Fans are always asking me where I get my ideas from. The answer is that I'm very curious, and I get inspiration from everywhere. I read the newspapers voraciously, so I know what's going on in real crime. I pay attention to the strange stories people tell me, and I also read a lot of scientific and forensic journals.
I go to temple a lot less than I would like because when I do, people still look at me as if they think it's a publicity stunt.
Americans are very big about loving the dog first, so when you tell them you have to set rules and limitations, a lot of people believe it's going to hurt their feelings. They're actually looking for you to be the pack leader.
I think the reason I'm a writer is because first, I was a reader. I loved to read. I read a lot of adventure stories and mystery books, and I have wonderful memories of my mom reading picture books aloud to me. I learned that words are powerful.
An idea can be tested, whereas if you have no idea, nothing can be tested and you don't understand anything. The molecule that you make when you are getting sunburned or when you eat a lot of food is part of the same molecule that contains an endorphin or an opiate. No one has ever had a hypothesis about why the two are together.
My latter schooldays and my university days were during the war, when science - physics, in particular - was a very important and glamorous subject. A lot of us felt that if we couldn't get into science, we might try engineering or medicine.
I need privacy. I would think that because what I do makes a lot of people happy that I might deserve a little bit of respect in return. Instead, the papers try to drag me off my pedestal.
Teens like a lot of the same things adults do: smart people doing amazing things against awful odds.
Money can't buy you happiness, but it helps you look for it in a lot more places.
The pressure on women to be thin is like a plague. I have gone through my life, like a lot of women, rating my experiences on the basis of, 'Was I thin at that time or fat?' And it doesn't seem to let up.
Cops and robbers resemble each other, so there's not a lot to learn in terms of learning the logistics of committing the crime or investigating the crime.
I know that from the days of Watergate... the notion of two sources on a story has become the popular dogma about how you confirm something. And there is a lot of truth to that, but there are all kinds of ways to check to the extent that you can, a story that you get.
I think it is absolutely essential in a democracy to have competition in the media, a lot of competition, and we seem to be moving away from that.
There are a lot of people in Milwaukee who have had adverse impacts from Scott Walker. He's managed to mess over everyone in Milwaukee.
A lot of talented actors still have to pay their bills.
A lot of food criticism has a similar flavor to it, and I'm probably going to write about it in a different way.
I can play a lot of different instruments adequately but nothing really well.
There's obviously a lot of controversy around the issue of hunting as there is around gambling, and I like these stories where there is a moral dimension, stories that force you to think about your prejudices about a subject and explore the extent to which they are justified.
I wanted to talk about my life. There is so much. I was 18 when I made the record, and I had a lot to say.
I want you to know that, despite what you might read at times in the newspapers or see on the television news, we have actually been getting a lot of things done the last several months, the U.S.-Canada relationship.
When I started, there weren't that many kids doing it in the city, but the in the wave after me there were a lot of them and they actually never spoke to each other.
Innovation happens because there are people out there doing and trying a lot of different things.
A lot of them want to come and play for Manchester United. They want to play because Alex has a record of giving youth a chance and we have the history and heritage of Manchester United.
I spent a lot of time writing about tax and pensions and mortgages.
So I don't cry anymore, I just beat people up. It's a lot more fun.
A lot of my joy this year has been to give away awards to young people, no matter of race, creed or color, because they were a terrific violinist or a terrific dancer.
I've gained a lot from James Joyce, Tolstoy, Chekhov and R. K. Narayan. While writing, I try to see if the story is going to radiate spokes. Their literature has always done that and gifted me beautiful things.
In live-action, writing, production, and editing happen in discrete stages. In animation, they overlap - happening simultaneously. This allows a real dialogue to occur between the writer, the director, the actors, and the editor, and it makes the writing process a lot more collaborative and a lot less lonely.
I've made so many films in New York. There was an assumption I think a lot of people had that I am a New Yorker, that I am from New York, and I always felt like nothing could be further from the truth.
My college degree was in theater. But the real reason, if I have any success in that milieu, so to speak, is because I spent a lot of years directing, I spent a lot of years behind the camera.
For us to dial back a little bit and have a little more straightforward, singalong appeal was a challenge. In order to do that, we had to throw away a lot of stuff.
I think that's the phenomenon of our time is that a lot of women keep themselves in good shape but that there's not a lot of accommodation or people out there to connect with and the technology.
The thing with NBA teams, a lot of times they just want to get you back on the floor to play, so as a player you've got to be very, very smart.
A lot of the films I do go down brilliantly critically and win awards, but not a lot of people see them.
In school, I would run away whenever there was trouble, as I would get bullied a lot.
Songs don't have to be about going out on Saturday night and having a good rink-up and driving home and crashing cars. A lot of what I've done is about alienation... about where you fit in society.
