Being a slave meant never having the stability of knowing your family would be together

as many years as God designed it to be. It meant you could come back from picking cotton in a field to find that your children are gone, your husband's gone, your mother's gone.Colson Whitehead

In every community in Illinois, same-sex couples have chosen to join together and, in many instances, to raise families of their own. These couples are our relatives and friends, our neighbors, co-workers and parents of our children's classmates. They deserve the same rights and responsibilities that civil marriage offers straight couples.Lisa Madigan

My mom was a dance teacher, so she put me in dance school when I was a kid. I did everything. I used to take ballet.Chris Messina

I didn't really start going to see a lot of musicals and live theater probably until I was in seventh or eighth grade, maybe my first year of high school, and by that time I'd probably seen 'Grease' twice a year every year of my life.Thomas Kail

The way my father worked altruistically and the manner in which he used to go behind bars and come back home smilingly was inspirational.Asma Jahangir

We are all somewhere or the other a little grey, not black and white. We have our imperfections.Kriti Sanon

I would say to Republicans that when you look at civil rights legislation that took place in the 1960s, it took a bipartisan effort to get those things done, and so what I would tell my colleagues, both Republicans and Democrats, is let's come together, and let's be for fairness.Marc Veasey

As Attorney General of Alabama, I have never hesitated to stand up to the EPA before when it was wrong.Luther Strange

There are days that I love just devoting to going to the park and playing with my son, but then sometimes you have to leave out other things, or if work is a full day of work, perhaps I miss the play time with my son, and I guess the only struggle is trying to not shortchange any of the things that you want to do.Jane Krakowski

I'm relieved that after all these years of doing atrocity work, I still cry my eyes out every time I read the paper in the morning. It's surprising, actually.Samantha Power

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If you... scaled down human beings, scaled down society, if you land with a group

of little boys, they are more like a scaled-down version of society than a group of little girls would be. William Golding I've been performing since I was a child; my mother would have to pull me aside and tell me that I wasn't onstage. I was a cheerleader, president of choir, and in the school play. Aja Naomi King I am a very strong supporter of our government's view that it is important to engage with all countries around the world - very much including Russia. Chrystia Freeland I was wrapping up my stint on 'Daredevil' co-writing with Andy Diggle during the Shadowland story, when Marvel asked if I was interested in doing something else with DD but a bit different. When they explained the purpose of the 'Season One' books, I was intrigued - I'm a big advocate of books for people new to the medium - and said yes. Antony Johnston Spike Lee gave me the greatest reaction to the fact that I was this athlete-meets-artist, because I think he saw ...

We underestimate children and the people who work with them. I swear - so often, I tell

people I am a children's author, and it's like they want to pat me on the head: 'Aw, isn't that sweet.' Kathi Appelt There is a disconnect in education and work. And corporates don't do a great job of skilling. In future, corporates and educational institutions will work closely. Shiv Nadar I played semi-professionally for a season, and there's an element of performance to being a footballer, stepping onto the pitch: you feel like a gladiator walking into a colosseum. Callum Turner We used to indulge hopelessly as a family at Christmas. When the children were little, I dressed up as Father Christmas. They knew it was a gag, but they loved it. I remember stealing into their bedrooms at 1 A.M. and filling the stockings up at the end of the bed. Richard Attenborough What we, as black people, need to do is we need to worry about our education. Charles Barkley I was never the person who came up with a boom somehow. I worked slowly and consistently, making my wa...

The casualties in the Civil War amount to more than all other wars - all

other American wars combined. More people died in that war than World War II, World War I, Vietnam, etc. And that was a war for white supremacy. It was a war to erect a state in which the basis of it was the enslavement of black people.Ta-Nehisi Coates It is the forces of the universe that make human beings fall ill. Having learnt to recognize how sun qualities and moon qualities live in plants, animals and minerals, we discover how we can find counterforces and also individual natural forces that point us towards medicines for specific internal illnesses.Rudolf Steiner Girls are socialised in ways that are harmful to their sense of self - to reduce themselves, to cater to the egos of men, to think of their bodies as repositories of shame. As adult women, many struggle to overcome, to unlearn, much of that social conditioning.Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie 'They' are the people that don't believe in you, that say that you won't succeed. We stay away from 'They....

I have always maintained that it's not the quantity of work, but the quality that

should speak. I have maintained the same for my music albums, too. I have always released them after a gap of two to three years.Adnan Sami In all my days of schooling, from preschool all the way up to 12th grade, there was not one white person in my class. Literally zero.Kendrick Lamar The truth is that searching for our commonality instead of our differences could transform our dysfunctional politics.Raja Krishnamoorthi It came down to the AHCA or the continued disaster of Obamacare, which was an easy choice. The AHCA is a major improvement, because a federal one-size-fits-all approach to health care isn't the answer.Cathy McMorris Rodgers I'm really glad I had the chance to live in Jensen Beach and Stuart before everything exploded. I'm always going to be fond of that area. For me, it was a sleepy little fishing town, and it kind of represents what Florida was before the development explosion.Judge Reinhold Space is much stiffer than you imagine; it's ...

The genre has moved into this commercial aspect of itself, and ignored this extraordinarily rich

literature that's filed everywhere else except under travel. Robyn Davidson What the French want is coherence, stability and justice. If I am in a favorable position today, it's because my fellow citizens want to make the effort to straighten out the country, and at the same time they want it to be just and equitable. Francois Hollande When we shoot 24, there are so many things I have to worry about, from the script to technical things to my performance, that I don't have a second to be bored or take anything for granted. We produce 24 hours of film a season, which is like making 12 movies. Kiefer Sutherland It is what it is, and it ain't nothin' else... Everything is clearly, openly, plainly delivered. Dan Flavin Ever since I was a kid, whatever situation I was presented with, I always made the most of it. Daley Thompson The tongue may be employed about, and made to serve all the purposes of vice, in tempting and deceiving, in perjury and injustice. ...

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...

The only way physical comedy works is if you don't see it coming. And the

harder the fall, the funnier it is. You have to really take some shots, and I've walked away with some bumps and bruises. Chris Pratt Passion is the thing that sustains you in acting. If you're doing it for fame and money, don't even bother because it will never happen. The last thing I ever expected was to be paid for this. Scott Patterson 'The Princess Bride' is by far the most popular film I've ever done. I don't think I'll ever top it. Wallace Shawn When I moved to New York, I fell head over heels back into country music and probably 'cause I missed something about Texas. Norah Jones To me, religion is an agreement between a group of people about what God is. Spirituality is a one-on-one relationship. Steve Earle For me, you say the words 'concept record,' and the first thing I think of is theater or the opera or something. Chester Bennington Almost all our desires, when examined, contain something too shameful to reveal...

The Hebrews have done more to civilize men than any other nation. If I were

an atheist, and believed blind eternal fate, I should still believe that fate had ordained the Jews to be the most essential instrument for civilizing the nations. John Adams The sincere friends of this world are as ship lights in the stormiest of nights. Giotto di Bondone I kind of have a rededication in my life now to acting because I'm very fond of being in this movie. Thomas Haden Church I've had this sneaking feeling throughout the game that it's there to be won. Ron Atkinson A friendship that like love is warm; A love like friendship, steady. Thomas Moore There is a condition worse than blindness, and that is, seeing something that isn't there. Thomas Hardy You don't realize how easy this game is until you get up in that broadcasting booth. Mickey Mantle

I turn on the radio. I'm a really big fan of old-fashioned dial radio. I

love WNYC and NPR and also 88.3 in New York, which is the jazz station, and it's usually good for background music. If I'm not in New York City or by a traditional radio, I'll stream it on my phone, although I usually try not to look at my phone first thing in the morning.Julia Stiles People can see that we are part of a tradition of absurd comedy, stretching from Spike Milligan and Peter Cook through to Monty Python and Vic Reeves. We're not like Ricky Gervais's hyper-real cringe comedy. We're at the other end of the scale, but there's room for the sillier stuff, too.Julian Barratt I believe that one of the reasons I get to play golf all over the world is because of the barriers that Lee Elder broke down. I just think he's amazing.Darius Rucker I fear that in the next century we will have many more Muslims in the United States if we do not adopt the strict immigration policies that I believe are necessary to preserve the values and beliefs trad...

The priests say that God created our souls, and that just puts us under the

control of another puppeteer. If God created our will, then he's responsible for every choice we make. Orson Scott Card I do like to work on a Marvel method, so if I've got the opportunity, and the writer is happy to do it, I like to have a writer detail what happens on a page, but not saying what happens in every scene. David Lloyd I've always had a fantasy to write a cookbook, because everyone wants to know what a model eats. Padma Lakshmi To newspapers and publishing houses I urge the use of fact over fiction, freedom of the press, and responsibility at all times. Joely Richardson I think my thing is I grew up in the ghetto, and I was able to get a second chance. That's what I'm trying to tell kids. Master P We gotta stop fighting amongst each other. I think the only rift should be when take it the stage and try to out perform each other. Grandmaster Flash I'm a really bad liar. My mom finds out every time, especially now that she's got ...