I write the last line, and then I write the line before that. I find

myself writing backwards for a while, until I have a solid sense of how that ending sounds and feels. You have to know what your voice sounds like at the end of the story, because it tells you how to sound when you begin.
John Irving

I grew up in an era of pretty severe poverty. My parents weathered the Great Depression, and money was always a very big concern. I was weaned on a shortage mentality and placed in foster homes largely because there simply wasn't enough money to take care of the most basic of needs.
Wayne Dyer

At my confirmation, where you get the Holy Spirit, I came down the stairs at my party and had torn, like, 80 holes in my pantyhose and said I had the Holy Spirit, and just would do things like that all the time.
Paula Pell

Music is the marriage of the feelings of the living to the wisdom of the dead.
Cass McCombs

If you are an entrepreneur, you have to think outside of the box.
Wayne Rogers

One day I can be ecstatically up, and the next, I can feel this real blankness, a deadness almost, which is scary.
Lena Headey

I wanted to answer big questions about humanity, about how it is that we understand about the world, how we can know as much as we do, why human nature is the way that it is. And it always seemed to me that you find answers to those questions by looking at children.
Alison Gopnik

If chick-lit really is taking a commercial battering, I'd suggest it's because the marketing has been done to death. Covering everything in girlie pink and putting chocolate in the title may once have been a clever Pavlovian device but now makes readers feel a bit sick.
Jojo Moyes

I do think that the elections of 2010 and 2012 are going to determine the trajectory of the country. Either we're going to be aspiring and improving opportunities based on freedom and responsibility, or we're going to go down the path that dictates and mandates a dependency on government.
George Allen

I've said all along I've never competed with 'The Simpsons.' Not in my own mind.
Bill Cosby

There are a lot of things we as individuals can't do much about. We can't solve global warming as individuals, or health care problems, but as individuals, most of us can get our kids reading. We can do that.
James Patterson

Gemeoss

Priority is placed on the chastity of women. You can be corrupt, or a murderer

and still hold your head up high on the street without problems, whereas if there are any suspicions of your chastity and moral behaviour as a woman, you get lynched. Safak Pavey You have to say now that space is something. Space can vibrate, space can fluctuate, space can be quantum mechanical, but what the devil is it? Leonard Susskind I don't think Russia could start a war by attacking any of the NATO member states. Milos Zeman Like every artist that comes out, you want to make a mark; you want to be a household name and you want to be someone that people are going to look back in ten years/fifteen years' time and go, 'I love this guy Olly Murs. He was brilliant back in the day; he was someone I really, really liked.' Olly Murs Fundamentally, the basis of all modern progress is the efficiency of labor. And the only sure road to restored prosperity is through the thrift and hard work of our people as a whole. Charles M. Schwab May we treasure the divine...

Persuasiveness is really just about getting your ideas across without being forceful.

It's a skill that can be learned and is useful for anyone who works in a team environment. Amanda de Cadenet I was an extra in a Tia Carrere music video. Adam Scott When people start to think they're figuring out 'The Vampire Diaries,' it switches on you. Kat Graham It's a huge blessing to know you've done something that has affected people the way 'The Matrix' has. It's like, there's 'Star Wars,' and then there's 'The Matrix.' It's cool to be a part of that. Laurence Fishburne Voters aren't asking to be pandered to and aren't asking to be tricked. Jason Kander I'm a pretty controlled and disciplined person, but my real vice is buying plants and food shopping. Zac Posen Barack Obama was a president who understood not only how technology could transform the way government services worked but also technology itself. He got it. Steven Levy Positivity, confidence, and persistence are key in life, so never give up...

In 1969, we decided we had to do certain things technically to

win, and we decided to do them then, even though we knew some of the personnel couldn't do it. In other words, instead of adapting the system to the players, we just installed our system. Then we set out to fill our team through the draft. Chuck Noll Al Sharpton is not important. He's nothing more than a black pawn in a very sophisticated white economic chess game. Byron Allen Art should not be bound by barriers or language. The Hindi film industry is a testament to that. We speak only Hindi, but we premiere in Germany and Japan. Our films do phenomenally well there. We transcend the barriers of language and culture. We welcome you in. I think that's what art should be, and I hope America reaches that place. Priyanka Chopra Main characters should grow and change during the course of a story. Leigh Michaels 'Sweetback' represented an economic tour de force because I had no partners; I own it. Melvin Van Peebles It's not natural to ou...

I was a tomboy. In my clubbing days, my friend Lucy Davies-Hunt - half-Iranian, looked

like Yasmin Le Bon - could wear catsuits, while I was the one in the sweatshirt, jeans, and Fila boots. Maxine Peake My roots are documentaries. David L. Wolper Paolo Maldini never won, but he was the best defender in the world. Gianluigi Buffon never won; he was the best goalkeeper in the world for many years. But this is the story of the Ballon d'Or. Antonio Conte Young entrepreneurs, in general, feel they're too busy running their companies, which I think is a mistake. But once they're older, you see much more of a propensity to be involved in philanthropy. Jeffrey Skoll I thought there was a glitch when they told me that in two or three weeks 'My Church' hit a million streams. Maren Morris The key is that I'm trying to keep growing and trying to keep learning and deepen my connection in every way, in my life, in my work. That's what I do when I look at a role. Forest Whitaker It strikes me as pretty interesting and cool how girls support each other in t...

I think where it's going is toward what the music industry is like, where channels

will be considered more like labels that carry the type of TV show that you like, and then you'll consume them however you can. For example, I don't really watch Showtime, but I bought 'Homeland,' and I've been watching every episode on my iPad. Adam Pally We need a tougher enforcement program and, most importantly, we need to fix the badly broken ethics system. Marty Meehan There is a god within us. Ovid It is a Modern day, and these times need Modern solutions to Modern problems. Corin Nemec The man who gets drunk in peacetime is a coward. The man who gets drunk in wartime goes on being a coward. Jose Bergamin You can have anything you want in life if you dress for it. Edith Head The taste for quotations (and for the juxtaposition of incongruous quotations) is a Surrealist taste. Susan Sontag I actually went to college with Adam Sandler. He was a dramatic actor, too! Molly Shannon While there I began to study the Asian religions as theories of mind...

Being able to wear contacts, you don't have to worry about your glasses falling off

or how you look during your beam routine. As soon as they're in, literally two minutes later, you forget that they're on. Laurie Hernandez 'LIFE Magazine' decided to do a story about a young actress in Hollywood in 1954. And I made the cover. And I remember that the fellow who was doing the story on me said, 'Listen, kid, I just want you to know, if Eisenhower gets a cold, you're off the cover.' Rita Moreno For me, acting is a long-term thing. I'm not in a hurry to make it. I have no desire to explode onto the film industry. I still want to be acting when I'm 60. Gabriella Wilde I love Aaliyah, I love Brandy, I love Monica. Normani Kordei Most MBA graduates are hungry for intellectual glamour. Ravi Subramanian I love standing on the pitch too much to focus on anything else - if I want to be a coach or something. Bastian Schweinsteiger Developing countries are losing significant tax revenues through corporate tax dodging. Winnie Byanyima If society b...

I knew I had to write a good screenplay to be taken seriously, and I

knew I needed to present Mississippi on visuals instead of just saying, 'Hey I wanted to film it in Mississippi.' It would seem like it was a hometown boy just wanting to be home. Tate Taylor Dyslexia, though, made me realise that people who say 'but you can't do that' aren't actually very important. I don't take 'no' too seriously. Richard Rogers We don't have an Official Secrets Act in the United States, as other countries do. Under the First Amendment, freedom of the press, freedom of speech, and freedom of association are more important than protecting secrets. Alan Dershowitz We don't leave home without my daughter's doll La-La. She looks like a bit of a rag, but India is obsessed with her. Georgina Chapman I like a certain style of show, I like a certain pace, I like a rhythm, I like a lot of comedy in with my drama. Amy Sherman-Palladino Fool! Don't you see now that I could have poisoned you a hundred times had I...

Of-course we did, but we didn't reply because we knew once this leaks the others

will scatter, so in the few days we moved quickly before the press got hold of it. The press did get hold of it a few days later, we nabbed, we were able to get 15, the others got away. Lee Kuan Yew I never quite understand why we watch the news. There doesn't really seem much point watching somebody tell you what the news is when you could quite easily listen to it on the radio. John Hurt The old idea of a composer suddenly having a terrific idea and sitting up all night to write it is nonsense. Nighttime is for sleeping. Benjamin Britten Bigotry murders religion to frighten fools with her ghost. Charles Caleb Colton I love to go to Washington - if only to be near my money. Bob Hope Every silver lining has a cloud. Mary Kay Ash But in reality we are accompanied by the whole dancing universe. Ruth St. Denis

We're always attracted to characters who are people we could identify with and yet are

put through incredibly tortured or difficult circumstances - the idea being that you don't really know who you are until you've been tested or suffered in some way. Erich Hoeber I used to hate old-timers who didn't praise the younger wrestlers, but you've got to pass the torch sometime. If you're old, that torch gets too heavy for you and you can't carry it, so it won't do you any good. Randy Savage There's a trend toward anti-heroes now, and I think it goes back to guys like Bogart and Cagney. They seemed to have no compassion, and they were always alone. Jim Brown I'm always coming up against scepticism in my life. Geri Halliwell If I had the power, I would ban leggings. Jil Sander Honesty is very sexy. Valerie Bertinelli If ants are such busy workers, how come they find time to go to all the picnics? Marie Dressler The most important social welfare program in America is a job. Newt Gingrich But are not the dreams of poets a...

I use the film industry as a pleasure for work and that kind of thing

and it's not a pursuit to make me feel happy in my life. Thandie Newton I warm up. I do about 50 push-ups with my trainer and my security just to get pumped up before a show, get our energy up. And then I just go have fun. Joe Jonas If I start planning then that's dangerous because then I have a target that I'm blinkered towards and I won't listen to the warning signs quite so much. I'd rather be in shape and then look around and say there's a race next week and jump into that than have it planned. Paula Radcliffe All my references are 50 years old-when somebody shot J.R., you know? Oh my god, I'm 100! Lauren Graham Everybody that you could name would join in our audiences from, Laguardia on down. Everybody came. Everybody came to the Cotton Club. Cab Calloway I think performance art comes from a simple place of wanting to express things beyond just sound. Amanda Palmer We should distinguish carefully skepticism about Big Government from co...