Children, I mean, think of your own childhood, how important the bedtime story was. How

important these imaginary experiences were for you. They helped shape reality, and I think human beings wouldn't be human without narrative fiction.
Paul Auster

How many mothers have emerged from a family trip to a Disney movie and been obliged to explain the facts of death to their sobbing young? A conservative estimate: the tens of millions, since the studio's first animated feature, 'Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs' premiered in 1937.
Richard Corliss

I think a part of being successful or trying to be successful is staying true to who you are. Be genuine.
Tessanne Chin

There's something in me that loves to inspire people: when I'm playing music, I imagine all this sparkly stardust going through everyone. I want to make people come alive.
Bat for Lashes

The feathers have been retired to the London Hard Rock Cafe. I don't obsess about it as much. Also, it's strange - the better physical shape I get in, the less I care about what suit I'm covering myself up in. I'm not really out to flaunt it, but I'm just more comfortable in my own skin.
Brandon Flowers

I was a temp secretary for a long time, and I went at it with a passion, and I tried to do a nice job in all my jobs.
Ira Glass

Whoever hired me might've just heard 'Refugee.' Well, I'm not the secret to 'Refugee.' The secret to 'Refugee' is the song. But if somebody really good calls me up to play on something because they like the way I played on 'Refugee,' then I wind up playing on another really good song.
Benmont Tench

It makes sense for Japan to pursue a more independent role in the world, following Latin America and others in freeing itself from U.S. domination.
Noam Chomsky

My consultant keeps telling me sudden death could come at any moment.
John Tavener

I'd known since about eleven that I wanted to live in America.
Iggy Azalea

Cooking and eating are among the most important ways we weave days into lives.
Crescent Dragonwagon

Gemeoss

You can make people feel valued or cared for by design alone. It's not purely

about money. It's about how we choose to value human experience.Thomas Heatherwick I do a big roast of Trump during my set now - which I clearly expanded on - because there's so much to make fun of him about now.Lisa Lampanelli A vaccine that prevented tuberculosis would merit a Nobel Prize, but it's just very difficult to develop.Tom Frieden I go through the same kind of situations as other people. I have to give that to people, because people have this facade, this mirage, this mirror about me.Tory Lanez The wild thing is that when I'm in the band, I can control my destiny with four other guys. As a composer sitting in the audience, you can throw good vibes at everybody, but you can't control anybody's destiny, so it's really unsettling.David Bryan I'm an actor, and I don't judge my parts.Swara Bhaskar As a competitor, you want to be out there in the fire with your teammates.Brock Osweiler We wish to be treated 'not as ordi...

My parents moved to American Samoa when I was three or four years old. My

dad was principal of a high school there. It was idyllic for a kid. I had a whole island for a backyard. I lived there until I was eight years old and we moved to Santa Barbara. Eric Stoltz If you accept the belief that baptism incorporates us in the mystical body of Christ, into the divine DNA, then you might say that the Holy Spirit is present in each of us, and thus we have the capacity for the fullness of redemption, of transformation. Thomas Keating My first name, Benjamin, dates back a thousand years earlier to Benjamin - Binyamin - the son of Jacob, who was also known as Israel. Jacob and his 12 sons roamed these same hills of Judea and Sumeria 4,000 years ago, and there's been a continuous Jewish presence in the land ever since. Benjamin Netanyahu I was cast in 'Thor' and I'm cast as a Nordic god. If you know anything about the Nords, they don't look like me but there you go. I think that's a sign of the times for the future. I think we will see...

The great fear that hung over the business community in the 1970s was death by

regulation, and the great goal of the conservative movement, as it rose to triumph in the 1980s, was to remove that threat - to keep OSHA, the EPA, and the FTC from choking off entrepreneurship with their infernal meddling in the marketplace. Thomas Frank I had always been kind of obsessed with making a home of my own and was always drawing rooms that I wanted to live in, down to pictures on the wall and the faces that would be in the photographs, and how the couches would be situated. Michelle Williams It was easy to run around barefoot in oblivion in Costa Rica. But once I gave birth to my child, I didn't want to be oblivious to the obvious. Carolyn Murphy Intelligence is really a kind of taste: taste in ideas. Susan Sontag I'm a lioness. I have four cubs. I'm a mom. I want to take care of my kids and protect them. Heidi Klum The disease of an evil conscience is beyond the practice of all the physicians of all the countries in the would. William E. Gladsto...

Chris Hemsworth is like Christopher Reeve in that he can do two things:

he can wear a big red cape without a shred of self-consciousness. But he's also funny as hell, and he's so sweet. So with all the fish-out-of-water stuff, he's so funny. So he does almost two jobs in a way. Tom Hiddleston I would say that, in the future, the book will be reserved for things that function best as a book. So, if I need a textbook that's going to be out of date because of new technological inventions, you're better off having it where you can download the supplements or the update. Art Spiegelman Although I may find the type of programming seen during the 2004 Super Bowl and the 2003 Golden Globe Awards disgusting and disturbing, we must always work hard to defend the cherished freedoms so clearly outlined in our Constitution, including a healthy and free press. Mike Rogers I think once you're in the public eye, whether you're a boss, a teacher or whatever you do, that you're automatically in the position of role model. You have pe...

I have ballet class every other day for two hours. And for 'Six Feet Under',

last week there was a sequence where I had to do a whole choreographed dance number, so I had four hours of dance practice every day. Michelle Trachtenberg Salman Rushdie, indeed any writer who abuses the prophet or indeed any prophet under Islamic law, the sentence for that is actually death. Cat Stevens I have always liked shows that have laughter in them. David Walliams People working in the private sector should try to save money. There remains the possibility that it may someday be valuable again. Norman Ralph Augustine The Roman Catholics must know as well as we do that 'Popery' when encouraged by government has always been dangerous to the liberties of the people. Lord George Gordon

The old series of sittings with Mrs. Piper convinced me of survival for reasons which

I should find it hard to formulate in any strict fashion, but that was their distinct effect. Oliver Joseph Lodge I have had issues with depression all my life, and it's probably true to say there was a tendency towards it even when I was very young, during my schooldays. There was often - and this is quite common with comics - a sense of not feeling as if I belonged anywhere. Jack Dee When I was 12 years old, someone took me to see Martha Graham. It was nothing like what I thought of as serious dancing and even then I knew I was having a great experience. It was as if somebody was moving through space like no one ever did before. Leslie Fiedler If you're interested or like it, but could be just as happy living in a regular town, having a regular job, maybe doing little theatre, you're better off and you'll be a happier person. This is too gut-wrenching and heartbreaking. Delta Burke I'd say the majority of my friends are Australians, although I have som...

I read everything, but generally more fact than fiction - especially autobiographies and

biographies. I've read 'Long Walk to Freedom' by Nelson Mandela at least twice on holiday. Every time, I'm totally awed by his vision, strength and forgiveness. I feel honoured to have got to know him and his wonderful wife Graca over the years. Richard Branson There are no new facts about the Kennedys, only new attitudes, a literature that, like the automobile industry, puts new bodies on old chassis. John Gregory Dunne Artists are supposed to stay hungry. Michael Connelly I'm a purple girl! Justine Skye Nobody ever said that Hillary's nomination would be unopposed or would be something that was foreordained. David Brock Parishes must be the safest places for a child to be. Blase J. Cupich I'm not sure what 'cheeky' means. I hear it used so much and in so many different ways, I can't identify the real meaning of it. Taylor Lautner Wealth is just consistency... I don't want to be rich. I want to be wealthy. Quavo In 20th-century poetry, Robe...

I went to meet Joe Johnston, the director, and he's charming. I've been very lucky.

Most of the directors I've worked with are charming. But Joe's a particularly charming man, and he showed me lots of designs and, rather memorably, welcomed me to the Marvel Universe. Toby Jones The iambic line, with its characteristic forward movement from short to long, or light to heavy, or unstressed to stressed, is the quintessential measure of English verse. James Fenton I turned down many chances to be on TV before 'Pop Idol' because I really wasn't interested in being famous. I didn't need it and didn't want it. Simon Cowell My argument would be that I don't think there is much that's genuinely political art that is good art. Thom Yorke I have a tendency to run after people who are completely unattainable and uninterested and make a complete fool of myself. Martha Wainwright Never try to be witty with U.S. airport officials. It's always lost on them and you'll find yourself being put back on the plane. Johnny Vegas E...

It's Toby Jones playing Alfred Hitchcock, not Alfred Hitchcock. We all felt that

his silhouette was crucial, so his nose and lips were crucial as well. We had to build it out a bit to get the silhouette. But, with my nose being so small within the proportion of my face, the first nose was too big. I felt like a nose on parade. Toby Jones I feel less alone when I read the books of Ratzinger. Oriana Fallaci I never was obsessive about anything I watched when I was a kid, except maybe 'The A-Team' and 'Airwolf'... And I loved 'Knight Rider' and then later 'Baywatch.' Benedict Cumberbatch I'm like a shark. I've got to be constantly moving. Kenny Chesney For behaviorist films, that's been much more useful - the change of technology - but for my kind of films, doing them on film is much better, because it's more beautiful. Michael Apted Even when I was in my 20s and at my most beautiful, I was never obsessed with my looks. I didn't dye my hair or wear make-up. Koo Stark A lot of times when you keep it ...

Many novice writers try to avoid using 'said' by substituting synonyms: 'he uttered,' 'she murmured,'

'he questioned.' It's true that any word repeated too often becomes monotonous, but substitutions for 'said' can be worse than its repetition. Nancy Kress Daft Punk's 'One More Time' remains one of my favorite 'getting ready to go out tonight' songs. Aslaug Magnusdottir Stand-up is still my favorite, but the podcast is a close second. It's so fun, and it's given me the opportunity to have three-hour conversations with people I wouldn't have otherwise been able to talk to. When I talked to Maynard Keenan from Tool, I almost couldn't believe it was happening. Joe Rogan The truth is I'm not really interested in travel writing as it's generally conceived, and even less so in female travel writing. Robyn Davidson When you have to work with and exist amongst cynical, burned-out personnel on a set, it doesn't matter what you're shooting or how much you're being paid - it's not worth it. Henry Rollins ...