Knowledge is power, wisdom is freedom.

Gemeoss

Persuasiveness is really just about getting your ideas across without being forceful.

It's a skill that can be learned and is useful for anyone who works in a team environment. Amanda de Cadenet I was an extra in a Tia Carrere music video. Adam Scott When people start to think they're figuring out 'The Vampire Diaries,' it switches on you. Kat Graham It's a huge blessing to know you've done something that has affected people the way 'The Matrix' has. It's like, there's 'Star Wars,' and then there's 'The Matrix.' It's cool to be a part of that. Laurence Fishburne Voters aren't asking to be pandered to and aren't asking to be tricked. Jason Kander I'm a pretty controlled and disciplined person, but my real vice is buying plants and food shopping. Zac Posen Barack Obama was a president who understood not only how technology could transform the way government services worked but also technology itself. He got it. Steven Levy Positivity, confidence, and persistence are key in life, so never give up...

I finally decided one day, reading science fiction magazines of the time, I could do

at least as well as some of these people are doing. So I finally made a serious effort. Fred Saberhagen I won a Marshall scholarship to read philosophy at Oxford, and what I most wanted to do was strengthen public intellectual culture - I'd write books and essays to help us figure out who we wanted to be. Reid Hoffman Since I am me, I find it very difficult to judge how fascinating listening to my nasal, heavily-accented drone for two hours would be to somebody who wasn't me. Alan Moore I used to do kickboxing, because I liked the cute outfits. Monica Keena I just want to make people smile. Julie Garwood I bought some books in order to learn the first principles of philosophy. Johann Heinrich Lambert All German women are beautiful. Heidi Klum I can never remember what I do even in the studio. Ritchie Blackmore I have never stopped playing music. Jason Schwartzman By and large, I've been healthy all my life. Bill Parcells

I stand here today as the first woman first minister of our country. Every day I hold this

office, I will work to ensure that every woman, every wee girl across this country, gets a chance to do what I've done and follow their dream. Nicola Sturgeon When a president was elected with foreign policy experience, it was usually less about his foreign policy experience than other things. H. W. Brands The result may not be perfect. But our forefathers wanted us to compromise to get things done for America. Gene Green I do believe in the old saying, 'What does not kill you makes you stronger.' Our experiences, good and bad, make us who we are. By overcoming difficulties, we gain strength and maturity. Angelina Jolie Tennis has opened a number of possibilities for me, and in future, it would be great to give something back. Ana Ivanovic No good writer ever merely cheered us up. But there's an unblinking stare into the darkness of things we have to go elsewhere to find. Jane Austen was made of strong stuff. She was too satiric for D. H. Lawrence's taste and too u...

I have survived so long because I've been blessed with talented and gracious colleagues and

with a top brass who let me choose my topics every week and then allowed me to express opinions that were not always popular. Well, someone had to stand up to the yackety-yak soccer cult. Frank Deford Dollar bills have absolutely no value except in our collective imagination, but everybody believes in the dollar bill. Yuval Noah Harari Once you put in backdoors, once you allow a government to intercept anything they want, you have to give it to other governments around the world. Once you do that, there is no privacy; there is no security. There is no protection for democracy. John T. Chambers The Land of Israel goes with the Torah of Israel under the sovereignty of the State of Israel. Naftali Bennett In our case, we have no script. So the only people we can work with are people who have been working with us in the past, and they know we are going to do something; it's kind of a trust. Wong Kar-wai Peter Weir is remarkable. He can do anything. Norman Lloyd For my 10th birthday, ...

We all live in a free Poland, and there would be no free Poland without

you, Twenty-five years ago, I did not stand on the same side together with you, but today I have no doubts that it was your vision of Poland which led us in the right direction. Aleksander Kwasniewski And to Shakespeare I owe my vision of the world as a theater, wherein all humans are acting out their parts. James Broughton If I wasn't an actor, I'd be a teacher, a history teacher. After all, teaching is very much like performing. A teacher is an actor, in a way. It takes a great deal to get, and hold, a class. Richard Dreyfuss I don't know what the future holds, but I have to be confident about it. It's just the way I am. Dawn French English is taking over the world. I just wrote a piece about it. And it's not by design. The United States dominates because it's the biggest market. Norman Spinrad There's a cardinal rule that you don't talk about sharks. If you don't see it, it's not there. Mark Warkentin I had so many freckles t...

I read 'The Bell Jar' as an adolescent and, like most teenagers, had no

problem identifying with a young woman who had everything going for her - looks, talent, opportunity, with her 'whole life ahead of her,' yadda, yadda, yadda - yet was spiraling into misery. Lionel Shriver I always wanted to write a book. Not a romance novel. Maybe a crime thriller. Something with action. Maybe that will happen some day. Becky Sauerbrunn I began to study martial arts because it was a great form of exercise, and I knew it would help my acting career. Martial arts reminded me of dancing. It has helped me learn fight sequences quicker. Olga Fonda I told my team, 'I don't want to go out for Asian roles anymore.' Ross Butler The Wodehouse language is so rich and detailed and hilarious. John Lithgow The Corbynista brand of politics representing metropolitan, middle class, pro-open border values is far removed from millions of Labour voters, especially those who voted Leave in the referendum. Nigel Farage What comes into...

I want to thank my mom, Brenda Rose. My heart, the reason I play the

way I play, just everything. Just knowing the days I don't feel right, going to practice, having a hard time, I think about her when she had to wake me up, go to work and make sure I was all right. Those were hard days. Derrick Rose I've read every Madonna biography. I've also looked up every pop star to see how they first made it. The biggest thing I learnt was that you have to be pro-active. You can't be scared. Marina and the Diamonds I think it's part of being English, particularly if you are middle-class - you're always looking to be reminded that you are no good and you are always actually embarrassed about being successful. Chris Martin I certainly think it's very important that writers as citizens - not necessarily as writers, but just as ordinary citizens - should talk about things that matter to them. Vikram Seth My motivation and aspiration is the same, being number one or being number five. So that's the truth. And my goal is the ...

I hadn't played any music since freshman year of college, more than thirty years ago,

so I had to relearn everything. I started writing songs. Some were dance and trance songs (I listen to them a lot while I'm writing), and some were love songs, because that after all is what music is about - dancing and trancing and love and love's setbacks. Nicholson Baker People first concern themselves with meeting their basic needs; only afterwards, do they pursue any higher needs. Abdolkarim Soroush I didn't want to just be another girl singer. I wanted there to be something that set me apart. Taylor Swift I came to Hollywood and nobody knew me. I was on a coupla TV shows. Peter Falk I am against any reconciliation with Israel. Hassan Nasrallah It is no good to try to stop knowledge from going forward. Ignorance is never better than knowledge. Enrico Fermi We had some problems - my children were kidnapped during that time, and it just changed my whole way of thinking, from being in show business and everything else. Solomon Burke With 'Girls,' it ...

I wrote two poems about the '81 uprisings: 'Di Great Insohreckshan' and 'Mekin Histri.' I

wrote those two poems from the perspective of those who had taken part in the Brixton riots. The tone of the poem is celebratory because I wanted to capture the mood of exhilaration felt by black people at the time. Linton Kwesi Johnson Julia Roberts is a favorite. Everybody loves her in the Hollywood community. The public adores her. Mary Hart The reason I became a better player was because I came to Philly. Michael Vick I have a lot of younger fans, obviously the choices I make often influence them. But having said that, it's kind of the best motivation in the world to stay positive and make good choices. James Maslow Investors have to ask themselves two questions. How much can we grow our investments? And, can we afford our mistakes? Mohamed El-Erian In Sierra Leone last year there was just the two of us hanging out of a helicopter and, when we were in Bosnia, I drove an armoured vehicle, thousands of miles. Kate Adie The higher a man stands, the more the word ...

It's a radical time for musicians, a really revolutionary time, and I believe revolutions like

Napster are a lot more fun than cash, which by the way we don't have at major labels anyway, so we might as well get with it and get in the game. Courtney Love We have to learn again that science without contact with experiments is an enterprise which is likely to go completely astray into imaginary conjecture. Hannes Alfven I think complexity is mostly sort of crummy stuff that is there because it's too expensive to change the interface. Jaron Lanier The rest, called literature, is a dossier of human imbecility for the guidance of future professors. Tristan Tzara The London dialect as it is spoken in educated circles. Henry Sweet At the end of the day, the most overwhelming key to a child's success is the positive involvement of parents. Jane D. Hull Time and money spent in helping men to do more for themselves is far better than mere giving. Henry Ford