In general, the main themes emerge early for each book, even before the storyline and

characters, as I research the time and place I want to draw upon. Having said that, every single book so far has offered me surprises en route, and these include motifs that come forward as I am writing.
Guy Gavriel Kay

I particularly like Twitter, because it's short and can be very funny and informative. It's a little bit like having your own radio program.
Margaret Atwood

My optimism has helped me through some hard times. If you try to send out good things, good things come back to you.
Jan Brett

There are many projects I couldn't get off the ground because they didn't have white heroes. It's a problem that everyone who's been working in Hollywood has been facing.
Euzhan Palcy

I only know the lyrics to songs that I listened to between the ages of 11 and 15.
Elizabeth Banks

A huge amount of our everyday thinking - powerful, creative, and resonant stuff - is done socially: talking to other people, arguing with them, relying on them to recall information for us.
Clive Thompson

Business is where you practice your human skills. It's where you grow.
Andrew Cherng

Our acquisition strategy is very clear: 3x3. Three continents - Asia, Africa and South America, and in three categories where we have strong positions - personal wash, household care and hair care.
Adi Godrej

I have made plenty of mistakes. The key to life is to learn from them. I have been a little too introspective, but I think that stemmed from insecurity or shyness. I took a long time to grow up.
Richard Gere

Disciples of Keynes, who focus on aggregate demand, view any increase in household wealth as raising employment because they say it adds to consumer demand.
Edmund Phelps

Africa has 53 countries. And you find that three or four countries in these 53 are dominating the news.
Mo Ibrahim

Gemeoss

The real question is: How do you react? What do you do next? Evade responsibilities?

Bury yourself in work? What do you do? All three of my novels take up that question, although none gives an answer. David Guterson I've been asked a lot lately if tennis is clean or not. I don't know any more how you judge whether a sport is clean. If one in 100 players is doping, in my eyes that isn't a clean sport. Andy Murray Writing songs has always been hard and easy. It's not always easy when you want it to be, and then sometimes it's just like turning on the faucet. That's just the nature of it. Jeff Tweedy Veterans are driven by the same frustrations that the public has with what is happening in Washington... the fiscal irresponsibility and the financial crisis that our country is facing. Pete Hegseth Americans have discovered the fragility of life, that ominous fragility that the rest of the world either already experienced or is experiencing now with terrible intensity. Jose Saramago Schools across India do not have teachers, libraries, ...

When I talk football with my friends, I don't talk about Tom Brady's hair. I

talk about how he handles the blitz, or how he runs his offense. I talk as a fan. I don't want pink jerseys, and I don't want dumbed-down content. I want to be treated as a real fan - because I am proud to be one. Indra Nooyi Abandoned homes are everyone's problem, afflicting communities all over the state. Eric Schneiderman I know how to deal with jet lag, and I know just how much rest I need and when I need to take naps. When you walk on stage, you need your brain working at its highest and most fully-functioning, so it's not always easy, but I sort of figure it out. Joshua Bell It's all about being comfortable, being easy and having you be able to wear something and not having it wear you. It's classic. Every time I've tried to be bold and crazy, I feel like a Japanese animated cartoon character. Jennifer Aniston Silverstone is challenging, but it has a good feel. It's one of the quickest tracks of the year, with legendary corners like the...

You remember France, it's the country that financed the American Revolution... OK, it was in

their self-interest, but still, they made it happen. Let's face it: without the French, there would be no America... in other words, without them, there is no us. Richard Belzer I do recall at one point being part of WWE and other guys taking the risk of stepping away, and a lot of guys don't do it because of the fear that it's not going to be the same. Rey Mysterio People didn't know where they could trade. When everybody owes each other IOUs that can be in multiple places at once, that's how the system couldn't tell any more who owned what and who owed what to whom. Blockchain could have prevented 2008. Patrick M. Byrne I find dipping one's toe into all of these people's lives is one of the major exciting points of being an actor. This dilettantism. Rupert Friend I think that when I was first starting out, even after I was on 'Gilmore Girls,' when things were going pretty well, I was constantly focused on what's next, how can my...

I remember eating in school in the years after the Second World War. Most of

my friends had miserable portions of Spam with an inedible, glutinous pudding served in containers we called 'coffins.' As a vegetarian, I had a lump of loathsome cheese and some bread. Robert Winston As I was sitting there, the deejay was playing music and talking over the music, and the kids were going crazy. All of a sudden, something said to me, 'Put something like that on a record, and it will be the biggest thing.' I didn't even know you called it rap. Sylvia Robinson A lyric, it is true, is the expression of personal emotion, but then so is all poetry, and to suppose that there are several kinds of poetry, differing from each other in essence, is to be deceived by wholly artificial divisions which have no real being. John Drinkwater While there have been terrific advances in the state of technology around heuristics, behavior blocking, and things like that, technology is only a part of the approach to solving the problem with the more important aspec...

Sisters are always drying their hair. Locked into rooms, alone, they pose at the mirror,

shoulders bare, trying this way and that their hair, or fly importunate down the stair to answer the telephone. Phyllis McGinley When our Lord says, we must be converted and become as little children, I suppose he means also, that we must be sensible of our weakness, comparatively speaking, as a little child. George Whitefield There's no dancing girls. We're kinda like secondary to the thing. It's a story about these two guys that are in love with this one girl and how it unfolds and what happens. Eric Carr There are men who would quickly love each other if once they were speak to each other; for when they spoke they would discover that their souls had only separated by phantoms and delusions. Ernest Hello If you believe you can, you probably can. If you believe you won't, you most assuredly won't. Belief is the ignition switch that gets you off the launching pad. Denis Waitley Sanity calms, but madness is more interesting. John Russell If there is...

If Sunday is the Lord's day, then Saturday belongs to the Devil. It is the

only night of the week when he gives out Free passes to the Late show at the Too Much Fun Club. Hunter S. Thompson Pantera revolutionized the sound and the approach to heavy metal. It's been regurgitated. Once you up the production on a product and not just the playing but the actual production, then it's going to up the ante. Phil Anselmo I've been truly blessed. I've been a fly on the wall of history. I've been just so many lucky places just by chance and serendipity, and obviously a huge portion of that serendipity had to do with my relationship with the real president, Ronald Reagan. Arthur Laffer Of all the seasons, winter is the most conducive to the great art of dormancy. This art requires an appreciation of semi-consciousness: the beautiful and necessary prelude to sleep - a special pleasure in itself that is all too often neglected, under-valued or looked down upon. Michael Leunig I personally am very active with the women's prison associati...

One cannot be too careful in the selection of adjectives for descriptions. Words or compounds

which describe precisely, and which convey exactly the right suggestions to the mind of the reader, are essential. H. P. Lovecraft I got scars on my face that tell some kind of story. I'm looking in the mirror, and I got one scar that's really two scars - half from a baseball bat and half from playing football in college. I'll tell you, though, after a while, your face gets so wrinkled up you can hardly see them. Kris Kristofferson One of the things my father taught me was you should not exclude those who are opposed to your ideas. Benigno Aquino III Sometimes when it comes to the iconic kind of moments, when I read the script for the first time, you get little goose bumps or something because it really is kind of exciting. Aaron Ashmore Knowing that my ancestry had all been quite wealthy and owned their own businesses probably left me with the ambition to replicate what they'd done. John Caudwell I designed the miniskirt that caused so much havoc in the ...

During the mission, Walter Jones, a team member was given a package containing bone fragments

by a Lao. The source said they were from a crash site. He presented photographs showing himself in company with others digging around obvious aircraft debris. Bo Gritz Signs of fatigue soon manifested themselves more and more strongly, and slowly the men dropped out one by one, from sheer exhaustion. No murmur of complaint, however, would be heard. Fritz Kreisler It's hard enough to work and raise a family when your kids are all healthy and relatively normal, but when you add on some kind of disability or disease, it can just be such a burden. Patricia Heaton The thing that makes 'Dirty Jobs' different is that it's one of the few shows that portrays work in a way that doesn't highlight the drudgery. Instead, it highlights the humor. Mike Rowe I'm most comfortable with the Southern dialects, really. It's easy, for example, for me to do Irish because we've got Irish heritage where I come from. Brad Pitt Sight and touch, being thus increased ...

Our present nuclear fusion reactors are classified by the methods used to support the nuclear

fusion reaction, which takes place at a temperature much hotter than the surface of the Sun. Wilson Greatbatch Going to a grammar school, you mixed with all sorts of different types and I used to listen to how they talked. When I did my imitations, I could sound like someone really rough, or I could sound like a cabinet minister. Steve Coogan When there's a terrible illness like AIDS sweeping through, you help people. Bernadette Peters I love myself. Anything that has my name I'm tickled to death. Barbara Corcoran My career in racing started at a very young age in California. Jeff Gordon People who believe in flying saucers are the scrapings from the bottom. Nigel Kneale Children often have a much stronger concept of morality than adults. Nina Bawden Most politicians aren't allowed to express themselves any more. Ken Livingstone I'm pretty good with not being afraid to just go up to people and introduce myself. Elle Fanning I just keep it simp...

When you find a song that you love, you just have to do it -

why would I try to match it? When I wrote more of the songs in the '90s - 'Nick of Time' and other songs I was surprised I came up with - it was because nobody else was saying what I wanted to say. Bonnie Raitt When journalists and politicians speak of a dwindling middle class that's under economic assault and a poor community that's getting bigger, they're talking about Ferguson. Independent of the racial demographics and dynamics of Ferguson, Missouri, there's a 'Ferguson' near you. Jesse Jackson It's become impossible to enjoy most quality television shows because the hurt or endangered women device is so frequently used. Jessica Valenti I was 65 in May, and when I have just shaved, I see my father. I realise that I now have the same facial idiosyncrasies he had: little twitches here and there, mouth and nose movements, even the way he would tilt his head. Rick Wakeman It's how the '70s were for movies, the 2000s are for TV...