I like reading history, and actually most authors enjoy the research part because it is,

after all, easier than writing.
Ken Follett

So you know, everyone points out Greece's default record, but the history of a lot of sovereign nations is not a good one when it comes to lending them money.
James Chanos

I started Michael years ago. I saw him in Gary, Indiana, and we'd have him on the talent shows. He kind of emulated me, and did the best he could.
James Brown

I did have a feeling then that the culture of factuality was so dominating that storytelling had lost all its authority.
E. L. Doctorow

I got a kick out of the stands when they would heckle me. I would take the energy from that.
Kurt Russell

God doesn't seek for golden vessels, and does not ask for silver ones, but He must have clean ones.
Dwight L. Moody

I think that kids have a greater capacity for processing things than we give them credit for.
Rick Riordan

To be an artist you have to give up everything, including the desire to be a good artist.
Jasper Johns

A lot of people are waiting for Martin Luther King or Mahatma Gandhi to come back - but they are gone. We are it. It is up to us. It is up to you.
Marian Wright Edelman

From the beginning, the series has been story driven - I began with a story idea - but research feeds it.
Jean M. Auel

Gemeoss

I knew that people were going to talk about it, I knew it was embarrassing,

and I knew it was a big deal. But did I think that it was going to be this thing that followed me for, you know, the next years to come? I guarantee you, 25 years from now, I'll be known as the girl that lip synced on 'SNL.' But, you know, it was a weird thing. Not fun. Ashlee Simpson Even if your job is a professional singer, we still dork out at home. Sheena Easton Laughter is the best medicine - unless you're diabetic, then insulin comes pretty high on the list. Jasper Carrott I think people who write for kids, we have that ability to go back into our own lives. Judy Blume Science fiction, outside of poetry, is the only literary field which has no limits, no parameters whatsoever. Theodore Sturgeon Al Jolson was one of the greatest entertainers who ever lived. Desi Arnaz If you're going to do something, do it well. And leave something witchy. Charles Manson Cinema is so slow and boring compared to television. Steven Moffat You cannot furth...

It's like that Simpsons joke - they're filming a cow in a movie and they

go, 'OK, we'll tape a bunch of cats together to make a cow', and it's like, 'Why don't you just use a cow?'. For some reason that is novel - like, 'Oh, my guitar sounds like a piano and now if I can just get my piano to sound like my guitar'. Ian Williams Macbeth is a very popular play with audiences. If you want to sell out a theater, just mount a production of Macbeth. It's a short play, it's an exciting play, it's easy to understand, and it attracts great acting. Ian Mckellen This is just the United States. All the rest of the countries, all over the world, are proud of Michael. It's here we have the most trouble out of them. Joseph Jackson In my Gau, as far as I know, only Communists who had actually worked against the State were arrested. Fritz Sauckel I know sometimes I can come off like a lonely spinster in a tower. That's not me at all. Daphne Guinness And remember, where you have a concentration of power in...

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 ...

Whether the prayer of Seneca was granted we do not know; but, as we do

not again hear of Marcus, it is probable that he died before his father, and that the line of Seneca, like that of so many great men, became extinct in the second generation. Frederic William Farrar There is a formula that allows you to write a decent song. But a song like 'You're All I Need to Get By,' it just writes itself. Valerie Simpson A sudden dart when a little over a hundred feet from the end of the track, or a little over 120 feet from the point at which it rose into the air, ended the flight. Orville Wright Winning excuses everything. Cam Newton You won't catch me giving clear lectures. Donald Norman Faith is a state of openness or trust. Alan Watts Man is a make-believe animal: he is never so truly himself as when he is acting a part. William Hazlitt To some people heavy metal is Motorhead and to others it's Judas Priest. Glenn Danzig In Paris, everybody is in black! But you know, in Ukraine everyone wears bright colours. Olga Ku...

There is constant talk about the intermarriage crisis: who is a Jew and how

we define a Jew. That doesn't go over well with young Jews trying to figure out whether they want to be a part of this thing or not. Tahl Raz I've been studying voice for quite a while, especially opera, for at least seven or eight years. Shelly Burch Like anything, I remember who I work for. You work for the people who sent you to office. Darryl Glenn For the bourgeoisie, the main danger against which it had to be protected, that which had to be avoided at all costs, was armed uprising, was the armed people, was the workers taking to the streets in an assault against the government. Michel Foucault My grandmother is a huge part of my life. She's just a great woman: a woman of the church. Chance The Rapper I don't think we can fix poverty without fixing housing, and I don't think we can address housing without understanding landlords. Matthew Desmond One of my best friends since I was eleven years old is a gay man, and I knew his struggle. It was a tough life, you ...

When I read the pilot 'for Married with Children', it just reminded me of my

Uncle Joe... just a self-deprecating kind of guy. He'd come home from work, and the wife would maybe say 'I ran over the dog this morning in the driveway'. And he would say 'Fine, what's for dinner? Ed O'Neill I graduated from high school early so I could move to New York to do 'A Little Night Music' out of the New York City Opera. Anna Kendrick I feel a bit awkward playing in a red shirt out at Wimbledon. But I don't dislike it. Roger Federer I loved working with Valerie. That was the most wonderful revelation to find that when we are on a set and we're playing our roles, we're like separated twins. We can almost finish each other's dialogue. Mary Tyler Moore To flatter and follow others, without being flattered and followed in turn, is but a state of half enjoyment. Jane Austen Giving builds loyal customers and turns those customers into supporters... You can find passion and profit and meaning all at once, right now. Bl...

Yeah, it's odd when you look back at your own work. Some filmmakers don't look

back at their work at all. I look at my work a lot, actually. I feel like I learned something while looking at stuff I've done in terms of what I'm going to do in the future, mistakes I've made and things at work or what have you. Christopher Nolan People aren't always themselves. They're always holding back something. Garth Brooks No one ever pretended that shopping for anything is a rational experience. If it were, would there be Fluffernutter? Laceless sneakers? Porkpie hats? Would the Chia Pet even exist? Jeffrey Kluger That's possible, and in fact the legislation, the politics should graduate the advantages towards those who have children and give less to those who don't have children. Rocco Buttiglione Inspired by the purse rather than the soul, the mercenary side fairly screams in many of the works put out by every day American publishers. Alma Gluck I am alone; I am always alone no matter what. Marilyn Monroe Clearly a big challenge...

Fantasy is my favorite genre for reading and writing. We have more options than anyone

else, and the best props and special effects. That means if you want to write a fantasy story with Norse gods, sentient robots, and telepathic dinosaurs, you can do just that. Want to throw in a vampire and a lesbian unicorn while you're at it? Go ahead. Patrick Rothfuss And there should not be a limit on the creation of new public schools. We ought to expand choices for parents. John Engler I think that where I've watched a movie go wrong, it's usually because the dread committee has been interfering with it. John le Carre Nothing is less predictable than the development of an active scientific field. Charles Francis Richter You've got to guard against speaking more clearly than you think. Howard Baker Is it not enough to know the evil to shun it? If not, we should be sincere enough to admit that we love evil too well to give it up. Mahatma Gandhi Four personalities are bound to clash. John Deacon I was a small kid from Huntington, Long Island. I n...

You know, when you really connect with the instrument and everything just comes out on

an emotional level very naturally through your playing. That's, you know, a great night. And I think the reason I love touring so much is you're chasing that high around all the time, trying to have another good night. Slash There is no nation so powerful, as the one that obeys its laws not from principals of fear or reason, but from passion. Charles de Montesquieu To me, there was nothing greater than to play for an audience and to entertain people and that has stayed with me all these years. Bobby Vinton Teach us that wealth is not elegance, that profusion is not magnificence, that splendor is not beauty. Benjamin Disraeli The words walked right out of my mouth. James Brady I think it would be interesting if old people got anti-Alzheimer's disease where they slowly began to recover other people's lost memories. George Carlin We know the truth, not only by the reason, but also by the heart. Blaise Pascal I won't be happy until we have every boy...

I am politically pro-choice, but personally pro-life. I have my faith but refuse to force

it on the world at large - especially this world, so brutal and unjust. I cannot make these wrenching personal life and death decisions for others - nor do I believe they should be made by a church run by childless men. Julianna Baggott The elusive truth is that there is nothing stress-producing in the physical world. Things simply are. Molecules move. Light and sound appear. Andrew J. Bernstein I love being domestic: making coffee, just putting on a record, and just sitting, not doing anything. It's so great. Sharon Van Etten On the Internet, information from Indiana and India is equally cheap and easy to access. Ethan Zuckerman The soul has many motions, body one. Theodore Roethke I did think there were one or two referees who had a personal thing against me. It wasn't them versus Celtic - it was them against me! I just think they wanted to take me on. Gordon Strachan The first job of a writer is to be honest. Irvine Welsh I love to doubt as well as know....