The stoic drama 'A Somewhat Gentle Man' is photographed in a palate of steel gray

tones that match Stellan Skarsgard's complexion. It's a low-blood-pressure version of the kind of thing James M. Cain used to do in his sleep, and its filmmaking accomplishment is as minimalist as its narrative ambition is minimal.
Elvis Mitchell

I sat down to try to write 'Edinburgh,' an autobiographical novel, and that took five years to write and two years to sell.
Alexander Chee

Thankfully, I've never had anyone tell me that I needed to lose weight or change my appearance.
Jessica Parker Kennedy

If I have a career in theater, and nobody knows who I am, I'm all right with that.
Lucas Hedges

My mother's style has always been consensus-generating.
Benigno Aquino III

It's tough to perform every week and do it well. Most people don't know how hard that is.
Caroline Wozniacki

Zombies sort of typify this ambiguity, that they're not dead and not alive.
Jeff Baena

I think I can recognize when a piece is at a state of completion.
Geoff Dyer

I had been obsessed with insects and creepy-crawlies: I used to get up at five o'clock in the morning and go out into this field behind our garden and collect insects before everyone else got up, and suddenly, all I wanted to know about was music. It just seemed a very, very strange thing.
George Michael

Who would set a limit to the mind of man? Who would dare assert that we know all there is to be known?
Galileo Galilei

Gemeoss

For those who are able to work, work has to be seen as the best

route out of poverty. For work is not just about more money - it is transformative. It's about taking responsibility for yourself and your family. Iain Duncan Smith I like making songs up. Whether or not they're great songs or good songs, whatever. It's something I've always done, and I definitely feel like I've gotten better at it. Jeff Tweedy It's interesting that so many books now are published as the first in a series. It never occurred to me. Although 'The Giver' does have an ambiguous ending. I've heard about that from readers over the years. Lois Lowry I no longer buy papers or tabloids or magazines or read blogs. I used to. But it was just filling up my day with hatred. Adele When I get dolled up to go out, men turn their heads and I'm used to it. But I think all women are sexy and should embrace that side of themselves. Malin Akerman With fitness, I do Bikrams hot yoga. The gym that I have in my building is amazing. I love...

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...

No one wants to see a person on TV who's super-ultra-cool. That's Superman, that's a

thing of the past. Heroes are now flawed, and have terrible tempers, you know? They're real people. Nathan Fillion The book is a dialogue between The Dalai Lama and a group of scientists about how we can better handle our destructive emotions and how to overcome them. Daniel Goleman Third, we could, while denouncing them both as illegal, have acquiesced in them both and thus remained neutral with both sides, although not agreeing with either as to the righteousness of their respective orders. George William Norris If a D.C. event doesn't have crab cakes, it's low-rent and you need to flee. Tony Hale As someone who has lived the nightmare of losing a child, I know that the enormous hole left behind remains forever. Ann Hood What is the system? It revolves around the banks, the system is built on the power of the banks, so it can be destroyed through the banks. Eric Cantona It's interesting as one grows older to keep in touch with the cutting edge. Faye...

Let who will boast their courage in the field, I find but little safety from

my shield, Nature's, not honour's law we must obey: This made me cast my useless shield away. Archilochus Some of my ancestors were religious dissenters who came to America over three hundred years ago. Others were abolitionists in New England in the eighteen forties and fifties. Pete Seeger The H-1B visa program which helps sustain our rapidly growing economy and also helps meet the health care needs of families living in rural New Mexico. Heather Wilson Contrary to what the politicians and religious leaders would like us to believe, the world won't be made safer by creating barriers between people. Michael Palin Confidence is that feeling by which the mind embarks in great and honorable courses with a sure hope and trust in itself. Marcus Tullius Cicero A few months after graduation I was working in films. It took off pretty quick. Moira Kelly Players like to know that they've discovered things that even the designers didn't know were in the game...

If you wish to draw off the people from a bad or wicked custom, you

must beat up for a march; you must make an excitement, do something that everybody will notice. Lewis Tappan The lawlessness of frontier life in America has been pictured as a remarkable phenomenon. In reality, it was the natural consequence of indiscriminate mixing of volatile substances. Paul Harris Cursed be he above all others Who's enslaved by love of money. Money takes the place of brothers, Money takes the place of parents, Money brings us war and slaughter. Anacreon I can't get my head around the fact that the technology of the first two movies, which are forty years prior to Star Wars, is so much better than any technology they had in Star Wars! David Prowse Happiness cannot be traveled to, owned, earned, worn or consumed. Happiness is the spiritual experience of living every minute with love, grace, and gratitude. Denis Waitley The two big advantages I had at birth were to have been born wise and to have been born in poverty. Sophia Loren Experience ...

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 ...

Warhol's images made sense to me, although I knew nothing at the time of his

background in commercial art. To be honest, I didn't think about him a hell of a lot. Barbara Kruger I visited the Chinese side last year. The Chinese are in a constant state of military readiness. They have all their nuclear weapons in the area, presumably trained on targets across the border. Harrison Salisbury The fundamental sense of freedom is freedom from chains, from imprisonment, from enslavement by others. The rest is extension of this sense, or else metaphor. Isaiah Berlin The upside to smoking is that you get to be social. I was looking for a light when I bumped into Ben Harper's manager. A couple of days later, Ben and I were in the studio. Beth Orton Today it is becoming harder to speak out, with the inception of the Patriot Act, the president has legislated free speech to be a crime. Frank Serpico I have only one eye, I have a right to be blind sometimes... I really do not see the signal! Horatio Nelson Truth is a thing immortal and perpetual, an...

Forgiving does not erase the bitter past. A healed memory is not a deleted memory.

Instead, forgiving what we cannot forget creates a new way to remember. We change the memory of our past into a hope for our future. Lewis B. Smedes Do not suppose, dearest Sir, that I am so short-sighted as to destroy my life by English preaching, or any other preaching. St. Paul did much good by his preaching, but how much more by his writings. Henry Martyn The stubbornness I had as a child has been transmitted into perseverance. I can let go but I don't give up. I don't beat myself up about negative things. Phylicia Rashad Johnny Mercer was my father's best friend and became mine as well. And Harold Arlen, whom I would call Uncle Harry, and Harry Warren: those were ones who I really became close to. Margaret Whiting In America, the race goes to the loud, the solemn, the hustler. If you think you're a great writer, you must say that you are. Gore Vidal I don't really trust a sane person. Lyle Alzado Consumers are statistics. Customers are people....

The strategy of my coach and me was that we looked at pictures

of all the best pole vaulters from around the world, and we took the best parts from them, and we created a person that had never existed. We then started to work toward being such a person. Sergei Bubka I have a completely addictive personality. Diet Coke is my last - God, I know people counting days off Diet Coke; I'm such a Diet Cokehead. Now I won't let myself buy it. Mary Karr Take a random selection of photographs of America in 2012 and 2002 and 1992 and, except for the skinny jeans and the porkpie hats, you'll be hard-pressed to tell the years in which the pictures were taken. Graydon Carter Trust me, I did not set out to establish three pen names and, for the record, I do not recommend it as a career strategy. The idea back at the start was that I would stick with the name that proved most successful. Jayne Ann Krentz I remember when I thought of singing as the bit that went between the guitar playing - something I couldn't wait to get out of the way...