In early 1961 a new president, John F. Kennedy, was told by military leaders and

civilian officials that the Kingdom of Laos - of no conceivable strategic importance to the U.S. - required the presence of American troops and perhaps even tactical nuclear weapons. Why? Because if Laos fell, Asia would go red from Thailand to Indonesia.
Jeff Greenfield

Novels are like paintings, specifically watercolors. Every stroke you put down you have to go with. Of course you can rewrite, but the original strokes are still there in the texture of the thing.
Joan Didion

It's more fun having him as everyman in the 25th Century. It is better to concentrate on what this planet will be like 500 years from now, and not be dealing with little aliens in space and all that related stuff.
Gil Gerard

I think people recognize me if I am going out to dinner or if I am staying in a hotel. They are not quite sure at first because I have grown up a lot.
Emma Bunton

I'd go to Coney Island to hang out, and I saw a magician doing a rope trick on the boardwalk. I was fascinated. I guess that's how it started.
David Blaine

I'm a bit of a workaholic.
Erica Durance

Having reached a point in which I was so bitter and exhausted from being a quote unquote public figure, I wanted to return to a more childlike relationship to writing.
David Leavitt

My mother and father were perfect role models. They were together for 25 years and very much in love. But I've got too much to do now. I'm only 27.
Katherine Jenkins

We have got to work on keeping these children engaged with the world.
Temple Grandin

A majority in all parties do, I think, want to see local government recover its old vigour and independence.
Ferdinand Mount

Gemeoss

You can make people feel valued or cared for by design alone. It's not purely

about money. It's about how we choose to value human experience.Thomas Heatherwick I do a big roast of Trump during my set now - which I clearly expanded on - because there's so much to make fun of him about now.Lisa Lampanelli A vaccine that prevented tuberculosis would merit a Nobel Prize, but it's just very difficult to develop.Tom Frieden I go through the same kind of situations as other people. I have to give that to people, because people have this facade, this mirage, this mirror about me.Tory Lanez The wild thing is that when I'm in the band, I can control my destiny with four other guys. As a composer sitting in the audience, you can throw good vibes at everybody, but you can't control anybody's destiny, so it's really unsettling.David Bryan I'm an actor, and I don't judge my parts.Swara Bhaskar As a competitor, you want to be out there in the fire with your teammates.Brock Osweiler We wish to be treated 'not as ordi...

My parents moved to American Samoa when I was three or four years old. My

dad was principal of a high school there. It was idyllic for a kid. I had a whole island for a backyard. I lived there until I was eight years old and we moved to Santa Barbara. Eric Stoltz If you accept the belief that baptism incorporates us in the mystical body of Christ, into the divine DNA, then you might say that the Holy Spirit is present in each of us, and thus we have the capacity for the fullness of redemption, of transformation. Thomas Keating My first name, Benjamin, dates back a thousand years earlier to Benjamin - Binyamin - the son of Jacob, who was also known as Israel. Jacob and his 12 sons roamed these same hills of Judea and Sumeria 4,000 years ago, and there's been a continuous Jewish presence in the land ever since. Benjamin Netanyahu I was cast in 'Thor' and I'm cast as a Nordic god. If you know anything about the Nords, they don't look like me but there you go. I think that's a sign of the times for the future. I think we will see...

When you're writing, you're only a brain and some fingers, but drumming, you're involving all

four limbs, and you're hearing stuff and you're converting your ideas into physical motions, getting physical feedback from things you are touching - it's pretty cool. It's a really a nice contrast to writing. Michael Azerrad The work of artists is to find what's humanly possible - possibility's furthest reaches. Tony Kushner If you look at the way people behave at shows, icons are now musicians; they are the people that we worship. Grimes As much as I long for a sort of security and consistency sometimes, I do enjoy sort of being busted around. I really don't know what's happening sometimes next week, let alone this year. Matthew Macfadyen On Wall Street, fraudulent schemes tend to thrive during economic booms, and to blow up when times turn tough. James Surowiecki I want a guy who can clean my gutters and kill my spiders - who's simple yet layered. Kelli Garner Politics is the art of controlling your environment. Hunter S. Thomps...

Chris Hemsworth is like Christopher Reeve in that he can do two things:

he can wear a big red cape without a shred of self-consciousness. But he's also funny as hell, and he's so sweet. So with all the fish-out-of-water stuff, he's so funny. So he does almost two jobs in a way. Tom Hiddleston I would say that, in the future, the book will be reserved for things that function best as a book. So, if I need a textbook that's going to be out of date because of new technological inventions, you're better off having it where you can download the supplements or the update. Art Spiegelman Although I may find the type of programming seen during the 2004 Super Bowl and the 2003 Golden Globe Awards disgusting and disturbing, we must always work hard to defend the cherished freedoms so clearly outlined in our Constitution, including a healthy and free press. Mike Rogers I think once you're in the public eye, whether you're a boss, a teacher or whatever you do, that you're automatically in the position of role model. You have pe...

I have ballet class every other day for two hours. And for 'Six Feet Under',

last week there was a sequence where I had to do a whole choreographed dance number, so I had four hours of dance practice every day. Michelle Trachtenberg Salman Rushdie, indeed any writer who abuses the prophet or indeed any prophet under Islamic law, the sentence for that is actually death. Cat Stevens I have always liked shows that have laughter in them. David Walliams People working in the private sector should try to save money. There remains the possibility that it may someday be valuable again. Norman Ralph Augustine The Roman Catholics must know as well as we do that 'Popery' when encouraged by government has always been dangerous to the liberties of the people. Lord George Gordon

I loved going to the Chiang Kai Shek Memorial in Taipei to watch all the

old Chinese people doing tai chi and practicing kung fu. The monument was made of white marble, and it was beautiful. Sometimes my dad and I would practice with them. Jimmy Chin If I'm going to do something, I'm going to do it 110%, or there's no point in doing it at all, especially if the work takes me away from time with my husband and children. Victoria Beckham I believe that we all have freedom to shape our own life and the world around us. Anne Wojcicki DC and Monster have always supported my vision for street skateboarding, from building skate plazas throughout the world to now creating the first-ever professional skateboarding league. Rob Dyrdek As human beings, we all mature physically from childhood to adolescence and then into adulthood, but our emotions lag behind. Bernard Sumner I don't want to be known as a politician. Susana Martinez I think that Eric Holder has an animosity, a genuine hostility, toward local law enforcement - specificall...

Actors who are lovers in real life are often incapable if playing the part of

lovers to an audience. It is equally true that sympathy between actors who are not lovers may create a temporary emotion that is perfectly sincere. Ivor Novello Like I said, when you have to play against a great player every night, that defines who you are if you can compete on that same level night in and night out. Dominique Wilkins That's something Mary Lou Williams used to tell me: If you're not feeling right about what you're doing and you play a minor tune it all comes back, falls into place. I don't know if that's true, but I do it. Marian McPartland I do very little industrial design. I'm asked a lot, but I certainly don't see myself as an industrial designer. David Chipperfield If you write a book that's as powerful and successful as 'Bastard,' there's a strong desire to prove there's something else. Dorothy Allison Everything on earth is a game. A passing thing. We all end up dead. We all end up the same, don'...

I went to meet Joe Johnston, the director, and he's charming. I've been very lucky.

Most of the directors I've worked with are charming. But Joe's a particularly charming man, and he showed me lots of designs and, rather memorably, welcomed me to the Marvel Universe. Toby Jones The iambic line, with its characteristic forward movement from short to long, or light to heavy, or unstressed to stressed, is the quintessential measure of English verse. James Fenton I turned down many chances to be on TV before 'Pop Idol' because I really wasn't interested in being famous. I didn't need it and didn't want it. Simon Cowell My argument would be that I don't think there is much that's genuinely political art that is good art. Thom Yorke I have a tendency to run after people who are completely unattainable and uninterested and make a complete fool of myself. Martha Wainwright Never try to be witty with U.S. airport officials. It's always lost on them and you'll find yourself being put back on the plane. Johnny Vegas E...

It's Toby Jones playing Alfred Hitchcock, not Alfred Hitchcock. We all felt that

his silhouette was crucial, so his nose and lips were crucial as well. We had to build it out a bit to get the silhouette. But, with my nose being so small within the proportion of my face, the first nose was too big. I felt like a nose on parade. Toby Jones I feel less alone when I read the books of Ratzinger. Oriana Fallaci I never was obsessive about anything I watched when I was a kid, except maybe 'The A-Team' and 'Airwolf'... And I loved 'Knight Rider' and then later 'Baywatch.' Benedict Cumberbatch I'm like a shark. I've got to be constantly moving. Kenny Chesney For behaviorist films, that's been much more useful - the change of technology - but for my kind of films, doing them on film is much better, because it's more beautiful. Michael Apted Even when I was in my 20s and at my most beautiful, I was never obsessed with my looks. I didn't dye my hair or wear make-up. Koo Stark A lot of times when you keep it ...

Many novice writers try to avoid using 'said' by substituting synonyms: 'he uttered,' 'she murmured,'

'he questioned.' It's true that any word repeated too often becomes monotonous, but substitutions for 'said' can be worse than its repetition. Nancy Kress Daft Punk's 'One More Time' remains one of my favorite 'getting ready to go out tonight' songs. Aslaug Magnusdottir Stand-up is still my favorite, but the podcast is a close second. It's so fun, and it's given me the opportunity to have three-hour conversations with people I wouldn't have otherwise been able to talk to. When I talked to Maynard Keenan from Tool, I almost couldn't believe it was happening. Joe Rogan The truth is I'm not really interested in travel writing as it's generally conceived, and even less so in female travel writing. Robyn Davidson When you have to work with and exist amongst cynical, burned-out personnel on a set, it doesn't matter what you're shooting or how much you're being paid - it's not worth it. Henry Rollins ...