I tend to describe recurring themes as being part of a writer's DNA

I tend to describe recurring themes as being part of a writer's DNA - something

so deeply embedded in us that even we don't notice it until we've written three or four books.
Sara Zarr

To my mathematical brain, the numbers alone make thinking about aliens perfectly rational. The real challenge is to work out what aliens might actually be like.
Stephen Hawking

I don't know any other way to live but to wake up every day armed with my convictions, not yielding them to the threat of danger and to the power and force of people who might despise me.
Wole Soyinka

There are times when you have to fight for something you believe in, that you love.
Peter Riegert

To me, a book is a book. A novel is a novel, and you have hundreds of possibilities, options, and they may all be fine. Charles Dickens or Ingeborg Bachmann, Claude Simon or later writers. The one and only condition is that it has to be good: it has to have quality, substance, atmosphere.
Per Petterson

Putting is not an art, it's a dreaded evil. No wise man ever said that.
Dan Jenkins

As an African-American, we stand on the shoulders of people who fought despite not seeing victories in their lifetime or even in their children's lifetime or even in their grandchildren's lifetime. So fatalism isn't really an option.
Ta-Nehisi Coates

Luck has a lot to do with how your life develops.
Martti Ahtisaari

I have to keep explaining to people that screen kissing isn't quite the same; it's close, but it isn't quite the same as a normal, real-life kiss.
Margot Robbie

There's nothing better than hearing someone laugh.
Billy Magnussen

In Sweden, they broadcast the American shows in English with Swedish subtitles, whereas in many European countries they dub them. Watching those shows in English was big for me.
Carl Hagelin

Gemeoss

There's this wonderful first assistant and he'll be saying, 'Now Harry goes down among the

dragons.' You have to hold yourself together. Because if you lose it for a second then you're sunk. Maggie Smith We believe we've got the skill base and the techniques to supply the chips that really enable the end manufacturers to develop exciting, innovative products themselves. David Milne Oscar Wilde said the rich and the poor are equal - they can both sleep under the bridge. Right? Do they have a right? You're damn right they have a right! Al Lewis If we'd have said we were not upset, they would have thought we were so rich it meant nothing to us, and if we say we're upset about it, they'll say money is all we care about. John Bonham We... are not really free if we can't control our own government and its policies. And we will never do that if we remain ignorant. Charley Reese Our universities and museums are respected around the country. Jane Byrne George W. Bush bought the election - period. End of story. There is no argument. Yo...

I was fortunate to have had a lively, happy childhood, but somewhere along the way

I convinced myself I wasn't wanted anywhere or by anyone if I wasn't thin. Lucy Davis WWE asked me to be in the Hall of Fame, and I turned it down. You know why? They put Pete Rose in the wrestling Hall of Fame. This guy can't even get into his own Hall of Fame. Mr. T Credit markets were originally created to serve human needs; to provide businesses and individuals with capital to start or expand businesses or fulfill other financial needs. Muhammad Yunus I'm not somebody who likes to show off my cleavage, and I don't dress up for the papers. Louise Nurding The reviewers tear me apart. I bleed. I'm a favorite target. They go along for six months looking at movies, praying for rain, and then a new Sandra Dee movie comes out, and their eyes open, and they lick their lips. Before they've ever seen it. Sandra Dee I personally do not find puke funny. I find it disgusting. Lucy Punch I don't live a lie. You have to understand that people who ...

The only advice I would give Christians entering the world of arts: give yourself a

period of time, maybe three or four years. If you haven't made it in your chosen art form, dump it. Cliff Richard If most American cities are about the consumption of culture, Los Angeles and New York are about the production of culture - not only national culture but global culture. Barbara Kruger When we finished the tour we had been writing together for a year. We moved forward from there and have just now finished our record. We're having a new record out in the Spring. Kathy Valentine I hate the idea of getting in a building that someone else has designed and having to do something to it yourself to sort of dress it up - it's like using presets in your tracks. Sean Booth The Indian Summer of life should be a little sunny and a little sad, like the season, and infinite in wealth and depth of tone, but never hustled. Henry Adams Follow effective action with quiet reflection. From the quiet reflection will come even more effective action. Peter Drucker E...

I once interviewed David Herbert Donald, the Lincoln historian, and we talked about how one

deals with the secondary sources and the previous biographies. He said something which kept coming back to me as I worked on Cleopatra, which was: 'There's no further new material; there are only new questions.' Stacy Schiff Music - opera particularly - is a process which is endurable or successful only if it is achieved by people who love to collaborate. Sarah Caldwell I tend to overthink things. I'm not the guy who screams 'This is a world smash!' when I finish a song. Bruno Mars You know, nobody can ever cook as good as your mama. Paula Deen Laws are generally not understood by three sorts of persons, viz, by those who make them, by those who execute them, and by those who suffer if they break them. George Savile I love being in a courtroom. Kamala Harris Passive fatalism can never be the role of a revolutionary party, like the Social Democracy. Karl Liebknecht Short as life is, we make it still shorter by the careless waste of time. Vic...

It's a different thing playing in a smaller venue where you can actually see people's

faces and reactions. It's so much more intimate. You walk away with a more personal experience. Jann Klose I love the theater. I love being on stage; I love the live audience. I also love dressing up and all of the make-believe. Nicole Ari Parker This is sort of not expected, but I would love to produce a record for Missy Elliott. It would be totally different, but she makes party music. 'Lose Control' was my favorite song when I was in 5th or 6th grade. Ansel Elgort I sculpted for four or five years. Mostly for my own amusement, I decided to do a picture book, and that was kind of a turning point. Chris Van Allsburg Circumstances in life often take us places that we never intended to go. We visit some places of beauty, others of pain and desolation. Kristin Armstrong I like John McCain. He can always be counted on for a good quote. Ted Cruz Practices such as arranged marriages and restrictions on girls attending school have deep roots, and changing them i...

The more living patterns there are in a place - a room, a building, or

a town - the more it comes to life as an entirety, the more it glows, the more it has that self-maintaining fire which is the quality without a name. Christopher Alexander As far as loneliness, I feel Los Angeles and its layout, having to drive everywhere - it is a lonely place. It's an isolated city in that respect because you're driving to places alone listening to the radio. Jason Schwartzman I mean, people who say that the Tea Party isn't a grassroots movement, I think, are incorrect. I think in some respects, it is a grassroots movement. Matt Taibbi I see couples fighting about the stupidest things. You just have to rise above everything. Sammy Hagar Making choices that improve things for all of us on the planet is an act of compassion, a simple act we can do any time we go shopping. Daniel Goleman I can't stand the kind of paralysis that some people fall into because they're not happy with the choices they've made. Hillary Clinton As a ki...

I think I mainly climb mountains because I get a great deal of enjoyment out

of it. I never attempt to analyze these things too thoroughly, but I think that all mountaineers do get a great deal of satisfaction out of overcoming some challenge which they think is very difficult for them, or which perhaps may be a little dangerous. Edmund Hillary I think in our global economy, uncertainty is ever increasing. So to accommodate to that, we need to build a dynamic economy and dynamic rules that can adapt to changing circumstances. Myron Scholes We don't have nannies and all that, we look after our own kids. It's just what you do. If you want a big family that's just what you do, isn't it? Ray Winstone Show me a better man. Name one and I am answered; but do not point, as a disqualification, to the very facts which make this man fit beyond all others. Roscoe Conkling I call myself a blues singer, but you ain't never heard me call myself a blues guitar man. B. B. King In reality there is no cause or effect, there is only the indiffer...

You find a lot of junk when you're searching through lost and tossed photo ephemera,

but every so often you'll find a gem, a wallet-sized masterpiece you're certain could hang on the wall of a gallery if only someone with a name had taken it. Find one or two of those and you're hooked for life. Ransom Riggs There is something magical in seeing what you can do, what texture and tone and colour you can produce merely with a pen point and a bottle of ink. Ida Rentoul Outhwaite I usually set aside a lot of time in advance of a movie with important roles for kids to search, but when you have great ones, they can be a real ace in the hole. Wes Anderson There aren't a lot of ironclad rules of family life, but here's one: No matter how much your parents deny it - and here's betting they deny it a lot - they have a favorite child. And if you're a parent, so do you. Jeffrey Kluger More recently, as faith gave way to materialism, anti-Semitism assumed a secular mode, harnessing itself to the dominant ideologies of both the Left and the Righ...

In his second Inaugural Address, on March 5, 1821, Monroe admitted at last to a

general depression of prices, but only as a means of explaining the great decline in the federal revenue. Despite this, he asserted that the situation of America presented a 'gratifying spectacle.' Murray Rothbard My mission is to support our service members. They're volunteers, and if they're going to go to a hostile place like Afghanistan, I think we owe it to them to back them up and try to help them get through it. Gary Sinise I lived in Cuba - I was there for one year in the 1950s. We built the famous nightclub, which is still there, Tropicana, and a restaurant, Montecatini, that I opened is still there. I was there when the U.S. ambassador said everyone must leave because Castro was arriving the next morning. Sirio Maccioni Facebook is looking to help you distribute content to who you want to distribute to. Facebook gets a lot better if you put each of your friends into either your 'close friend' or 'acquaintance' list. Robert Scoble I ...

While women certainly have made great strides toward pay parity in the past 30 years,

there is still a gap in earnings between men and women in equivalent professions. Ginny Brown-Waite I suddenly saw that all the time it was not I who had been seeking God, but God who had been seeking me. I had made myself the centre of my own existence and had my back turned to God. Bede Griffiths I like reading Ball Tongue lyrics and all that stuff. And they published a book, and I wouldn't give my lyrics, and it's all wrong in the book, and I giggle. It's funny. Jonathan Davis The bulk of my set is instrumental and you have to give yourself and the audience some relief because a performance is not about great guitar playing it's really about entertainment. Leo Kottke Put your nose into the Bible everyday. It is your spiritual food. And then share it. Make a vow not to be a lukewarm Christian. Kirk Cameron When I left school I was full of angst, like any teenager, and I channeled it all into comedy. Matt Lucas Some people obtain fame, others deserve ...