Listen: God doesn't care whether or not you make your next jump shot. God will give you a lot of things in life, but he's not going to give you your jump shot. Only hard work will do that.
Sometimes it takes you two or three seconds to get your head round a joke and laugh at it. With a snot-bubble laugh, it comes instinctively - almost in spite of yourself. It's caused by something silly - like when a little kid says something unexpectedly bizarre.
With age comes the understanding and appreciation of your most important asset, your health.
One of the most startling events in my life was when my older son was about 16, and he blamed me for all the troubles of the world. So I, I felt like telling him, 'Oh no, I was just like you when I was your age; I wanted to change the world, too.'
Playing music has always felt very natural. You know, you do try to do other things, and you do learn lessons that way, but, eventually - well... if your dad is a plumber, you become a plumber. It's the family business, and I felt like I was taking over the family business.
Those who feel threatened by you or your success will seek to tear you down.
Nobody cares if you're black, white, straight, gay, Christian, Jewish, whatever it may be. When you step on that field, you're a member, in my case, the 49ers. That's your job, your occupation.
A short story is something that I think can be intuited and envisioned and held in your mind almost at once.
I get this a lot: 'Oh, can you take a picture with my baby? Can you hold the baby?' I don't want to hold your baby! I'll hold my baby. I don't like holding someone else's baby. I'm serious! You never know what could happen. It's such an awkward position you're put in, and it's like, 'No, sorry.'
I'm passionate about anything I align myself with. You want to talk about chocolate chip cookies? I'm not going to open a chocolate chip cookie store, but I will talk your ear off about it.
I simply loved all my life; loved is too strong a word, but I had a tremendous sentiment, partly conditioned, of course, by the reality of where I grew up, for the spirit of individualism, for the idea of your being on your own in a big way.
If you have time to get your pet rabbit its own Instagram account, you have time to at least tweet about something important.
It is very easy to try to type cosmopolitan.com and accidentally type foxsports.com, if you just got your nails done.
Fighting, especially at this level, is about getting through adversity. You position yourself mentally to go out and take on obstacles that stand in your way. In the Octagon and in life, you face tough situations and have every chance to quit, but the more adversity you push through, the more likely you are to be successful.
Your ups and downs in sports, I think they are as normal as daily life: One day you wake up and feel great, the next day you wake up and feel maybe less great.
Truth is, I think, if God just gave us our daily bread, many of us would be angry. 'That's all you're going to give me? You're just going to give me enough to sustain me for today? What about tomorrow or next year or 10, 20, 30 years from now? I want to know that I'm set up.' And yet Jesus says just pray for your daily provisions.
You don't make a film because the audience is ready for it. You make a film because you have questions that are in your gut.
I don't think you can measure wealth in dollars and cents. I really don't believe that at all because there are some things that money cannot buy. One of them is health. And the other is security in your relationships and friends.
When someone stays with you and they're not your guest, even when they are your guest they get on your nerves. When people visit for long periods of time, that just happens.
Got your mama and sister dabbing.
I understood the feeling of being 17 and living with your parents somewhere, and then being 18 and living in New York and having a city at your disposal.
Ultimately, the only people who are in any way edified by hanging with famous people are you at the age of 11 and your mom.
When cyclones tear up Oklahoma and hurricanes swamp Alabama and wildfires scorch Texas, you come to us, the rest of the country, for billions of dollars to recover. And the damage that your polluters and deniers are doing doesn't just hit Oklahoma and Alabama and Texas. It hits Rhode Island with floods and storms.
Choosing to mother your kids full-time may seem to some the easy choice, eschewing as it does the stresses and strains of the workplace, but one of the continuing frustrations for women is the lack of respect they get for taking on the responsibility for domestic life, whether they're also working outside the home or not.
I am just your everyday, average girl. I live by the beach. I wear flip flops. I don't wear make-up. I go to the gym.
It's important you think positively not negatively. Think about your loved ones and all the people who are behind you.
It's a great honor when somebody takes your song and does something different with it. That's what music is all about: to constantly change what somebody else has done.
Surrounding yourself with people who are actively and enthusiastically working toward their best futures will keep you moving toward your own goals.
Being away from home for six months of the year and seeing your kids grow up on Skype all that time - I think I saw Molly walk for the first time on Skype. That's not good.
Everybody in L.A. has a screenplay. The guy pumping your gas has a screenplay.
You're following your track, the story, your only plan, your map for the audience, and all the other stuff is, like, the fun stuff: the costumes, the locations, the set-dressing and the actors. They can all be variable as you like if you stick - however roughly - to the path.
There is a very definite Russian heart in me; that never dies. I think you're born and you live your life with it and you die with it. I'm very much an American - my books tend to be about American things, but inside there's that sort of tortured, long-suffering, aching, constantly analysing Russian soul underneath the happy American exterior.
I've been giving back since I was a teen, handing out turkeys at Thanksgiving and handing out toys at toys drives for Christmas. It's very important to give back as a youth. It's as simple as helping an old lady across the street or giving up your seat on the bus for someone who is pregnant.
It's pretty much about doing what you love and following your dreams. It sounds really corny, but it's so real.
I was on the dole once. I loved it. It was only for a couple of years, when I was 20 or 21 and playing in a band. Back then, this was something young folk did - you got your rent paid, a little bit of money to live on, and you loafed around, wrote songs, rehearsed and dreamed of playing Wembley Stadium.
A regular old drag queen is usually your science teacher who's actually wearing women's panties underneath his slacks. A drag-queen superstar is someone who actually works in clubs and makes a living doing it more than one night a year, or even one night in six months.
