A new political-entertainment class has moved into the noisy void once occupied by the sage

pontiffs of yore, a class just as polarized as our partisan divide: one side holding up a fun-house mirror to folly, the other side reveling in its own warped reflection.
James Wolcott

I look at modern life and I see people not taking responsibility for their lives. The temptation to blame, to find external causes to one's own issues is something that is particularly modern. I know that personally I find that sense of responsibility interesting.
Edward Zwick

Richard was in heavy, heavy costume, he could hardly sit, you know, and I turned up and they put me in two layers of silk, so I played him much lighter - you know, floating around in a pair of slippers, a bit of a hippy.
Michael Gambon

The local music community here was dying for a place to record, so we started doing acoustic, folk and bluegrass and then did rock projects for other bands, as well as for my son Tal and my own work.
Randy Bachman

The battles that count aren't the ones for gold medals. The struggles within yourself - the invisible, inevitable battles inside all of us - that's where it's at.
Jesse Owens

What's good is that my music is different from everyone else's. It's got the soul element, like Duffy, but it's not very retro. It's a contemporary, pop, fresh sound. That's what makes it different.
Pixie Lott

I don't particularly dislike any kind of person that might be reading my stuff. They like it and that's cool, but I don't do the work for any kind of group in particular, except for hobos, who just plain kick ass and light up my life.
Jhonen Vasquez

I grew up listening to all kinds of music, everything from country to rock, pop, R&B and even rap, so for me, music is music and a great song is a great song.
Jason Aldean

I think they should create a holiday for friends-with-benefits relationships. Because I feel like Valentine's Day is, maybe it's a day to stay home and cry.
Elizabeth Meriwether

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 not just the kid who's spent every penny from his job to upgrade his

car to tell the world he cares about sports cars, it's also the person driving around in a fuel-conscious hybrid electric car, because it's more a message to the world than an effective means of saving fuel, to be quite honest. Richard Hammond Praise the bridge that carried you over. George Colman The power of an air force is terrific when there is nothing to oppose it. Winston Churchill 'A collected poems' is either a gravestone or a testimonial to survival. Al Purdy Hardship makes the world obscure. Don DeLillo I have a weird life because I live on songwriting royalties, which are a strange income. Sometimes it rains, sometimes it doesn't. Joe Strummer Girls we love for what they are; young men for what they promise to be. Johann Wolfgang von Goethe Always be smarter than the people who hire you. Lena Horne In the middle ages people were tourists because of their religion, whereas now they are tourists because tourism is their religion. Ro...

I think in the old days, the nexus of weirdness ran through Southern California, and

to a degree New York City. I think it's changed so that every bizarre story in the country now has a Florida connection. I don't know why, except it must be some inversion of magnetic poles or something. Carl Hiaasen My job on 'Dark Shadows' was to make it fun and funny, first and foremost. It can still be dark and it can still even be gory and gothic at times, but it also needed to be fun and it needed to be an experience that people would enjoy having. Seth Grahame-Smith I've always wanted to tackle the casual part of dressing. Knits to me are always just easy. I've fantasized about packing a suitcase of only knits: You just throw them in, roll them in a ball, pull them out and they still look fabulous. Nanette Lepore Tailoring was considered to be a world that was very traditional, and basically going out of fashion. Fashion designers did not have a real link with tailoring or tradition, so I fused the two worlds together. Ozwald Boateng Sanctific...

One of the things I noticed more in this draft than in any recent drafts

was the importance of the character issue. Players who had baggage, like Justice, fell much farther than his talent dictated. But a lot of coaches didn't want to take the chance. Ron Jaworski On some level, now, we are joining the larger world and realizing that we are connected with people in these very scary ways, sometimes. What happened recently in Spain affects us here and brings questions up. It is too bad that people have to be shaken up in that way. Edwidge Danticat 'Brand-Dropping' is the term that the Kluger Agency coined to describe discreetly advertising by product mentioning in song, and we feel we can make this the way of the future without jeopardizing any artist's creative outlet or typical style. Adam Kluger While I sign off on trades or free agents, I've rarely overruled my basketball people's decisions. But I'm not shy about steering the discussion or pushing deeper if something doesn't make sense to me. Paul Allen Kids are...

A high nutrient density diet was associated with more feelings of hunger in the mouth

and throat and less in the head and stomach. Joel Fuhrman I may not be where I want to be, but thank God I am not where I used to be. Joyce Meyer When a car's ahead of you, as long as you can see it, you get a tow, just like the draft in NASCAR. Even if it's a long ways down the track, it punches a hole in the air that has to help. When you're running alone, you can feel the difference, and it shows on the clock, too. Mario Andretti The United States created the best popular songs that were ever written, and from the 1920s to the 1940s, it was a renaissance period. It stopped in 1950. Tony Bennett The film I like the best is always the one I'm working on now or next. Ewan McGregor When I have a little down time, I like to go to the gym and try to bank some hours there. I like to spend time with my dogs, go hiking, do a little traveling. Emmanuelle Vaugier When I was in Mexico and started to dream in Spanish, I knew that was a good sign that I was learn...

With hacky sack, somebody brought one to recess in sixth grade and it kind of

all went downhill from there! The same with the yoyo's! One kid brought a yoyo one day and people started getting them. I just kept at it and found that I really loved it. Jason Dolley Shooting movies has changed, and me too - I have changed. And then, every film I do, something in my mind, my soul, changes. My natural change, I change at the same time as the films, I think. Dario Argento It's different as a guest as opposed to being a star of a series. A guest star is a whole different responsibility. It's much different than being a regular. You come in, and it's a lot of unfamiliar faces, and you want to try to fit in as best you can, but also you want to stay there without making waves. Donnie Wahlberg I like to focus on making the music sound simple and true, and very lush and full. I think music should take you to somewhere else where you have the space to contemplate or exercise your imagination. All the while you should be feeling real good, like when y...

The future of the television industry is changing at an unstoppable rate, and it is

exciting to share my experience and thoughts on how this will change the value of content in the digital space. Dana Brunetti I did a pilot for Fox years ago called 'Faceless,' with Sean Bean. I always thought it was such a cool show because it was really raw. I thought we were pushing it. This was back at a time before there was the 'cable standard.' Joe Carnahan I wear two hats. The one is business and increasing my shareholders' value; the other is social responsibility. Guler Sabanci Analysis of soil, grave goods and skeletons has been key to our understanding of archaeology and the migration of peoples, as well as their daily lives. But in mainstream history, we tend to stick to documents. Kate Williams If the nation is rich but people are poor, the country cannot be strong, and society will be unstable. Zong Qinghou I was undeterred by the danger of traveling as a single American woman through Taliban-governed land. I believed in the stories I w...

I studied journalism at university, and I started a little bit of work on a

woman's magazine called Minx that was aimed at 18- to 24-year-olds. Rhianna Pratchett I said that if I were an industrialist or entrepreneur, I would invest in agriculture-based enterprises, for there is so much that can be done in manufacturing, in food preservation. F. Sionil Jose Christ hath instituted Baptism as a bath, to wash away the anger, and hath put into us the Noble Stone, viz. the water of eternal life, for an earnest-penny, so that instantly in our childhood we might be able to escape the wrath. Jakob Bohme In my very early days as a journalist, as a cub reporter on a local newspaper, I used to cover the district courthouse in Limerick city - all human life passed through that establishment, and my time there remains a source of inspiration. Kevin Barry If Christians see Mormonism as a dramatic deviation from a millennia-old, biblically-based faith, Jews see Christianity in the same light. Meir Soloveichik My mother was a high-strung perfectionist. She ...

I have values. But morals are Christian. There's no religion here. Values. Don't hurt when

you don't need to, but don't let anybody step over that line - it's an invisible line, but it's respect for somebody's space. John Lydon At that point it certainly would be called abstract. That is to say, you had a model and there'd be one or two or three people there drawing the model but otherwise you had abstractions all around the room, even though the model was in front of you. Lee Krasner I got married and decided I wanted to do a dance record, and I didn't ever expect for it to be what it was or for the 'No Doubt' thing to be such a long break, but it was one of those things where you just had to sort of follow your inspiration. Gwen Stefani Well yes so far, I was recently in Germany and they had me do six book signings a day and that was too much so I had them cut it down to about three. It becomes taxing at times but its a lot of fun and you meet a lot of nice people. Larry Hagman We need the private sector to succeed, because i...

The public wouldn't like the perfect umpire in every game. It would kill off baseball's

greatest alibi - 'We was robbed.' Billy Evans I suspect that here theists and atheists would agree: Human beings have within them the ability to choose evil or good. We wake up each day facing the age-old struggle of good and evil. In some situations, mental illness clouds our judgment. Adam Hamilton I go through periods where I don't shop at all, and then I go crazy and buy everything in sight. I never know what to wear, and I'm at my worst before an audition. I pull everything out of the closet, throw it on my bed. I'll get entirely dressed and then take it all off again until I'm in a kind of frenzy. Brooke Adams Why did mainstream America come to accept marriage equality? Gay leaders had made a convincing case that gay families were like straight families and should have the same rights. The American spirit of fair play had been invoked. Edmund White When I hear a great country song, I get chills and I want to cry. You feel something. And just so...