I don't believe we ought to discriminate against people because of their sexual orientation. If people are in a same-sex relationship, and they want their partner to be able to have health benefits or be designated as a beneficiary in your life insurance, there's no reason we shouldn't do that.
People always say, and my family has said it to me, that you know who your real friends are when you're at your lowest point and you don't have a job or whatever.
A book tour is not a good opportunity to let your mind wander. You have to pay attention, remember salespeople's and interviewers' names, succinctly summarize your book in a 'selling' way, and so on.
Because I write a book a year, I always want to do one other project every year that's stimulating in a different way. It means you can be working but not using up your prose juice, you know?
Laws that impinge your constitutionally protected right to earn an honest living must not be preposterous.
You don't need to be a spook to care about encryption. If you travel with your computer or keep it in a place where other people can put their hands on it, you're vulnerable.
Every so often, you want to map out your plot mythology but never so specifically that you can't let a story surprise you. You want to allow the type of action of the writer's room so that you have the ability to take a left turn.
I'm not paralyzed with fear, but I realize it is important to live as if there's no tomorrow, always trying to maintain your integrity and have no regrets.
When you write, you put your thoughts in the public space. You get both positive and negative feedback.
What you learn in any acting class is how to make a fool of yourself and enjoy things and get out of your head.
There is no rule book, no right or wrong; you just have to make it up and do the very best you can to care for your family.
There is an old adage that the quickest way to drop your tax take is to increase taxes. If capital gains tax is going to be 50 percent, my contingent capital gains tax is going to be 250 million pounds.
To see your friend's dreams come true, there's really nothing that can make you happier.
When you're at the highest point of your career at the highest level in your sport, any moment that you have these setbacks and injuries is devastating. You have to start back from zero, and you never know if you're going to get back to where you once were.
You have to respect all your competitors.
It's very hard to turn your back once you're aware of what's going on, and you're aware of the injustices, and you're aware of the civilian casualties. It's much easier if you have no idea and you've never seen it.
Once you've changed who you are or who you've portrayed in your music, the fans, they'll catch it... Once I feel like the world knows me for anything else but my music, then I feel like I failed.
One of the glories and terrors of working in public is that you do see if your output means anything to anyone.
I played several maids in my career. I was tired of the maid after 'Far From Heaven.' I said, no more maids. Until I realized how difficult it was to get a role other than a maid, sometimes, in Hollywood, and sometimes you have to choose your battles, for lack of a better term.
I care more about telly because it made me an actor and there's a much more immediate response to TV. You can address the political or cultural fabric of your country.
I believe you have to start with yourself, think about your bad habits and prejudices, not only in your profession but generally in life. Why do I assume that a doctor is a man? Something is indoctrinated from very early on.
For someone making a pilot, assuming the talent is there and you can maneuver the system properly, it's just a matter of standing your ground and trying to make something great until you are making enough money for the studio that they let you keep making it.
Men don't wear high heels, and they don't make allowances for women who do. Tottering down the corridors of power in beautiful but crippling stilettos telegraphs your preference for style over substance.
Basically, my problem was attributed to stress more than anything. I don't know what that does and I guess doctors can tell you that there's chemicals that build up in your system when you go through a lot of stress and constant stress.
The time you do get edgy and the time you do want to slack off is the time, boom, there goes your opportunity. So you don't want to have that.
Sometimes you're trying your best and you still can't find a solution, but I try not to waste my life living in a dark place.
The funny thing is that when you have any form of presentation to your band, meaning you have the foresight to see outside of your creativity, you have a bigger vision.
'How to Train Your Dragon,' the first one, was a film I'd seen prior to being approached for the sequel. I don't often watch family animated movies, but it's one that I loved and thought was really well done: beautifully crafted storytelling.
You have to be able to recognize defenses on your own in pro football. You can't look to the sideline and read some board. You've got to recognize the defense on your own, and then you've got to communicate to your offensive teammates what you want them to do.
I do not think that having children - I have three teenagers - keeps you young. The reverse. It thrusts you into a full-frontal confrontation with your own all-too-obvious maturity.
Give your kid some credit for being smart - just because they read about something doesn't mean they will do it.
I love magic. Like, 'pull a scarf out of your fake thumb' magic. I have a legit bag of 'Magic Stuff' in my garage.
Nowhere in the job description of an artist is the requirement that I must validate your taste.
If you speed up your trip, you'll miss a lot of interesting sights and also wear yourself to a frazzle.
Partnerships are increasingly seen through the prism of promises and expectations, and as a kind of product for consumers: satisfaction on the spot, and if not fully satisfied, return the product to the shop or replace it with a new and improved one! You don't, after all, stick to your car, or computer, or iPod, when better ones appear.
Well, actually, if you can stay in your home that is a better deal for the neighborhood. It's certainly a better deal for the person that is in their home, rather than to be on the street and for that house to go into foreclosure and become a problem for the whole community.
