I was bought an electric guitar when I was 12, but my guitar teacher beat

me up. I didn't like guitar lessons and I got quite bored. My teacher was obviously bored giving me lessons, and one day I offered him a liquorice toffee, but he didn't answer. So I threw it at him, it hit him in the face, and he sort of beat me up.
Simon Cowell

I mean, I think about it, but I don't design my record to get a certain public response.
Liz Phair

There's something important, as an actor, about allowing yourself to be approached by people to do roles. People see different things in you.
Damian Lewis

I've played golf with three U.S presidents.
Lee Trevino

But what has America to boast? What are the graces or the virtues which distinguish its inhabitants? What are their triumphs in war, or their inventions in peace?
Thomas Day

I try to write about how we live today, how we use language, technology, our bodies.
Dana Spiotta

I don't want to be known as this goody-two-shoes who can only do comedies where puppies are licking peanut butter off my face.
Kevin James

A writer without a reader doesn't exist.
Harlan Coben

I'd not underestimate the competitive powers of the Japanese people.
John Roos

People who text a lot are not my favorite thing.
Penny Marshall

Gemeoss

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...

IBM's long-standing mantra is 'Think.' What has always made IBM a fascinating and compelling place

for me, is the passion of the company, and its people, to apply technology and scientific thinking to major societal issues. Ginni Rometty I am going to get political on you. Because I am the most shallow person in the world, my mission is to see men's formal wear change a little bit. It is too rigid! Everybody looks like a penguin! Steven Cojocaru I was able to get operated on four days after I was diagnosed. It was just a matter of getting this baseball-sized tumor out of me. I reflect now on how lucky I was to be in the situation where I could get the best possible help and treatment. Eric Davis If it's time to party, it's time for hip hop. I love Drake, Jay-Z, Kanye. If I'm chilling at home though, I'm listening to Massive Attack, Thievery Corporation, Radiohead, DJ Shadow. I also listen to a lot of classical. Alexis Knapp Indulging in unrestrained and immoderate laughter is a sign of intemperance, of a want of control over one's emotions, and of...

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...

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 ...

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

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...

Art is based on very clear, mathematical principles like proportion and harmony. At the same

time, physicists need to be inventive, to have ideas, to have some fantasy. Fabiola Gianotti Any business today that embraces the status quo as an operating principle is going to be on a death march. Howard Schultz With the variety of fields within economics, broadly conceived and the increasing specialization of scholarly world, the award of a Nobel Memorial Prize honors not only the individual scholar but, implicitly, also a special field or a distinctive method. Simon Kuznets I think of 'Mommy' as very simplistic or not simplistic, but I wish for the style to actually work with what you see onscreen and what you feel in that very moment. I hope we did not disrespect the characters by being too flamboyant when it's not necessary. Xavier Dolan Pakistan is rich in sporting talent, but the only thing needed is to have sincere and honest administrators who should be held accountable by the government. Pakistan should be recognised as a sporting nation and not as 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 ...

Total physical and mental inertia are highly agreeable, much more so than we allow ourselves

to imagine. A beach not only permits such inertia but enforces it, thus neatly eliminating all problems of guilt. It is now the only place in our overly active world that does. John Kenneth Galbraith When I'm out on the stage, it gives me this rush and anything that's on my mind and everything I'm going through is forgotten about. Fantasia Barrino The more I like me, the less I want to pretend to be other people. Jamie Lee Curtis Honestly, I didn't know I was a role model. Treat Williams I never thought much of the courage of a lion tamer. Inside the cage he is at least safe from people. George Bernard Shaw