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It's a strange failure of the literary world that Updike never quite received his due.

  Despite winning two Pulitzers and two National Book Awards and countless other awards and honours, he was denied the Nobel.

Justin Cartwright

I cut school to read Shakespeare and to learn about that because, for the first time, I felt like I really discovered a passion - the passion of my life.
Jessica Chastain

I don't think of bouncing between acting and singing as a transition but rather as an expansion. I love both crafts so deeply, I feel my heart and soul have no choice but to explore both. I could never choose between the two of them. I am passionate about both for equal yet different reasons.
Ryan McCartan

Monsters are a storytelling tool, like domestic realism and close third.
Colson Whitehead

Producer Michael Davies - who did 'Who Wants to Be a Millionaire' - offered me a TV show, but I turned it down. I wasn't negotiating: It just didn't sound like a good idea. Then he offered me another show, and I said, 'No thanks' again. When I heard about 'Win Ben Stein's Money,' I thought, 'OK, that sounds like a good idea.'
Jimmy Kimmel

One of the things I love about wen wu is its encouragement of developing the spiritual and intellectual aspects of the self that are actually more important than the development of the body and the capacity to commit violence - which is how much of Western pop culture defines a man.
Alex Tizon

Mr. Trump is primarily a television personality. As such, he is judged by that standard. This means that a scandal does not call forth a response; it calls forth the desire for a bigger scandal.
Timothy D. Snyder

That Evan Dunham fight, I went back to not being serious. I was going to the lake and literally brought some wrestling mats down with me. We have a shop at the lake where we park the boat. I'd throw the mats in there, wakeboard all day, and train all night. I was having a good time, getting back to work.
Donald Cerrone

Some of the greatest hip-hop artists have incorporated elements from electronic shows into their setup. People are taking notice. It's going to be a new wave.
Pusha T

We developed a system in Romania that was very successfully continued for a number of years, but I don't know if it was because of some conflict in the organisation or whether there was government interference... but somehow, they have forgotten the importance of raising gymnasts to be ready for every Olympics.
Nadia Comaneci

Reproductive rights are about body and medical autonomy: our collective and deeply personal right to choose what we want to do to/with our bodies. Trans people and feminists should be building natural alliances here.
Janet Mock

Gemeoss

I remember someone saying to my mom that it must be so glamorous to have

a child acting in movies. They had no idea how hard it was for her. Douglas Booth The No. 1 thing is the product. The goods have to be good, but I care about how you feel about it. Mickey Drexler I'm much more interested in lesser-known eccentrics and characters and performers. Like Matthew Buchinger, who was born in Germany in 1674, had no arms or legs and yet did magic, and had 14 kids, and made the most extraordinary calligraphy. Ricky Jay A career for me is something like building a bridge. You know, where to put the lifts. You have a plan. I have a blueprint for each film, but not for my life. Claire Denis I'm terribly nostalgic, but I'm with the Elizabethans who thought nostalgia was a disease. It's a dangerous place to be because you can get caught up in it. Mark Gatiss I deal with the human psychology and evil. They are my twin issues. Greg Iles I've been encouraging documentary filmmakers to use more and more humor, and they're loath t...

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...

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 ...

I remember, at MIT, we had to write an essay about something mathematical that you do

 in your extra time. I basically wrote about how dance, to me, was geometry: it was all shapes. Payal Kadakia I know everything that I do is going to be more powerful and touch more people in a positive way than if I go out there and cause havoc. Trevor Jackson I think I've had an illustrious career. Paul Pierce For me, it's always the same: worrying about how I can get better, the techniques I can do. Robbie Lawler Jean Thompson's short-story collection 'Who Do You Love' is a beautiful book, but a hell of a sad one. Jeff Giles You know what's funny? There's times when you catch a ball and really didn't even see that ball. You're like, 'That couldn't have been all me.' Calvin Johnson I wasn't a fanboy of horror. I didn't grow up on horror movies. I grew up loving all movies. I still love all movies, but I particularly love scary movies - as much for the culture around them as the movies themselves. Jason Blum I always sang in scho...

No one remembers how the American people responded day-to-day, week-to-week, or month-to-month about the decisions

that Presidents Franklin D. Roosevelt, Harry Truman and Dwight Eisenhower made during the most dangerous decades in American and world history. But we know now that they did what was right, and we honor them for it. Donna Brazile If you come out of the gate with a finger pointed, then you really aren't opening the door to any sort of resolution to whatever the problem may be. Whether it's about race or sexual orientation or religion, if you can't empathize with the opposing party, then you can't really meet in the middle. Octavia Spencer My voice broke very late. I think that, deep down, I knew that once it broke, my self-esteem would plummet, as I'd never be head chorister again. Tom Hollander As a child, the conversations that I liked to have with my friends - or with anyone, for that matter - were always about religion. Christy Turlington Citizenship must be precious, not handed out like candy in a parade. We don't ride along and throw out citizen...

The human body experiences a powerful gravitational pull in the direction of hope. That is

why the patient's hopes are the physician's secret weapon. They are the hidden ingredients in any prescription. Norman Cousins I worship impersonal Nature, which is neither 'good' or 'bad', and who knows neither love nor hatred. Savitri Devi If it's natural to kill, how come men have to go into training to learn how? Joan Baez Brahms believed that there was no need to publish absolutely everything that Schubert ever wrote. Dietrich Fischer-Dieskau For my part, it was Greek to me. William Shakespeare It's part of the job to compensate for outfit. Victoria Pratt Hence a ship is said to head the sea, when her course is opposed to the setting or direction of the surges. William Falconer

I don't know whether we Church members fully appreciate the Book of Mormon, one of

our sacred scriptures, as we really should. Joseph B. Wirthlin I had written a book. For various reasons, the publishing industry had decided that my book was going to be 'important.' The novel had taken me 12-and-a-half years to write, and after being with the book for so long, I had no real perspective on the merits or demerits of what I had written. I hoped it was good, but feared that it wasn't. Akhil Sharma The Green Arrow stuff that I've responded to from the past is the Mike Grell stuff. I've liked a lot of other stuff, but I think for me, the direction and the mood and the tone that I really want is something much darker and more aggressive and really fast-paced action. Jeff Lemire I don't believe that a writer does something wonderful spontaneously. I believe it's the result of years of living, of study, reading, his very personality and temperament. At one particular moment, all these come together and the artist 'expresses' himsel...

I remember growing up thinking that astronauts and their job was the coolest thing you

could possibly do... But I absolutely couldn't identify with the people who were astronauts. I thought they were movie stars. David M. Brown The architect must be a prophet... a prophet in the true sense of the term... if he can't see at least ten years ahead don't call him an architect. Frank Lloyd Wright Many a happiness in life, as many a disaster, can be due to chance, but the peace within us can never be governed by chance. Maurice Maeterlinck Our mothers and fathers want change. They worked all of their lives, but today live in destitution. Viktor Yushchenko It's a very, very tricky situation. I haven't said yes to either of them. Brigitte Nielsen If they can make penicillin out of mouldy bread, they can sure make something out of you. Muhammad Ali I maintain that nothing useful and lasting can emerge from violence. Shirin Ebadi

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...

Historically, the women who have been the great painters of the canon have very often

have been the wives or daughters of supportive men. Like Artemisia, whose father was a very established painter. I will say that the two current contemporary artists I admire the most are women: Kara Walker and Swoon. Molly Crabapple Always wear a good watch, no matter what if you are wearing a suit or sweats. A good watch will hold value over time. It's not about the brightest or the biggest diamonds, it's about quality mechanisms, the heritage of the company you're buying it from. Trey Songz When you are part of a community for 14 years, it inevitably shapes you. I will always have a part of Ferrari beside me; a part of my heart will always be red. Michael Schumacher Because of the womb being a central phenomenon in the feminine body, the whole psychology of woman differs: she is non-aggressive, non-inquiring, non-questioning, non-doubting, because all of those things are part of aggression. She will not take the initiative; she simply waits - and she can wait in...