Being a humorist is not a voluntary thing. You can tell this because

in a situation where saying a funny thing will cause a lot of trouble, a humorist will still say the funny thing. No matter how inappropriate.
P. J. O'Rourke

Los Angeles is a city of few hard targets. Its iconic buildings are private spaces, mostly residential, visible by invitation only or in the pages of a Taschen book. Its central industry is as mirage-like as the projection of light on a screen.
Dana Goodyear

I felt I ought not to be wasting time, and I hurried to graduate from high school to enroll at UCSD. I also hurried to finish college, to go on to higher studies. By the time I was in my teens, I had a strong sense of mission, wanting to discover something important or solve a major problem in biology or medicine.
Bruce Beutler

I traced the marley floor with my pointe shoes, and imagine myself on the stage, not as a member of the corps, but as a principal dancer. It felt right. It felt like a promise. Some day, somehow, it was going to happen for me.
Misty Copeland

Government can encourage innovation, but mainly by doing less, not doing more.
Matt Ridley

I tend to be a bit of a dreamer.
Richard Gere

You don't send people to prison on the basis of what other people imagine, or on the basis of media sound bites like 'shooting an unarmed child,' when that 'child' was beating him bloody.
Thomas Sowell

I started dancing in my room... I wanted to find out more about my movements. I wanted to elaborate on whatever it was that I was doing there.
Kyle Abraham

I'm not very good at science or math, even though I pretend. And I'm not very good at teaching. I'm not very patient.
Rick Smolan

My father was a painter. There was a lot of singing. We hung around with a lot of folk musicians. My family knew a lot of great folk musicians of the time, like Woody Guthrie, Paul Robeson, Leadbelly. They were all people we knew.
Alan Arkin

Gemeoss

Web searching and cellphone use both flourish in the wee hours. Before the dawn of

the web, I would stay up watching television. But there is something soporific about television: I would often nod off. Not so when I'm online. As technologies expand, these problems may only worsen. Sendhil Mullainathan To our critical eyes, the threads of which the past is woven are, by nature, endless and indivisible. Scientifically speaking, we cannot grasp the absolute beginning of anything: everything extends backwards to be prolonged by something else. Pierre Teilhard de Chardin I'm the kind of person who likes to create the environment and mindset - not because I do it deliberately, but because that's how I like to live - where, from catering to makeup to hair to wardrobe, electricians, camera department lighting, sound, you know, it's our movie; we're together, and we have that camaraderie and that closeness. Steven Rodney McQueen There are examples of fraternal dictatorships, or one, anyway: the passing of power from Fidel to Raul Castro. Elliott...

IBM's long-standing mantra is 'Think.' What has always made IBM a fascinating and compelling place

for me, is the passion of the company, and its people, to apply technology and scientific thinking to major societal issues. Ginni Rometty I am going to get political on you. Because I am the most shallow person in the world, my mission is to see men's formal wear change a little bit. It is too rigid! Everybody looks like a penguin! Steven Cojocaru I was able to get operated on four days after I was diagnosed. It was just a matter of getting this baseball-sized tumor out of me. I reflect now on how lucky I was to be in the situation where I could get the best possible help and treatment. Eric Davis If it's time to party, it's time for hip hop. I love Drake, Jay-Z, Kanye. If I'm chilling at home though, I'm listening to Massive Attack, Thievery Corporation, Radiohead, DJ Shadow. I also listen to a lot of classical. Alexis Knapp Indulging in unrestrained and immoderate laughter is a sign of intemperance, of a want of control over one's emotions, and of...

Art is based on very clear, mathematical principles like proportion and harmony. At the same

time, physicists need to be inventive, to have ideas, to have some fantasy. Fabiola Gianotti Any business today that embraces the status quo as an operating principle is going to be on a death march. Howard Schultz With the variety of fields within economics, broadly conceived and the increasing specialization of scholarly world, the award of a Nobel Memorial Prize honors not only the individual scholar but, implicitly, also a special field or a distinctive method. Simon Kuznets I think of 'Mommy' as very simplistic or not simplistic, but I wish for the style to actually work with what you see onscreen and what you feel in that very moment. I hope we did not disrespect the characters by being too flamboyant when it's not necessary. Xavier Dolan Pakistan is rich in sporting talent, but the only thing needed is to have sincere and honest administrators who should be held accountable by the government. Pakistan should be recognised as a sporting nation and not as a...

Total physical and mental inertia are highly agreeable, much more so than we allow ourselves

to imagine. A beach not only permits such inertia but enforces it, thus neatly eliminating all problems of guilt. It is now the only place in our overly active world that does. John Kenneth Galbraith When I'm out on the stage, it gives me this rush and anything that's on my mind and everything I'm going through is forgotten about. Fantasia Barrino The more I like me, the less I want to pretend to be other people. Jamie Lee Curtis Honestly, I didn't know I was a role model. Treat Williams I never thought much of the courage of a lion tamer. Inside the cage he is at least safe from people. George Bernard Shaw

The Cullens, they're an interesting group of vampires. They're all really good but kind of bad.

I mean, they are still vampires. Elizabeth Reaser The waves from all the different parts of a sphere would cancel each other out. You need motion that's nonspherical. Rainer Weiss Carlos Sosa, the saxophone player for Zac Brown Band, and I worked up two songs for 'When You're Feeling Sick.' They were a blast to work on. The songs are real upbeat and silly. Coy Bowles I've no apprehensions and inhibitions as an actor. Nithya Menen I want to help people to get to know my story and really tell them in detail what I've been through. James Arthur When you encounter some form of discrimination or maybe even worse, I urge you to alert others. Regardless of how small the incident is, it has to be brought to the attention of people like me and also the law enforcement agencies. Raja Krishnamoorthi Perhaps the best thing about biographies is that they enable us to slip the strictures of time and provide a bracing corrective to our tendency to see everything in the dark ...

I never really got on my own case about my own acting. I know a

lot of other people have, and probably very justifiably. But I don't worry about stuff like that too much. Troy Donahue I was made fun of in the Midwest - I was the only Asian in my graduating class of 200. Fortunately, I found my niche, and it was fine. But I wanted to be so white, you wouldn't believe it. I was like, 'I want to be white; I don't want to be this anymore.' But now I embrace it. Reggie Lee Developing a diet that is healthful, balanced, and appropriate for your particular caloric needs is easy enough and is absolutely critical to establishing a healthful lifestyle that incorporates proper nutrition, adequate fitness, and mental resilience. Daphne Oz As I have found out, recognition has its upside, its downside and - you may say - its backside. Pippa Middleton The radiation was worse by far. I had bandages all over my head. I looked like a mummy. On the side of my head and neck and down to my collarbone, I had second-degree burns. My skin b...

My mother told me Homer Ditto was not my father. Nope. Mom had had a

fling with some other guy who was my dad. Some dude who didn't stick around too long who Mom was happy to get rid of. She chose Homer, and Homer chose me, so he lent me his name even though I didn't have his blood. Beth Ditto We have met on a solemn occasion, and in this crowded assembly there is one thing that appears important, that is, for every one of us to be still, that if any thing should he said, every one may the better hear. Elias Hicks We're going to shoot one Polaroid per show. I'm going to sign this before it even develops because I know that once it develops with my signature on it, it's worth a fortune. I'll make this a work of magic warlock art. Charlie Sheen There is a glaring reason that the necessary total ban on nontherapeutic use of antibiotics hasn't happened: The factory farm industry, allied with the pharmaceutical industry, has more power than public-health professionals. Jonathan Safran Foer I'm sort of an old man, a...

The basis of the free market is anytime you can generate revenue or

profit, you've created value in excess of the resources you consume in a society. That's probably the most unbiased utility function there is, as opposed to someone's opinion. Michael J. Saylor Terrorism will spill over if you don't speak up. Malala Yousafzai Beijing has a glut of charming and traditional or brash and luxurious places to stay. Evan Osnos When Walt Disney was making his films, he trusted his instincts and made films for himself, but they appealed to everybody, not just kids. John Lasseter Unfortunately, we are living in an era where plenty of songs with vulgar, objectionable lyrics are also becoming popular. It's a disturbing trend, and I feel really sad when I see small kids dancing to such numbers in television shows. In my career so far, I have refused any song whose lyrics I haven't been comfortable with. Shreya Ghoshal If I was going to write something, I'd need to stop for three months and just see if I had any thoughts i...

I couldn't speak Japanese very well, passport regulations were changing, I felt British, and my

future was in Britain. And it would also make me eligible for literary awards. But I still think I'm regarded as one of their own in Japan. Kazuo Ishiguro Clever men are good, but they are not the best. Thomas Carlyle It really is, to see that this kind of music is still so popular. Wanda Jackson I always try to make my characters people, and yet I always want to entertain. Jeffrey Combs I was not a member of the SS. Albert Speer All my friends from my past would know me as Scott Diggs. Taye Diggs They have a right to censure that have a heart to help. William Penn

I had certain physical limitations that made me change the choreography for myself or made

me more interested in choreography only rather than dancing. I have never been a person who wanted to just dance. I have always been interested in developing for other people. Katherine Dunham Every study on crime and or firearms proves time and time again, that 99.99999% of American gun owners do not commit crimes or use our firearms in any dangerous or improper way. Ted Nugent All Christians should be able to articulate reasons why they believe what they believe - not just for the sake of our spiritually confused friends, but also so that we ourselves will have a deeper and more confident faith. Lee Strobel The country up here is beautiful; everything green and pleasant; and if you saw it now, you would not believe that in two months' time it could have such a parched and barren appearance as it will then assume. William John Wills Our notions of self-determination are, on the whole, something of a myth. We are governed almost exclusively by our own peculiar habits, w...