal people need me for bridal. Vera Wang A lot of things trigger my inspiration. It can be the most banal things. Manolo Blahnik I'm not looking to freak people out - eating rodents or bugs. I don't do that anymore. Anthony Bourdain My father was a Methodist and my mother was a Baptist. T. D. Jakes What I tell everyone, and I really do for myself is, I have a long-run dream, which is I want to work on stuff that I think...

Just because I am a chef doesn't mean I don't rely on fast

recipes. Indeed, we all have moments when, pressed for time, we'll use a can of tuna and a tomato for a first course. It's a question of choosing the right recipes for the rest of the menu. Jacques Pepin Words are not as satisfactory as we should like them to be, but, like our neighbours, we have got to live with them and must make the best and not the worst of them. Samuel Butler Success in life is founded upon attention to the small things rather than to the large things; to the every day things nearest to us rather than to the things that are remote and uncommon. Booker T. Washington People who wear fur smell like a wet dog if they're in the rain. And they look fat and gross. Pamela Anderson Everybody thinks if you do one thing, you can't do something else. So I like the fact that I can be versatile if I want to. Denise Van Outen I don't ever want to be hugely famous because I had a little taste of it after 'East Is East' and 'Bend It....

The reason why parents mistreat their children has less to do with character

and temperament than with the fact that they were mistreated themselves and were not permitted to defend themselves. Alice Miller There are two kinds of terrorism. Rational terrorism such as Palestinian terrorism and apocalyptic terrorism like Sept. 11. You have to distinguish between the two. Alan Dershowitz Lacey said if he wanted to read a daily or regular critiques of the Bush administration, he would read the New York Times, and that's not what he wanted in the Village Voice. Sydney Schanberg I urge people to learn from the mistakes of others. Please drink responsibly and it's never acceptable to drink and drive! Kim Kardashian Television preachers extract money from the poor to live in a style and to indulge in shameful acts which equal or outdo the worst of the Renaissance Popes. J. Irwin Miller Convent - a place of retirement for women who wish for leisure to meditate upon the sin of idleness. Ambrose Bierce If you have debt I'm willing to bet that...

A short exposure to the convention convinced me that the Internet may save the Democracy

in that it is a way for the people, for the citizens, to have some direct influence on the government. John Jay Hooker I don't want to do panel games or adverts. I really like challenges. I always get roles as an art teacher or a photographer. In the future I want to play something like a mugger/assassin/pastry chef. Dylan Moran I try to be careful about wording. One of the things I've tried to combat in my blog is the notion that journalists are arrogant and unconcerned with the readership. Nicholas D. Kristof My belief is that I wasn't born into Judaism by accident, and so I needed to find ways to honor that. Ram Dass I'm not sure the risks I take are any different from what other writers take, since we all serve at the pleasure of the reader. Stewart O'Nan NASA has spin-offs, and it's a huge and very impressive list, including accurate and affordable LASIK eye surgery. Neil deGrasse Tyson I think back to the old people I knew when I was grow...