I showed up in L.A. with $500 and a backpack and I stayed at a shelter, so nobody handed me anything. I worked for every single thing that I have.
The one thing about program television that's absolutely incompatible with any concept of art is that all decisions have to be made by program directors, whereas art is autonomous. It may be dependent, but it knows no superiors.
It would have been a very, very good thing if the next election after Margaret went we had lost.
As Congress focuses on comprehensive health care reform, one thing needs to be clear: We cannot fix health care if we do not address America's nursing shortage.
My proudest thing in my career is that I was able to change it three times. And I'm happy about that. I couldn't have done the same thing my whole life; I would've gone nuts. I couldn't do it, because I do things based on impulsive excitement, and I'm just not that guy that can do something for 50 years and be excited about the same thing.
The only thing that matters to me about my stories is that they're entertaining and they're funny. And I tend to get bored easily, so I generally throw something supernatural in. I would say they're humorous novels that have a supernatural bent, but that's as close as you're going to get to fitting them all in the same basket.
The most obvious thing you can't do with a guitar synthesizer is to really sound like a guitar.
The good thing about having this illness is that it allows me to be a little bit crazy.
The most powerful thing in politics is voter-to-voter contact. People take in ideas and formulate opinions by contact with other people they perceive to be trustworthy - other voters, people from their communities.
The one thing I regret is that I will never have time to read all the books I want to read.
Even after I got my divorce, the ink wasn't even dry on the paper, and I said, 'Ooh, the next time I become a wife, I got this thing down pat!' I always believed that there was someone built for me.
The thing about kissing men - how do people stand it? The stubble is maddening.
I feel it's important to show that one thing that you do doesn't define you as a human being. It doesn't mean there aren't ramifications or you shouldn't pay for that but its not who you are.
Though analogy is often misleading, it is the least misleading thing we have.
People talk about love and it seems like a cliche but it's a real thing - the more love we spread around the world the more it's going to change lives.
And one thing I can be proud of is we have a 'Come and Try Fishing' day every year. And there's 20 venues throughout the state, and see, these thousands of kids who've never been fishing come along.
Boots in January are always a good look, and some of the cutest ones I've seen lately were designed by Ivanka Trump, who knows a thing or two about style.
For me, every day is a new thing. I approach each project with a new insecurity, almost like the first project I ever did. And I get the sweats. I go in and start working, I'm not sure where I'm going. If I knew where I was going I wouldn't do it.
The thing about metaphors is that, if you give them away, you give away the mystery.
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.
There are a lot of people using technology that are playing to a click with backing vocals already stuck in there on some computerized thing that runs along in time to the show so they have these amazing vocals that are only partly the guys on stage producing them at the time.
I majored in theater. I did plays. But musicals were not my thing.
One thing about Los Angeles is it feels like it's not new. It feels like it's already been built, and it's deteriorating, except for the places they're trying to make nicer. But in general, you drive all through the city, and the city feels like it was new a long time ago.
Making movies is a hard thing, and it's slow. So you can glorify the product, but the process is difficult no matter who you are.
I think mothers are so important. I mean, it seems like such an obvious thing to say, but I think we don't really express that enough, apart from one day a year. So I think we need to come together and celebrate us every day.
There's no such thing as putting extra effort in on one day than the other. Every single day is a lot of effort, usually maximum effort every day.
There is probably a perverse pride in my administration... that we were going to do the right thing, even if short-term it was unpopular. And I think anybody who's occupied this office has to remember that success is determined by an intersection in policy and politics and that you can't be neglecting of marketing and P.R. and public opinion.
I'm often drawn to characters that are more obviously one thing. They're passionate, and there is always an element of strength because I think every person possesses that in some way, even if they've experienced hardship in their lives.
It's a beautiful thing, diving into the cool crisp water and then just sort of being able to pull your body through the water and the water opening up for you.
Authentic apology is a tricky thing to pull off in politics, which is why it so seldom occurs. Plausible deniability must be preserved. True contrition has to be displayed. Traitors to the cause must be immediately be jettisoned. Most of all, the goal is to stop the bleeding.
I think people have the wrong idea of 'Moby Dick' as this somber, boring thing.
Sometimes there are two very opposite directions, and we go with the stronger one at the end. It's an impulse thing, like, 'Oh, I love both so much, but it's got to be one or the other because the two don't work together.'
My main thing was painting; I was just going to do that.
I want to direct one day. I want to write my own thing and really be behind the scenes because you have more creative control.
There is a line in which populism can cross over into demagoguery. Demagoguery is the crossover where populism becomes a bad thing, and people make things up, and they assign responsibilities that aren't fair and justified, and scapegoat communities. And then it becomes a very bad thing.
I'm not a trend person. I don't want to look to my right and see somebody in the same thing.
