I never write my stories as a wake-up call as such. I simply explore the

kinds of situations that I find personally challenging by placing characters into situations that challenge them in similar ways.
Ted Dekker

We didn't have a TV because we didn't have a whole lot of money. My parents would have their friends over - their friends who thought, 'How can you live without a TV?'
Johnny Galecki

That's what writing is all about, after all, making others see what you have put down on the page and believing that it does, or could, exist and you want to go there.
Anne McCaffrey

I think the important thing to remember here is that we haven't been attacked again at home since September of 2001.
Mitch McConnell

When you have a global mush, people lose their identity, they become pseudonyms, they have no investment and no consequence in what they do.
Jaron Lanier

We should aim for our children to be good people, and to live ethical lives that manifest concern for others as well as for themselves.
Peter Singer

Most recently my battle has been against AIDS and the discrimination surrounding it.
Ryan White

People in power need to control others in order to maintain power. One of the ways to do that is to take that which is threatening and demonize it.
Jasmine Guy

The best people renounce all for one goal, the eternal fame of mortals; but most people stuff themselves like cattle.
Heraclitus

It's nice to play a character that has a soulful, dependent, close relationship. It must mean my character is interesting in some way.
Jeff Goldblum

Gemeoss

This battle for 'common-sense' gun control laws pits emotion and passion against logic and reason.

All too often in such a contest, logic loses. So, expect more meaningless, if not harmful, 'gun control' legislation. Good news - if you're a crook. Larry Elder I drive a lot. Just for pleasure. Sometimes I'll get in the Cadillac and drive around the city or the country, kind of trying to get lost basically. Y'know, just see where roads lead. Frank Black You and I will meet again, When we're least expecting it, One day in some far off place, I will recognize your face, I won't say goodbye my friend, For you and I will meet again. Tom Petty We must dare to think 'unthinkable' thoughts. We must learn to explore all the options and possibilities that confront us in a complex and rapidly changing world. J. William Fulbright Nothing contributes so much to tranquilize the mind as a steady purpose - a point on which the soul may fix its intellectual eye. Mary Shelley Never make friends with people who are above or below you in status. Such fr...

It's a different thing playing in a smaller venue where you can actually see people's

faces and reactions. It's so much more intimate. You walk away with a more personal experience. Jann Klose I love the theater. I love being on stage; I love the live audience. I also love dressing up and all of the make-believe. Nicole Ari Parker This is sort of not expected, but I would love to produce a record for Missy Elliott. It would be totally different, but she makes party music. 'Lose Control' was my favorite song when I was in 5th or 6th grade. Ansel Elgort I sculpted for four or five years. Mostly for my own amusement, I decided to do a picture book, and that was kind of a turning point. Chris Van Allsburg Circumstances in life often take us places that we never intended to go. We visit some places of beauty, others of pain and desolation. Kristin Armstrong I like John McCain. He can always be counted on for a good quote. Ted Cruz Practices such as arranged marriages and restrictions on girls attending school have deep roots, and changing them i...

There's this wonderful first assistant and he'll be saying, 'Now Harry goes down among the

dragons.' You have to hold yourself together. Because if you lose it for a second then you're sunk. Maggie Smith We believe we've got the skill base and the techniques to supply the chips that really enable the end manufacturers to develop exciting, innovative products themselves. David Milne Oscar Wilde said the rich and the poor are equal - they can both sleep under the bridge. Right? Do they have a right? You're damn right they have a right! Al Lewis If we'd have said we were not upset, they would have thought we were so rich it meant nothing to us, and if we say we're upset about it, they'll say money is all we care about. John Bonham We... are not really free if we can't control our own government and its policies. And we will never do that if we remain ignorant. Charley Reese Our universities and museums are respected around the country. Jane Byrne George W. Bush bought the election - period. End of story. There is no argument. Yo...

The only advice I would give Christians entering the world of arts: give yourself a

period of time, maybe three or four years. If you haven't made it in your chosen art form, dump it. Cliff Richard If most American cities are about the consumption of culture, Los Angeles and New York are about the production of culture - not only national culture but global culture. Barbara Kruger When we finished the tour we had been writing together for a year. We moved forward from there and have just now finished our record. We're having a new record out in the Spring. Kathy Valentine I hate the idea of getting in a building that someone else has designed and having to do something to it yourself to sort of dress it up - it's like using presets in your tracks. Sean Booth The Indian Summer of life should be a little sunny and a little sad, like the season, and infinite in wealth and depth of tone, but never hustled. Henry Adams Follow effective action with quiet reflection. From the quiet reflection will come even more effective action. Peter Drucker E...

Unlike any other visual image, a photograph is not a rendering, an imitation or an

interpretation of its subject, but actually a trace of it. No painting or drawing, however naturalist, belongs to its subject in the way that a photograph does. John Berger Death is the liberator of him whom freedom cannot release, the physician of him whom medicine cannot cure, and the comforter of him whom time cannot console. Charles Caleb Colton I live by a man's code, designed to fit a man's world, yet at the same time I never forget that a woman's first job is to choose the right shade of lipstick. Carole Lombard It is absolutely imperative that we protect, preserve and pass on this genetic heritage for man and every other living thing in as good a condition as we received it. David R. Brower I don't have the insight with the Longhorns that I do with the two teams that I own, but as a fan and reading the sports pages, I'm bullish about the Longhorns. Tom Hicks The more liberty you give away the more you will have. Robert Green Ingersoll My bo...

Our cautious ancestors, when yawning, blocked the way to the entrance of evil spirits by

putting their hands before their mouths. We find a reason for the gesture in the delicacy of manner which forbids an indecent exposure. George Herbert Mead The quest for riches darkens the sense of right and wrong. Antiphanes The heart of a mother is a deep abyss at the bottom of which you will always find forgiveness. Honore de Balzac The best way out of a difficulty is through it. Will Rogers Slot machines are like crack for old people. Keenen Ivory Wayans Rastafari not a culture, it's a reality. Bob Marley There is more criticism of puritanism, and more distance from Christian morality, than there has been before. Susie Bright

Sometimes film is just the family business. Some families are generations of carpenters or farmers,

or they make clothes, or they're all lawyers. I'm in the family business. Danny Huston With whom do you argue? With a woman, of course. Not with a friend, because he accepted all your defects the moment he found you. Besides, woman is mother-have we forgotten? Marcello Mastroianni I know where I'm going and I have told the French. I am sure if hope is there, we will be able to put France back on its feet... to live better in five years than we do today. Francois Hollande My dad's sense of humor was direct and sometimes surreal - his quick wit is well known amongst our family and friends. He raised me on Spike Jones records and W.C. Fields movies, and his sense of humor fell somewhere in between. Tony Visconti As many will remember, a respected Army Corps economist filed a whistleblower complaint about the Corps' use of faulty data to justify lock and dam expansion. Ron Kind I actually think that the dotting of the i's and the crossing of the t...

You write in songs what you're too scared to write in real life, and then

you sing the songs to loads of people instead of telling it to the person you should be telling it to... Songs are a great way of dealing with those issues but kind of a coward's way as well.Winston Marshall I really wanted to be Ambassador to Argentina.Jorge M. Perez I've never been able to understand what they mean by 'Pinteresque,'. I'm sure it's indefinable.Harold Pinter I still think 'Texas Chain Saw Massacre' was what they call one of those watershed movies. That and 'The Exorcist' and 'Psycho' were just landmarks for those horror films.Fred Willard You got to learn when to be the bigger person, especially in the entertainment business.Justine Skye My writing is a product of how I would interact with things that have happened to me or things that have not happened to me but have happened to somebody else.Rupi Kaur Here in L.A., people really open their houses in an easy way, nothing too complicated. You can go in y...

My father wasn't around when I was a kid, and I used to always say,

'Why me? Why don't I have a father? Why isn't he around? Why did he leave my mother?' But as I got older I looked deeper and thought, 'I don't know what my father was going through, but if he was around all the time, would I be who I am today?' LeBron James She's a very charismatic character, and she holds the whole play together. Neil Tennant I have nobody. I have surrounded myself with people who are fake just because I need to talk to somebody. Nikki Reed But I think technology advertising will have to stop addressing how products are made and concentrate more on what a product will do for the consumer. Jay Chiat Order is manifestly maintained in the universe... governed by the sovereign will of God. James Prescott Joule You had to decompress the pressure before the race. I taught my heart to relax. I lay down before the race. It gave me more energy just before the race. Emerson Fittipaldi I loved old movies as a kid, so I always wat...

Music is the way I understand how to communicate now, the way that I've learned

how to communicate... but it will eventually have to go beyond that. You see, I've realised that music is not what keeps people involved - it's the attitude behind the music. Todd Rundgren Things that happen every day are, frankly, what we in the news business aren't good at covering because there is no one day in which they are news. Nicholas Kristof Ironically, if only because over the years I've known so many - from college deans to studio executives to European expats - who come to Los Angeles aspiring to nothing other than living in Topanga, I wound up there by accident. Steve Erickson Grooming a successor, is it an inheritance? In a democratic party, you don't want leaders appointed that way. They have to be appointed properly by the people. Robert Mugabe In every role that I do - whether I'm a teacher, actor or mentor - I do it with total dedication and as much honesty as I feel is required because there's no alternative to honesty and har...