Every first thing is always a miracle. The first person you fall in love with.

The first letter you receive. The first stone you throw. And in my conception of the novel, the letter becomes important. But what's more important is the fact that we need to continue to tell each other stories.
Colum McCann

I actually do my own renovations. I designed and built a 100-foot split-cedar rail fence to enclose my property. It was one of the hardest things I've ever done. Don't recommend doing it alone. I also built a 100-square-foot back porch. Again, don't recommend doing it alone.
Jeffrey Donovan

What is important is not getting intoxicated with a good feeling or getting intoxicated even with an insight. These take many forms in our practice. We go through times of great release, where there has been physical holding for what feels like forever, and something opens up and releases.
Sharon Salzberg

At first, I was scared to show fear because you can never be sure how people will perceive you. But I dared myself to do that, to stand out. Now I'll talk about being beaten up or robbed or making a stupid decision because of a girl or whatever.
Kendrick Lamar

Anybody can have a birthday. It requires nothing. Murderers have birthdays. It's the opposite of anything that I believe in. And I don't like at work where you stop everything to sing 'Happy Birthday' to someone. I feel like that's for children.
Mindy Kaling

In Sufi terms, there are two very interesting notions of transcendence. One is to gaze out at the universe and to comprehend that what you see out there reflects what you are. The other one is to look inside yourself and recognise that the universe is present there.
Mohsin Hamid

Anytime I audition for something, it's always a question of whether or not the people I'm auditioning for understand I'm an improviser and I like to do that, and if they like that or if they just want someone who's going to do what's written.
Adam Pally

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...

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...

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...

I wouldn't call myself a standup in the presence of Jerry Seinfeld or Chris Rock,

but I do my share of it and it has been and remains part of my activity and I like it. Alan Thicke Like most people who live in India, I complain about corruption, but know that I can live with corrupt men. It is the honest ones I secretly worry about. Aravind Adiga A significant piece of the wealth that the NFL owners garner is a result of the enormous TV revenues they get - and those revenues are supported by a legislatively granted exemption from the antitrust laws that has been made applicable to sports leagues, primarily the NFL. Eliot Spitzer From my parents, I learned a very strong work ethic, and all of my brothers and sisters all worked from the earliest days of life right through to the present time. George J. Mitchell I'm quite interested in my own mental processes, simply because I'm a failed scientist, and because I'm interested in how the brain and the mind works, and I like to avoid easy descriptions. A. S. Byatt You don't even really get u...

I once threw a water balloon on a girl because I caught her cheating on

me. She was kissing my friend and I thought, 'Oh, this can't be happening.' It was bad and I was much older than you think throwing a water balloon. I was 14. Breckin Meyer When I started to sing, my mother would have me engaged to perform at the Women's Christian Temperance Union national or annual meetings. I would hate doing this because I wanted to play baseball or go off skiing. Maureen Forrester Sometimes entire categories of craigslist are rendered nearly unusable by spam. Con artists prowl the listings, paying sellers with fake cashier's checks and luring buyers to share their credit card numbers. Gary Wolf If you can achieve winning a league championship, that, to me, is the full test of the team and management because it is over the full season and you have a lot of problems you have to overcome. Walter Smith To realize life in the abstract as noble or beautiful or humane, to set it forth so with radiance upon it, that is civilization in the ar...

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...

Every society in the history of man has upheld the institution of marriage as a

bond between a man and a woman. Why? Because society is based on one thing: that society is based on the future of the society. And that's what? Children. Monogamous relationships. Rick Santorum We need new athletes all the time because we need new games every day - fudging just a little on the definition of the word 'need.' We like to have new games every day, and, if we are to have a constant and endless flow of games, we need a constant flow of athletes. Bill James It's hardly even noticeable that so many artists, designers and architects live here. It isn't reflected in the cityscape or in the museums. Many of the artists, for example, exhibit around the world, just not in Berlin. Olafur Eliasson If 'Black Balloon' had come out before 'The Mummy,' casting agents wouldn't have been able to see me for the first time in 'The Mummy.' But now that 'The Mummy' has come out before 'The Black Balloon,' that's a ve...