The winter solstice has always been special to me as a barren darkness that gives

birth to a verdant future beyond imagination, a time of pain and withdrawal that produces something joyfully inconceivable, like a monarch butterfly masterfully extracting itself from the confines of its cocoon, bursting forth into unexpected glory.
Gary Zukav

Obviously you can't please everyone. I'm sure some people say, 'Bloody old Len Goodman gets on my nerves.'
Len Goodman

It's one of those records that will stand forever. I really can't imagine anyone touching it.
Steve Kerr

When I decide to become a mother I will just be that. That will be really important to me.
Katy Perry

I am suspicious of what people might want from me. Do they like me, or my money?
Petra Stunt

I've got an overly developed sense of what selling out is, and I of course worry about it too much.
Martin Freeman

Blakes Hotel in South Kensington was a particular favourite of mine during what I affectionately think of as my Restless Years.
Julie Burchill

I didn't want to leave Newcastle, but that's football.
Gary Speed

I always see other people as predecessors and admire them.
Judd Apatow

Starting a new job is always scary, or at least for me it's always scary. It's like the first day of school.
Sean Maher

Gemeoss

Urban Outfitters - I love it. It's almost like Forever 21, but for, like, the

24- to 25-year-old girl, getting a little bit older. Keke Palmer I'm the kind of person that believes that I would like to be evaluated by my entire career and my entire life, not two words that I would misspeak and then later apologize for. Kirk Cameron I often feel a discomfort, a kind of embarrassment, when I explain elementary-particle physics to laypeople. It all seems so arbitrary - the ridiculous collection of fundamental particles, the lack of pattern to their masses. Leonard Susskind Around age 11 or 12, I started playing jazz bass. From there, I went to electric bass and then guitar, which I kept up for a long time. Joshua Roman Space X's Elon Musk wants to colonize Mars with modules where earthlings can live. My teleporting technology is the number one way those individuals will get new information, new treatments of diseases that will occur on the planet, and new food sources. Craig Venter Brain cells are normally not sensitive to light. So by introdu...

In the next couple of years, part of every film's process is going to be

to adjust the images. And it'll be to change the color of an actor's tie or change the little smirky thing he's doing with his mouth. Or you can put in more clouds or move the tree a little bit. Robert Zemeckis There's a high school in Camden, New Jersey, I call the Jill Scott School. It's the Camden Creative Arts High School. Those teachers and kids are so passionate about what they do, and 98 percent of the senior class went on to college. Jill Scott I spent a good deal of time going back over my childhood, my midlife, to try to understand who I was. We're supposed to be complete and whole, and you can't be whole if you're trying to be perfect. Doing a life review helped me get over the disease to please. Jane Fonda For over a year I continued to submit mss, and have them rejected - the last few with rejection letters indicated the story was pretty good, but I was American. Nora Roberts Well, you know I have an office, my film offices. So I...

What makes America great was a government that was founded to be limited to doing

one thing. I really believe the whole purpose of America, the aspirational value - why everybody who wants to come to this country wants to come here - was because we respected the dignity of every living person. Rick Santorum We have to get control of our borders. You can only do that if you make companies obey the law and not hire undocumented or illegals. They can only do that is if they have a Social Security Card that has biometrics so they know whether the person is legal or not. Michael Bloomberg Faulkner turned out to be a great teacher. When a student asked a question ineptly, he answered the question with what the student had really wanted to know. Leslie Fiedler If you ask me why I've succeeded, it's because I was in the Royal Marines. You have this unbelievable sense of achievement and of overcoming adversity. That's the confidence it breeds. Brian McDermott I don't really plan to be a pop star; I just want to be able to make music without the wh...

I would say that the study of history is that which gives man the greatest

optimism, for if man were not destined by his Maker to go on until the Kingdom of Heaven is attained, man would have been extinguished long ago by reason of all man's mistakes and frailties. Douglas Southall Freeman Being attacked by right-wing Christians did not bother me. Being attacked by liberal feminists did. Hugh Hefner I think the gay community should get smart and drop the word 'marriage.' Do you really need to change every right-wing Christian to make sure you get your equal rights? Eyes on the prize, we should be sticking to getting equal rights. Ani DiFranco 'Drive' is a genre piece, and a lot of times we don't get really sophisticated genre films. Oscar Isaac I always want the last line to be really good, which may sound silly, but I want it to be a last pleasing line. Elizabeth McCracken I love the way little kids dress themselves! They're completely carefree about how others perceive them. Gillian Zinser I think it's a mis...

In business, every phase of things counts. Companies that just yell out a low price

today to win business aren't going to make money in the long term. Zhang Jindong California's drought affects everyone in the state, from farmers to fishermen, business owners to suburban residents, and everyone has a role to play in using precious water resources as wisely and efficiently as possible. Frances Beinecke I do think 'Gogglebox' is extraordinarily insightful, and I think if politicians want to understand how we are viewed at home, it's quite recommended viewing. David Cameron I always feel compelled to lend my voice to things I strongly believe in. Keri Hilson It's never easy getting an independent film made and distributed - even when it's easy. Paul Dinello Those who elected Hamas in Palestine did so on the basis of its political platform. Hassan Nasrallah Everyone wants quick deals. They don't want to invest. Dan Gertler It is a rule of international law that weapons and methods of warfare which do not discriminate be...

We have become 99 percent money mad. The method of living at home modestly and

within our income, laying a little by systematically for the proverbial rainy day which is due to come, can almost be listed among the lost arts. George Washington Carver Nothing new here, except my marrying, which to me is a matter of profound wonder. Abraham Lincoln My grandmother could never have written a memoir, so 'The Gravedigger's Daughter' is a homage to her life, and to the lives of other young women of her generation, which are so rarely articulated. Joyce Carol Oates It's much easier to teach writing, because people are less shy about writing. If they're in a group, nobody can see what they're writing. When you're drawing, people get a little more nervous. Lynda Barry Certainly when, you know, you put a lot of creative people together, there's ego and tension and all that stuff comes into play. But on the flip side, there's a lot of camaraderie and closeness. Darren Star Nobody can understand the pressures of doing an hour-...

The consequences of President Johnson's campaign of deliberate deception regarding Vietnam could hardly have been

more catastrophic for the nation, the military, the president, his party, and the presidency itself. Eric Alterman The worst moment was when I was performing and I was about to sing, but I choked. I had a tickle in my throat and I started coughing, and I couldn't get the words out. It lasted for like thirty seconds, but I got over it, and luckily the crowd didn't seem to care. Chris Brown I feel like I am a lot of who I am because I watched these shows that said it was okay to be a total weirdo. Shows like 'Pete and Pete,' 'Hey, Dude,' 'Salute Your Shorts' - that's what I grew up with. Mae Whitman All the great Shakespeare plays are about killing. 'Alas, poor Yorick,' that's about death. And in 'Romeo and Juliet' everyone up ends up dying. The greatest dramas in the world are all about sex, violence and death. Ray Winstone As a children's author, reviewers are generally very nice to you. I only ever wrote one adult...

I'm not a detail guy. I depend on accountants and administrators to do my detail

stuff for me, but I do know the overall picture and I know that if you put business people together in a room, not just politicians, they could shrink the deficit tremendously by good business tactics. John Paul DeJoria My inspiration was my mom. She's a great cook, and she still cooks, and we still banter back and forth about cooking. Growing up in a mostly Portuguese community, food was important and the family table was extremely important. At a very young age I understood that. Emeril Lagasse If you felt that excitement when you voted for Barack Obama, shouldn't you feel that way now that he's President Obama? You know there's something wrong with the kind of job he's done as president when the best feeling you had was the day you voted for him. Mitt Romney Well I travelled quite a lot in the east, and one of the things that impressed me greatly was the buddhist notion of the continuity of things, the wheel of life which is what we're talking about,...

I just banged it a little bit on a helmet. And you know, if you

get your throwing motion and momentum going at a helmet it makes it hurt a little more and it freaks everybody out because it's your throwing shoulder, but honestly, it feels great. Mark Sanchez Life is a canvas of many strokes where shades from different palettes meet into a picture so concrete that some forget it is their own, so become framed themselves. Vanna Bonta It is time to end the western policy of malign neglect. It is in the interest of the whole world to help tackle the actual grievances in Palestine, Kashmir, and in central and southern Iraq, and to help the region out of its economic backwardness. James Buchan Phil has always been a fighter. He was getting in fights all the time. I told him that if he ever hit me then I would leave the band. He wanted to find out if I was telling him the truth. He hit me so I left and that is how UFO split up. Michael Schenker I just want to be with great teachers. If that means I'm in a horror film with good teachers...

I didn't want to be an accountant; I found myself being a banker, which was

a bit different. I went to university, and I was going to do a Ph.D. in the States, but I didn't get the funding for it, so I had two years where I had a bit of a wobble and didn't really know what I wanted to do, and I ended up working as a banker. Owain Yeoman President Obama is one of the great political knife-fighters in modern history. He is a failed president - his economy is bleak, his foreign policy bleaker, his vision for American even bleaker still. But he wins. Ben Shapiro If I do a role where I have to lose weight, I can do that. I eat meat, fish, vegetables, and I lose it right away. But sometimes I do a role where I have to gain weight, and I can tell you I prefer that. Monica Bellucci Making mistakes is part of life. The only things I would feel ashamed of would be if I had said things I hadn't believed in order to get on. Some politicians do do that. Tony Benn I can now put 'experienced aerialist' on my resume. Jennifer Damiano The fea...