I am careful about fiction. A novel is not a tract or an essay. If

I want to write about land reforms, or Hindu-Muslim relations, or position of women, I can do it as it affects my characters as in 'A Suitable Boy.' I could only write about issues specifically through essays. But I'll do that only if I have something worthwhile to say.
Vikram Seth

Around age 40 I put on twenty pounds. I had always had a perfect metabolism. But, my metabolism betrayed me as it does most people, except a very rare few who will always be thin.
Suzanne Somers

The future belongs to those who prepare for it today.
Malcolm X

When we're discussing who to invite to a dinner party, my wife Chaz and I sometimes use the shorthand, 'good value for money,' which indicates guests expected to be entertaining.
Roger Ebert

The Daily Mail can't say 'asylum-seeker' without saying 'foreign criminal' in the same sentence. I'm sure it's practically editorial policy.
Chris Cleave

Mark Twain's Roughing It is a book that many people don't know about, but I highly recommend to anybody at any age.
Chuck Jones

The public are not stupid.
Pete Waterman

The word 'democracy' and the name of Assad do not blend very well in much of Syria.
Robert Fisk

I have a rigid self-accountability. You have to work hard.
Elizabeth Gilbert

I'm not sure I make old bones in parliament. It's an amazing experience to have had but I can't see myself being Mother of the House.
Louise Mensch

Gemeoss

My favorite pre-Ponzi schemer was known as '520 Percent Miller' because he promised 10 percent

returns a week, or 520 percent a year. Of course he was just using new investors' money to pay old investors, and soon he was on the lam. Mitchell Zuckoff In February of this year I returned to China to research my next book. The authorities know about the novels of mine that have been published in the west, including the latest one, Beijing Coma, about a student shot in Tiananmen Square, but so far have allowed me to return. Ma Jian In the meantime, we see there are charities that spend much of their scarce resources that should be going directly to the children to overcome this gulf that separates them from both the donors and the needy. Dana Rohrabacher I wear my Viking helmet because the horns define how sharp my brains are. If you try to rub me the wrong way, I will stick you with both of my horns. Flavor Flav Uniforms are intended to make the wearer look as strong as possible. Soldiers could fight in leotards, but that's never going to happen because leotards ...

Web searching and cellphone use both flourish in the wee hours. Before the dawn of

the web, I would stay up watching television. But there is something soporific about television: I would often nod off. Not so when I'm online. As technologies expand, these problems may only worsen. Sendhil Mullainathan To our critical eyes, the threads of which the past is woven are, by nature, endless and indivisible. Scientifically speaking, we cannot grasp the absolute beginning of anything: everything extends backwards to be prolonged by something else. Pierre Teilhard de Chardin I'm the kind of person who likes to create the environment and mindset - not because I do it deliberately, but because that's how I like to live - where, from catering to makeup to hair to wardrobe, electricians, camera department lighting, sound, you know, it's our movie; we're together, and we have that camaraderie and that closeness. Steven Rodney McQueen There are examples of fraternal dictatorships, or one, anyway: the passing of power from Fidel to Raul Castro. Elliott...

I'm kind of a good girl - and I'm not. I'm a good girl because

I really believe in love, integrity, and respect. I'm a bad girl because I like to tease. I know that I have sex appeal in my deck of cards. But I like to get people thinking. That's what the stories in my music do. Katy Perry I love that my friends are sometimes even 20, 30 years older than me - that I can just sit and enjoy their company and their experiences. Kim Kardashian Sport is a universal language, building more bridges between people than anything else I can think of. Sebastian Coe As of today, the Postfix mail transport agent has almost 50,000 lines of code, comments not included. Wietse Venema I guess, first and foremost, I'd like to thank my Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ. Tim Tebow Follow your passion, be prepared to work hard and sacrifice, and, above all, don't let anyone limit your dreams. Donovan Bailey All forms of human happiness contain within themselves the seeds of their own decomposition. Theodore Dalrymple You should put time...

I kind of had my life planned out for me. I'd be married at some

point, have, you know, 1.5 children, and be a principal possibly one day. But I think that that was kind of my problem. I allowed myself to plan out my life and didn't let provident direction guide my life. Clay Aiken I actually had an experience where I thought somebody was breaking into my house. That's got to be the most terrified I've ever been in my life. I don't know if that's saying much. The fear, especially as a female in a house by yourself, was horrible. Hayden Panettiere Human vocabulary is still not capable, and probably never will be, of knowing, recognizing, and communicating everything that can be humanly experienced and felt. Jose Saramago You know what? I never really factor Hollywood into anything. I'm a black actor, so I can't really control what Hollywood thinks. I gotta go do my thing, and my jokes have got to be funny. Whatever I do has got to be great. Jamie Foxx According to the official version of history, CIA aid to the...

Of course, there will always be those who look only at technique, who ask 'how',

while others of a more curious nature will ask 'why'. Personally, I have always preferred inspiration to information. Man Ray Sex is like washing your face - just something you do because you have to. Sex without love is absolutely ridiculous. Sex follows love, it never precedes it. Sophia Loren What we've gone through in the last several years has caused some people to question 'Can we trust Microsoft?' Steve Ballmer He who aspires to paradise should learn to deal with people with kindness. Abu Bakr There is too little courtship in the world. Vernon Lee The ancients recommended us to sacrifice to the Graces, but Milton sacrificed to the Devil. Voltaire If a man has common sense, he has all the sense there is. Sam Rayburn

I ride my bike for transportation a great deal - occasionally I ride it for

fun. But I also have a generator bike that's hooked up to my solar battery pack, so if I ride 15 minutes hard on my bike, that's enough energy to toast toast, or power my computer. Ed Begley, Jr. I'm the complete opposite of every clean cut, decent-looking guy you could ever think of. Yet, I have the biggest heart in the world. A. J. McLean Art is for entertainment purposes, but it's also to reflect our dreams, our hopes, the present, the future the past - whether it's good or bad. Amber Valletta I don't think it's healthy to take yourself too seriously. Payne Stewart I'm a very bad baker. Eric Ripert How well he's read, to reason against reading! William Shakespeare I believe that interest in heroes is universal and eternal. Norman Spinrad The air is the only place free from prejudice. Bessie Coleman I've got 11 brothers and sisters. John Boehner As man now is, God once was; as God is now man may be. Lorenzo Snow

My mother told me Homer Ditto was not my father. Nope. Mom had had a

fling with some other guy who was my dad. Some dude who didn't stick around too long who Mom was happy to get rid of. She chose Homer, and Homer chose me, so he lent me his name even though I didn't have his blood. Beth Ditto We have met on a solemn occasion, and in this crowded assembly there is one thing that appears important, that is, for every one of us to be still, that if any thing should he said, every one may the better hear. Elias Hicks We're going to shoot one Polaroid per show. I'm going to sign this before it even develops because I know that once it develops with my signature on it, it's worth a fortune. I'll make this a work of magic warlock art. Charlie Sheen There is a glaring reason that the necessary total ban on nontherapeutic use of antibiotics hasn't happened: The factory farm industry, allied with the pharmaceutical industry, has more power than public-health professionals. Jonathan Safran Foer I'm sort of an old man, a...

I think I always resented the fact that people thought I was trying to entertain

them with my multifaceted, chameleonlike character changes. Although I liked doing that, I wasn't out to fool people and say 'Guess which one is me.' Cindy Sherman 'The Voice' has lots of singers who fit the 'Idol' mold of young, innocent ingenues with psycho stage moms. But it also has long-suffering adult pros, with a whiff of thirtysomething despair in their voices. That adds an edge of realness. Rob Sheffield Listen, I am such a nerd. I'm not one of those girls that goes, 'Ha, ha, hee, hee. I'm a nerd.' No, no, no - my brain mentality is the same as a 12-year-old little boy. The video games that I play, the things that I like to watch - I'm a Trekkie. Mila Kunis What is the biggest public forum in the United States? We were told it's the Super Bowl. The ad shows kids working at blue-collar jobs, and the final statement is just written text: Who's going to pay for the trillion dollar deficit? Joan Blades For us, as ...

The Cullens, they're an interesting group of vampires. They're all really good but kind of bad.

I mean, they are still vampires. Elizabeth Reaser The waves from all the different parts of a sphere would cancel each other out. You need motion that's nonspherical. Rainer Weiss Carlos Sosa, the saxophone player for Zac Brown Band, and I worked up two songs for 'When You're Feeling Sick.' They were a blast to work on. The songs are real upbeat and silly. Coy Bowles I've no apprehensions and inhibitions as an actor. Nithya Menen I want to help people to get to know my story and really tell them in detail what I've been through. James Arthur When you encounter some form of discrimination or maybe even worse, I urge you to alert others. Regardless of how small the incident is, it has to be brought to the attention of people like me and also the law enforcement agencies. Raja Krishnamoorthi Perhaps the best thing about biographies is that they enable us to slip the strictures of time and provide a bracing corrective to our tendency to see everything in the dark ...

I never really got on my own case about my own acting. I know a

lot of other people have, and probably very justifiably. But I don't worry about stuff like that too much. Troy Donahue I was made fun of in the Midwest - I was the only Asian in my graduating class of 200. Fortunately, I found my niche, and it was fine. But I wanted to be so white, you wouldn't believe it. I was like, 'I want to be white; I don't want to be this anymore.' But now I embrace it. Reggie Lee Developing a diet that is healthful, balanced, and appropriate for your particular caloric needs is easy enough and is absolutely critical to establishing a healthful lifestyle that incorporates proper nutrition, adequate fitness, and mental resilience. Daphne Oz As I have found out, recognition has its upside, its downside and - you may say - its backside. Pippa Middleton The radiation was worse by far. I had bandages all over my head. I looked like a mummy. On the side of my head and neck and down to my collarbone, I had second-degree burns. My skin b...