Obama seemed poised to realign American politics after his stunning 2008 victory. But the economy

remains worse than even the administration's worst-case scenarios, and the long legislative battles over health care reform, financial services reform and the national debt and deficit have taken their toll. Obama no longer looks invincible.
Dee Dee Myers

Charlie Brown is the one person I identify with. C.B. is such a loser. He wasn't even the star of his own Halloween special.
Chris Rock

My reading of history convinces me that most bad government has grown out of too much government.
John Sharp Williams

Friendship is held to be the severest test of character. It is easy, we think, to be loyal to a family and clan, whose blood is in your own veins.
Charles Eastman

I feel that the greatest reward for doing is the opportunity to do more.
Earl Warren

There are three modes of bearing the ills of life, by indifference, by philosophy, and by religion.
Charles Caleb Colton

Nuclear weapons are intrinsically neither moral nor immoral, though they are more prone to immoral use than most weapons.
Herman Kahn

Dick Dart emerged from the ether during a flight from New York with my wife and children to Puerto Rico.
Peter Straub

There is an infinite difference between a little wrong and just right, between fairly good and the best, between mediocrity and superiority.
Orison Swett Marden

Gemeoss

We underestimate children and the people who work with them. I swear - so often, I tell

people I am a children's author, and it's like they want to pat me on the head: 'Aw, isn't that sweet.' Kathi Appelt There is a disconnect in education and work. And corporates don't do a great job of skilling. In future, corporates and educational institutions will work closely. Shiv Nadar I played semi-professionally for a season, and there's an element of performance to being a footballer, stepping onto the pitch: you feel like a gladiator walking into a colosseum. Callum Turner We used to indulge hopelessly as a family at Christmas. When the children were little, I dressed up as Father Christmas. They knew it was a gag, but they loved it. I remember stealing into their bedrooms at 1 A.M. and filling the stockings up at the end of the bed. Richard Attenborough What we, as black people, need to do is we need to worry about our education. Charles Barkley I was never the person who came up with a boom somehow. I worked slowly and consistently, making my wa...

I like George W. At a time when this country was hit hard, he

stood up for America. He's been the leader of the free world during the hardest time America's ever had. Johnny Van Zant In the 21st century, our adversaries will continue to use cyberattacks against us. We need to be prepared to defend our networks against this growing threat to our democracy, especially the most fundamental part of our political system: our elections. Amy Klobuchar I grew up in a lot of different places, mostly in Kansas, I really started thinking seriously about acting in high school; I just did it better than most of the other activities in school. Paul Rudd I thought, 'Nobody wants this book, and I'm an idiot for having worked on it so hard.' But to succeed in writing, you must be willing to look stupid for a long time. 'Pachinko' took so long because I got it wrong so many times. Min Jin Lee The most calmest place I can be is the studio. And like, I stay in there 'cause I know, when I come out, it...

If you... scaled down human beings, scaled down society, if you land with a group

of little boys, they are more like a scaled-down version of society than a group of little girls would be. William Golding I've been performing since I was a child; my mother would have to pull me aside and tell me that I wasn't onstage. I was a cheerleader, president of choir, and in the school play. Aja Naomi King I am a very strong supporter of our government's view that it is important to engage with all countries around the world - very much including Russia. Chrystia Freeland I was wrapping up my stint on 'Daredevil' co-writing with Andy Diggle during the Shadowland story, when Marvel asked if I was interested in doing something else with DD but a bit different. When they explained the purpose of the 'Season One' books, I was intrigued - I'm a big advocate of books for people new to the medium - and said yes. Antony Johnston Spike Lee gave me the greatest reaction to the fact that I was this athlete-meets-artist, because I think he saw ...

I try to surround myself with the people who genuinely believe in changing things, that are

angry about it and want to make changes and want to make a change and are willing. Lauren Southern Each holiday season, as family members arrive and couches are unfolded, my household settles into a palpable nostalgia. Poorly designed photo albums are pulled from the shelves. Home videos of prepubescent siblings in matching pajamas dance across the television screen. Clint Smith I think movies are overdeveloped in Hollywood. There's a big benefit to not overdeveloping and not being so precious about what you're doing. I think you lose a kind of vitality if you develop something into the ground. Jason Blum I like mash-ups, taking contemporary songs and making them old... old songs, making them new. Bria Skonberg Living in L.A. keeps me in my car a lot, and I'm constantly flipping back and forth between the following Sirius/XM Radio stations: NFL Radio, MLB Radio, POTUS, MSNBC, CNN, and Fox News. R. J. Cutler We're part of creating this world in which we live, but we...

I never stopped DJing through the entire 'Game of Thrones' process. I never saw the

need to stop because I do love it so much. Kristian Nairn R-rated comedies make as much money as PG-13. And I think the audiences wanna be shocked. Especially with comedy. Nicholas Stoller In 'Maaya,' I'm going shirtless for the first time in my career. My producer requested me to take off my shirt in one of the scenes. I have been working extremely hard to flaunt a perfect body for the scene. Harshvardhan Rane When every word is parsed for ill intention, regardless of who is speaking or why, we become so afraid we'll offend that we stop trying to communicate with people we don't understand. Marti Noxon I don't understand when you say I'm a man or I have a deep voice. I know I'm a female, so there's no question for me. Caster Semenya We had a field day before anyone knew anything about shorting. It was almost a license to steal. Nowadays, it's a license to get hosed. Julian Robertson Now we're dealing with a younger generation of terrorists ...

I believe that the artist's involvement in the capitalist structure is disadvantageous to the artist

and forces him to produce objects in order to live. Sol LeWitt I think when tattoos are new and colorful, they look bad. But they look better the older and more bleached out they become. Urs Fischer That's a mistake I think that a lot of Western observers make is to assume that Korean nationalism is hundreds if not thousands of years old. When in fact nationalism is incompatible with Korean Confucian tradition. Brian Reynolds Myers Cameras in classrooms are no substitute for greater authority by parents and teachers. Paul Weyrich Infrastructure spending does not create immediate jobs, and more than half of those jobs will pull from the pool of the already employed. Mark McKinnon Watching previous figure skaters, I always wondered why they cried after their performance. Kim Yuna The sexes in each species of being... are always true equivalents - equals but not identical. Antoinette Brown Blackwell I just remember Stella Tenant and me dancing in Donatella Versace...

We need to establish boundaries between our personal and professional lives. When we don't, our

work, our health, and our personal lives suffer. Travis Bradberry Originality is dangerous. Salman Rushdie I think the War on Terror is really absurd, especially coming from a country that is founded on terrorism. Alice Walker If I hear about a tsunami that hit Asia, hundreds of people have lost their lives, and you see it and you hear about it, but you still brush your teeth, still have to go on with your day. But let you get information about one person who you're close to or you're intimate with, it has an almost paralyzing effect. Ryan Coogler Once you have a computer that can do a few things - strictly speaking, one that has a certain 'sufficient set' of basic procedures - it can do basically anything any other computer can do. This, loosely, is the basis of the great principle of 'Universality'. Richard P. Feynman My plays are always pushing towards cinema anyway. They're down and dirty, real and more fun. Martin McDonagh I consider m...

I can't say I'm a full-on gamer, since, basically, I just don't have time for it. I know

nowadays, gaming can be a lot like social media. People just stay on it all day long. Like they're logged into the Matrix. But yeah, I enjoy it. When I get the time. Roman Reigns I'll hear us on classic rock radio stations, and I'll go, 'Oh, my God, we're getting old!' Mike McCready Thin applications and small amounts in the right places is kind of the way to go with metallics for every day. Pat McGrath Lynyrd Skynyrd is not a political band, but you know what? We believe in this country. We have a soft spot for our military. We love the red, white and blue, and every night we dedicate a portion of our show to our fighting men. Rickey Medlocke My mom was a high school science teacher for decades. She just never made it feel like we had to choose between the arts and the sciences. We had bookshelves full of novels, and she also had Rachel Carson and Aldo Leopold and Carl Sagan. Anthony Doerr After a workout, you definitely have to have a protein shake. I drink ...

At the end of the day, the 1955 Montgomery bus boycott had to be converted into the 1964

Civil Rights Act. We don't want politicians who've gotta be coaxed, cajoled and protested. We want them on our side from the beginning. Keith Ellison I'm not having to go outside and switch the role model hat on. It's me, and it's important for me to leave that legacy to help inspire younger players because I didn't have a role model growing up. Carli Lloyd The song 'I Feel the Earth Move' brings me back to those younger years when I was taking my first strides on the ice. Hilary Knight I'm from New Orleans, Louisiana. It's not a black-and-white type of thing down there. It's a very cultural place. Everybody has the same accent. It's not like if you're white we can't hang with you or anything like that. So it's easy for us to call each other out on our things. Jason Mitchell My original perception of wrestling was not a very positive one. I didn't understand it at all, and I thought it was kind of silly and ridiculous. Bu...

I bought the VHS of 'Into the Woods' at the Suncoast in the Park City Mall and watched

it in the basement when I got home. And when it was over, I rewound it and immediately watched it again. Jonathan Groff To tell you the truth, if you're looking at rising pretty high, then you need to find a way of taking care of these problems and not taking time off. At the end of the day, it is a very tough competition. And in a very tough competition, if you just take breaks, then it's going to become much, much more difficult. Arundhati Bhattacharya No greater privilege than I had as a soldier and then as a spymaster and to some degree now in the business world. David Petraeus I'm just another non-native whose mom told him we were part-Cherokee. W. Kamau Bell Attacking school segregation requires all hands on deck. We in the charter sector must move beyond our traditional comfort zone, serving disadvantaged students, and meet the demands of parents who have other high quality options. Eva Moskowitz Since I was, like, an infant... I remember being in love with televisi...