There's nothing worse than sitting down to write a novel and saying, 'Well, okay, I'm

going to do something of high artistic worth.'
Douglas Adams

While no Muslim worthy of his name would lose his respect for God, the Prophet Muhammad, and other symbols of Islam, he might well refrain from using legal prosecution or violent reaction to those who do not show the same respect. My basis for this claim is nothing other than the holiest source of Islam, the Quran.
Mustafa Akyol

I'm a straight guy and I date women, but I get on really well with gay guys. I'm very comfortable with my sexuality. The weirdest thing for me is when straight guys get really freaked out by gay guys. It's almost like they're insecure in their own sexuality. For me, I can be in a room full of gay men and have fun.
Olly Murs

I don't think it's that I don't like Sondheim. It's that I find it really... I don't know how to describe it. Doing it is the most extraordinary thing. Because it's like Shakespeare times 100 with singing. It's that satisfying - and that demanding.
Imelda Staunton

Since woodchipping began 32 years ago, Tasmanians have watched as one extraordinary place after another has been sacrificed. Beautiful places, holy places, lost not only to them, but forever.
Richard Flanagan

In the early Seventies, the technology for purifying a specific eukaryotic mRNA was just becoming available.
Susumu Tonegawa

Unlike the stereotypical author, I've never had a job as a short-order cook, but I love cooking hot breakfasts for lots of people, juggling the eggs and the bacon and the tomatoes and the fried potatoes and so on.
Garth Nix

I went cage diving in South Africa with Great Whites, and that was fun. Sweden was cool.
Peter Uihlein

Learning to love my inner and outer beauty wasn't an easy road. I still don't always love the reflection I see in the mirror, but I have learned that my outer appearance does not define me.
Katherine Schwarzenegger

It's amazing when I walk through an expo hall and can't figure out what a company does just by walking past its booth.
Robert Scoble

When I met Peter Weir, we did a movie called 'Master and Commander' together, and that's when I really started to understand the power of acting, the power of directing, finding the emotion in performance.
Robert Stromberg

Gemeoss

This battle for 'common-sense' gun control laws pits emotion and passion against logic and reason.

All too often in such a contest, logic loses. So, expect more meaningless, if not harmful, 'gun control' legislation. Good news - if you're a crook. Larry Elder I drive a lot. Just for pleasure. Sometimes I'll get in the Cadillac and drive around the city or the country, kind of trying to get lost basically. Y'know, just see where roads lead. Frank Black You and I will meet again, When we're least expecting it, One day in some far off place, I will recognize your face, I won't say goodbye my friend, For you and I will meet again. Tom Petty We must dare to think 'unthinkable' thoughts. We must learn to explore all the options and possibilities that confront us in a complex and rapidly changing world. J. William Fulbright Nothing contributes so much to tranquilize the mind as a steady purpose - a point on which the soul may fix its intellectual eye. Mary Shelley Never make friends with people who are above or below you in status. Such fr...

We hope and we've made clear that the forces need to come out. It needs

to be full and complete withdrawal. Our position is it needs to be done as soon as possible so that the elections can be free, fair and free of outside influence. Stephen Hadley Parks said, he's guilty and that's the end of the story. Tommy Bond We know that the nature of genius is to provide idiots with ideas twenty years later. Louis Aragon Welcome to the Salvation Army. I've never been associated with an offense so nice about giving the ball away. Hayden Fry I am certain of nothing but the holiness of the heart's affections, and the truth of imagination. John Keats Russia has gone through eight years of continuing economic pain. Jeffrey Sachs It's nice to get a response from the artists that I cover. Joe Cocker

If you're poor, you don't often live near a good school. If it's a competitive

public school program, our kids are not prepared to enter those programs. Sonia Sotomayor I'm a middle-class, middle-brow novelist. And that's it. It amuses me. Anita Brookner I have always had a very natural connection to the water, and that connection stems from the ocean itself. Aaron Peirsol I got married at a very young age, and of course, for all the wrong reasons, and ended up divorced and lost everything. It was a very difficult time in my life. Willie Aames We have 11 great potato flavors, and customers have been clamoring for tortilla. For over a year, we worked to develop the four flavors of tortilla popchips: chili limon, nacho cheese, ranch and salsa. They're made with traditional stoneground masa, are gluten-free, and have less than half the fat of other chips. Keith Belling I never won anything by myself. I was always strong because of help that gave me extra strength to win. Dan Gable There's a toxicity within gaming culture, and also i...

If the Republican Party continues to take the view that there must be no tax

increases, we're stuck. Capitalism can't work without safety nets or fiscal prudence, and we need both in a sustainable balance. Thomas Friedman I think Katie Price is a really good businesswoman. She has made so much money. Georgia Salpa I can work my butt off and create an album that's wonderful, but if it's never played and never given the outlet, it won't succeed. Tessanne Chin Elvis might have compromised his musical style a bit towards the end, but that doesn't mean that artists from the rock n' roll/folk-roots culture - of which he was not really a part - shouldn't get better as they get older, like the great jazz or blues artists. Bonnie Raitt Doing my art came out of something very solitary and something that I had no intention of showing anybody, and yet once people saw pieces in my house, it became really clear that there was a great demand for my art. Paul Stanley I had the belief that many troubles you could observe on the Eur...

If you're 50, you're never going to be 50 ever again, so enjoy being 50.

If you sit through the year wishing you were younger, before you know it, it's going to be over, and you're going to be 51. Julianne Moore I've tried to approach environmentalism the same way I do my climbing: by setting small, concrete goals that build on each other. Alex Honnold When I have a book I enjoy, I'm partly in the book. I'm not just observing it. Tim O'Brien In the United States, after World War II, it took about two decades for the message to slowly seep in that inflation was going to be a permanent fact of the American way of life. Murray Rothbard Pot barley takes longer to cook than pearl, but an overnight soak in water will speed things along. It's a robust grain that, if overcooked, won't collapse but will become more tender. Yotam Ottolenghi Everywhere in Africa, you see Indian, Chinese, Brazilian businesses. Other than Coca Cola and the oil companies, it is very rare to see American businesses. Mo Ibrahim That is the ...

If we lived in a time where people couldn't watch 'Lost' on Hulu or record

it on their DVR, we wouldn't necessarily have succeeded. We need people to be able to catch up. Now you choose when you watch TV. We wouldn't have survived in the old days because people would have missed episodes. Carlton Cuse In science, if you don't do it, somebody else will. Whereas in art, if Beethoven didn't compose the 'Ninth Symphony,' no one else before or after is going to compose the 'Ninth Symphony' that he composed; no one else is going to paint 'Starry Night' by van Gogh. Neil deGrasse Tyson I would like to be known as one of the best actors in the world because that is something that I would have earned. And being sexiest would come from my genes... it is something I was born with and not earned it for myself. Randeep Hooda Fundamental discoveries can and should be made in industry or academies, but to carry that knowledge forward and to develop a new drug to the market has to depend on the resources of industry. John Van...

If you change because of fame, that's not the right thing. But if you change

because of growth, that's normal... The whole fame thing hasn't hit me. And I hope it kind of doesn't. Jussie Smollett I've never paid attention to politics. I only have the vaguest notion of what the IRA is. Nicholas Haslam When I was 16, I was like any other boy at that age who dreams of having a good physique. Rohit Shetty Usually when I am approached to do a score for a horror movie, it's to attempt a repeat performance of what I did way back on 'Hellraiser' or 'Jennifer 8' - one of those really orchestral scores. Christopher Young When people ask me if I have worked for the C.I.A., I often answer: what good to you is my answer? Because if I did, I might not say so. Robert Littell Many children with cancer in the developing world can be cured. But without appropriate treatment, few survive. Caitriona Balfe We used to have to arrange things around the dialysis. I would have to plan where to play so I could be back in time, and co...

The dedication of the United States Air Force, Special Forces, and others involved in the

mission to tracking down terrorists can not be matched. We express our gratitude to these men and women who defend the freedom America represents. Tim Murphy You know how I came up with the name 'Road to the Super Bowl?' It's an homage to the old Bob Hope - Bing Crosby buddy movies - you know, like 'Road to Zanzibar' or 'Road to Morocco.' Can you tell? All I've done my whole life is go to movies. Steve Sabol Things that go on at Happy Times are very funny this year, and if you were watching last year, some of the people you saw then as basically extras emerge as real characters in their own right this season, at least to some degree. Ellen Muth I've always been a late bloomer. My body developed late. From ninth to 10th grade, I grew like 3 inches. Just kind of stretched out. I was like 6-1, grew to 6-4 in 10th grade. Paul Pierce The French were generous in giving us assistance in corps and army artillery, with its personnel, and we were c...

If you're playing with somebody from another idiom, you can't react to them in the

same way that you react to somebody that is closer to your idiom. You don't fall into the same habits. You find a new way of communicating. David Sanborn Information is not knowledge, and knowledge is not wisdom. Reading - even browsing - an old book can yield sustenance denied by a database search. Patience is a virtue, gluttony a sin. James Gleick Superheroes are best imagined in comic books. The union between the written word, the image, and then what your imagination has to do to connect those allows for so much. Ta-Nehisi Coates I was looking for a new challenge and got an interest in trying to make a difference for families. You become more aware of how important families are. They are the key institution in our culture. The reason I got into politics was to try to make a difference for that key institution, whether it was tax policy, education policy, or whatever. Jim Jordan As a kid, I used to go to the library and take out all the art books. Cheech Marin At ...

Just because I am a chef doesn't mean I don't rely on fast

recipes. Indeed, we all have moments when, pressed for time, we'll use a can of tuna and a tomato for a first course. It's a question of choosing the right recipes for the rest of the menu. Jacques Pepin Words are not as satisfactory as we should like them to be, but, like our neighbours, we have got to live with them and must make the best and not the worst of them. Samuel Butler Success in life is founded upon attention to the small things rather than to the large things; to the every day things nearest to us rather than to the things that are remote and uncommon. Booker T. Washington People who wear fur smell like a wet dog if they're in the rain. And they look fat and gross. Pamela Anderson Everybody thinks if you do one thing, you can't do something else. So I like the fact that I can be versatile if I want to. Denise Van Outen I don't ever want to be hugely famous because I had a little taste of it after 'East Is East' and 'Bend It....