I've read plenty of J.G. Ballard, but I'm not really a Ballardian. I've met Ballardians,

and I know when I can't compete. I like Ballard in his relatively unchallenging apocalyptic mode: 'Vermilion Sands,' 'The Drowned World,' 'The Burning World,' 'The Crystal World.' Lev Grossman

You want to throw yourself in as many uncomfortable places as possible, if you want to build muscles in uncomfortable parts of your body and grow as an artist. Hamish Linklater

I guess, we were people who just dedicated to trying to get better. Geddy Lee

I get such lovely gifts from fans... amazing pictures, handmade jewellery. I'm very lucky! Leona Lewis

I grew up in Doraville, Georgia and I ate barbecued ribs and chicken fried steak, and all kinds of cheesy grits, you know, and I never even thought twice about it. Kathy Freston

That's how I learned how to act. I learned by doing it. I didn't start acting until I was 37. John Mahoney

Golf is fundamentally about being honest. I see people hit eight shots and tell me they shot five. I never say a word. It is a reminder to me of what is at stake. Martin Sheen

Marriage encourages the men and women who together create life to unite in a bond for the protection of children. Jack Kingston

My photography is often a sociological look at American culture, and it's been very well published in the U.K. Lauren Greenfield

I tell you, it is easier to build a grand opera or a city center than to build a personal house. Alvar Aalto

Gemeoss

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 ...

We underestimate children and the people who work with them. I swear - so often, I tell

people I am a children's author, and it's like they want to pat me on the head: 'Aw, isn't that sweet.' Kathi Appelt There is a disconnect in education and work. And corporates don't do a great job of skilling. In future, corporates and educational institutions will work closely. Shiv Nadar I played semi-professionally for a season, and there's an element of performance to being a footballer, stepping onto the pitch: you feel like a gladiator walking into a colosseum. Callum Turner We used to indulge hopelessly as a family at Christmas. When the children were little, I dressed up as Father Christmas. They knew it was a gag, but they loved it. I remember stealing into their bedrooms at 1 A.M. and filling the stockings up at the end of the bed. Richard Attenborough What we, as black people, need to do is we need to worry about our education. Charles Barkley I was never the person who came up with a boom somehow. I worked slowly and consistently, making my wa...

The casualties in the Civil War amount to more than all other wars - all

other American wars combined. More people died in that war than World War II, World War I, Vietnam, etc. And that was a war for white supremacy. It was a war to erect a state in which the basis of it was the enslavement of black people.Ta-Nehisi Coates It is the forces of the universe that make human beings fall ill. Having learnt to recognize how sun qualities and moon qualities live in plants, animals and minerals, we discover how we can find counterforces and also individual natural forces that point us towards medicines for specific internal illnesses.Rudolf Steiner Girls are socialised in ways that are harmful to their sense of self - to reduce themselves, to cater to the egos of men, to think of their bodies as repositories of shame. As adult women, many struggle to overcome, to unlearn, much of that social conditioning.Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie 'They' are the people that don't believe in you, that say that you won't succeed. We stay away from 'They....

I have always maintained that it's not the quantity of work, but the quality that

should speak. I have maintained the same for my music albums, too. I have always released them after a gap of two to three years.Adnan Sami In all my days of schooling, from preschool all the way up to 12th grade, there was not one white person in my class. Literally zero.Kendrick Lamar The truth is that searching for our commonality instead of our differences could transform our dysfunctional politics.Raja Krishnamoorthi It came down to the AHCA or the continued disaster of Obamacare, which was an easy choice. The AHCA is a major improvement, because a federal one-size-fits-all approach to health care isn't the answer.Cathy McMorris Rodgers I'm really glad I had the chance to live in Jensen Beach and Stuart before everything exploded. I'm always going to be fond of that area. For me, it was a sleepy little fishing town, and it kind of represents what Florida was before the development explosion.Judge Reinhold Space is much stiffer than you imagine; it's ...

The genre has moved into this commercial aspect of itself, and ignored this extraordinarily rich

literature that's filed everywhere else except under travel. Robyn Davidson What the French want is coherence, stability and justice. If I am in a favorable position today, it's because my fellow citizens want to make the effort to straighten out the country, and at the same time they want it to be just and equitable. Francois Hollande When we shoot 24, there are so many things I have to worry about, from the script to technical things to my performance, that I don't have a second to be bored or take anything for granted. We produce 24 hours of film a season, which is like making 12 movies. Kiefer Sutherland It is what it is, and it ain't nothin' else... Everything is clearly, openly, plainly delivered. Dan Flavin Ever since I was a kid, whatever situation I was presented with, I always made the most of it. Daley Thompson The tongue may be employed about, and made to serve all the purposes of vice, in tempting and deceiving, in perjury and injustice. ...

The only way physical comedy works is if you don't see it coming. And the

harder the fall, the funnier it is. You have to really take some shots, and I've walked away with some bumps and bruises. Chris Pratt Passion is the thing that sustains you in acting. If you're doing it for fame and money, don't even bother because it will never happen. The last thing I ever expected was to be paid for this. Scott Patterson 'The Princess Bride' is by far the most popular film I've ever done. I don't think I'll ever top it. Wallace Shawn When I moved to New York, I fell head over heels back into country music and probably 'cause I missed something about Texas. Norah Jones To me, religion is an agreement between a group of people about what God is. Spirituality is a one-on-one relationship. Steve Earle For me, you say the words 'concept record,' and the first thing I think of is theater or the opera or something. Chester Bennington Almost all our desires, when examined, contain something too shameful to reveal...

The Hebrews have done more to civilize men than any other nation. If I were

an atheist, and believed blind eternal fate, I should still believe that fate had ordained the Jews to be the most essential instrument for civilizing the nations. John Adams The sincere friends of this world are as ship lights in the stormiest of nights. Giotto di Bondone I kind of have a rededication in my life now to acting because I'm very fond of being in this movie. Thomas Haden Church I've had this sneaking feeling throughout the game that it's there to be won. Ron Atkinson A friendship that like love is warm; A love like friendship, steady. Thomas Moore There is a condition worse than blindness, and that is, seeing something that isn't there. Thomas Hardy You don't realize how easy this game is until you get up in that broadcasting booth. Mickey Mantle

The priests say that God created our souls, and that just puts us under the

control of another puppeteer. If God created our will, then he's responsible for every choice we make. Orson Scott Card I do like to work on a Marvel method, so if I've got the opportunity, and the writer is happy to do it, I like to have a writer detail what happens on a page, but not saying what happens in every scene. David Lloyd I've always had a fantasy to write a cookbook, because everyone wants to know what a model eats. Padma Lakshmi To newspapers and publishing houses I urge the use of fact over fiction, freedom of the press, and responsibility at all times. Joely Richardson I think my thing is I grew up in the ghetto, and I was able to get a second chance. That's what I'm trying to tell kids. Master P We gotta stop fighting amongst each other. I think the only rift should be when take it the stage and try to out perform each other. Grandmaster Flash I'm a really bad liar. My mom finds out every time, especially now that she's got ...

I try to surround myself with the people who genuinely believe in changing things, that are

angry about it and want to make changes and want to make a change and are willing. Lauren Southern Each holiday season, as family members arrive and couches are unfolded, my household settles into a palpable nostalgia. Poorly designed photo albums are pulled from the shelves. Home videos of prepubescent siblings in matching pajamas dance across the television screen. Clint Smith I think movies are overdeveloped in Hollywood. There's a big benefit to not overdeveloping and not being so precious about what you're doing. I think you lose a kind of vitality if you develop something into the ground. Jason Blum I like mash-ups, taking contemporary songs and making them old... old songs, making them new. Bria Skonberg Living in L.A. keeps me in my car a lot, and I'm constantly flipping back and forth between the following Sirius/XM Radio stations: NFL Radio, MLB Radio, POTUS, MSNBC, CNN, and Fox News. R. J. Cutler We're part of creating this world in which we live, but we...

We've come to expect so little from online privacy measures that public displays of concern

about the matter are more or less for show. Being devastated to discover you've been tagged in somebody else's photo has an air of the melodramatic about it at this point. Sloane Crosley The first one, obviously, was walking into my office at eight o'clock in the morning on Wednesday, and being told there was a telephone call saying that there was an incident at Three Mile Island, and that it had shut down and that beyond that we didn't know. William Scranton I was a baseball player, I taught baseball, and all of a sudden I was in the business world. Now I used the baseball world to talk about their product. Not too much, just enough to keep going. Just be yourself and you'll never have a problem. That's what I did. Willie Mays Readers always seem to think that the author has some control over the design of their books. Donald Norman Either you deal with what is the reality, or you can be sure that the reality is going to deal with you. Alex Haley ...