If you ask the government to solve all of your problems, it's a bit like asking your wife to cook and clean, to raise the children, to hold down a second job to help with the family finances, to keep her parents happy and well and keep your parents happy and well, and to also - to do the lawn and clean the gutters.
If you ask an actor what he'd prefer to act on, he'd probably say a tangible, real set, or even better, a real location out on a mountainside or by a river. It's just easier because you don't have to imagine anything.
What we ask of the developed countries is to let the Third World find a third way.
When I was a child I had a nightmare, and in the morning, I asked my mother and father, 'If I kill someone, would you still love me?' My parents were very preoccupied with this, but I think I'm not the only one to ask for that - not love, but absolute fidelity.
Actually, if you ask my really close friends, they would say that 'Honeymoon' is more me than anything else I've written.
The fact that I have the chance to learn from the names I've been on tour with, I don't think you can ask for any more than that.
At the beginning of every semester, I ask my graduate students whether there is something I should read that will help me understand their work.
When we show up in a city, we ask, 'Where's the best restaurant? What's the best beer?' You start doing that, and you get exposed to a lot of great stuff.
Joe Lansdale is one of the few writers able to write in whatever genre or mode he wants on any particular day. How? He doesn't ask permission. He just steps in, out-writes everybody in the room.
If journalists ask you again and again about the same bands, you'll end up saying you hate them just because you're so fed up with being asked all those stupid questions.
I ask people what they do in sales, how much money they made last year, what their cost of sales is, and they don't even know. If you don't know your numbers, you're going out of business. I don't care how good your product is.
If I ask you to write down the last 4 digits of your social security number, and then take you out to lunch and ask you how many dentists there are in Manhattan, there's going to be a high correlation between those two numbers. What happens is that the number psychologically makes you feel confident.
If the country has invested in the training of doctors or nurses or midwives for that matter, people are beginning to say, 'Should we not ask them to serve a number of years in the country who invested in their training?' I think this is now coming to be an interesting discussion.
My idea about football is to play well, but even if you can't always play well, one thing I want is your character, your spirit. That is all I can ask of you.
In America, we have bible-reading applications: every single one of those applications asks permission to turn on your microphone, your camera; it wants permission to read your e-mails and the right to send e-mails wherever it chooses.
I'm not just going to hug every person that asks to hug me.
We always reference kids but very rarely ask their opinion. Our inexperience might be what gives us the ability to teach our elders something, due to the fact that we are not jaded or cynical.
Being on set with my dad - that's so cool. People always ask me if that made me nervous, but it's the same element when you're a kid - when your parents come in the auditorium for those school performances. It calms you.
Now the British are coming. I think Cameron should ask the Chinese government not to make people 'disappear' or to jail them merely because they have different opinions.
It really bothers me when a guy is controlling. Don't just say 'I'm picking the place' - ask me where I want to go!
Along with former President Bill Clinton, we have Sam Nunn to thank for the sorry debacle of 'Don't Ask, Don't Tell.'
Chris Matthews can't start any sentence without 'Let me ask you this... ' And I love Chris Matthews! But almost everybody in journalism does it. Who's stopping you? Just say it!
I don't like people knowing about my business, and my situation, so I try to keep out of people's situations unless they come to me and ask for help.
I had written my master's thesis on Ezra Pound on 'The Cantos.' And don't ask me about it. I don't remember anything about it.
As soon as you become of interest to the media, the charity requests start rolling in, and it's not easy saying no. But if you endorse every charity that asks you, you're not really endorsing any of them. It has to mean something.
If you ask people if they enjoy crime novels, they'll say, 'Oh, my guilty pleasure is...' then name a really brilliant crime writer.
When I used to have a show on French TV, people would ask me how my jacket stayed spotless while cooking. Your whole area has to be clean - and you have to keep it that way.
Whenever you're reporting, there's always something you can't say or write, but the questions, you always want to get as close to that line as possible. You want to ask the tough questions.
Ask yourself if these Democrats still speak for you. When they say we have a duty to grow government even when we can't afford it, does it sound like compassion to you - or recklessness?
Everyone asks, 'What's your goal? Do you want to win an Oscar? Do you want to work with Meryl Streep?' No! I want to buy my mum a house. I want to make her proud.
Someone may ask, 'How is justice greater than all the other virtues?' The other virtues gratify the one who possesses them; justice does not give pleasure to the one possessing it, but instead pleases others.
I used to dream about Gorbachev before he lost power. I'd go into a panic because I was meeting him, and I had nothing to wear. I'd ask my brother what to do, and he'd tell me to wear my dressing gown. I'd tell him I can't - it's too horrible. He'd tell me to wear his as well. So I'd meet Gorbachev wearing two dressing gowns.
If I go and buy a coffee, and somebody asks me what I do, I'll say, 'I find asteroids.' And the first thing they always do is make a Bruce Willis joke, or they are going to bring up Armageddon.
I don't know what a softball question is. All I know is I have no agenda. I ask short questions, and I listen to the answer.
Really smart people don't want to say stupid things, and they really don't want to be a part of a PR-engineered interview. People really do want to be smart, and they want smart questions. So, if you ask smart questions, there's no way you can't do well.
The Latin root of 'precariousness' is 'to obtain by prayer.' The precariat must ask for favours, for charity, to show obsequiousness, to plead with figures of authority. It is degrading and stigmatizing.
