But I am an optimist about Britain; and the difference between an optimist and a pessimist is not that the optimist believes the world is wonderful and the pessimist believes it's beset by challenges; the difference is the pessimist believes we will be defeated by them; the optimist thinks the challenges can be overcome.
The Alien is gross, scary. There is something in a human being that looks at them and sees it as a cockroach. You can never feel nurturing towards the cockroach.
If you look across the valley, you can see exactly what I mean: about four beautiful houses, and you think something is happening in each of them. It's like a mural.
Things are rarely as exciting or dramatic as we make them out to be in the press.
Unlike life, you've got more or less complete control over what's going on in your stories. That's not to say you can make characters do whatever you want them to - they usually have a life of their own if you've done your job properly.
I always loved singing, but I thought it was like drawing - just something you do in your own little corner to calm yourself down. But when my friend, the French songwriter Etienne Daho, listened to my songs, he was so moved that told me that I had to do a demo, share them with the world.
I was kind of known as a ballad singer. People would send ballads. Some of them would go over my shoulder and float off the top of my head, and I just didn't feel anything. Then I would hear a song that would absolutely shake me.
The thing is, I want to play real characters and not all girls can be pretty. The thing is, you get these girls who say 'I'm a character actor' then you see them in a role and nothing has really changed but the outfit.
One of the things I loved about working on 'Portal' was that we'd get emails from people saying, 'I love to play first-person shooters but my girlfriend won't play them with me. But I got her to play 'Portal' and she had a blast.'
I think it's very important to cry in the shower and not in front of them. They need to know that everything's going to be all right, even when you're not sure it is.
What sense would it make or what would it benfit a physician if he discovered the origin of the diseases but could not cure or alleviate them?
During our travels, the Indians entertained me well; and their affection for me was so great, that they utterly refused to leave me there with the others, although the Governor offered them one hundred pounds sterling for me, on purpose to give me a parole to go home.
It is also, I would guess, a universal that in all societies people value respectability granted to them.
Few people have the wisdom to prefer the criticism that would do them good, to the praise that deceives them.
My only friends were boys, and I was just one more of them.
Traveling around Ethiopia, I saw dozens of abandoned textile factories. People kept asking me to help them find work. So I thought I could make use of my experience in fashion to commercialize their products outside of Ethiopia.
I always get hats but never have the nerve to wear them. Hats are a thing that are really stylish, but you have to have the confidence to pull it off.
You take the best ingredients - the best cocoa beans - and you process them in the best traditional way, and you have the best chocolate.
A girl in a bikini is like having a loaded pistol on your coffee table - There's nothing wrong with them, but it's hard to stop thinking about it.
It was the wont of the immortal gods sometimes to grant prosperity and long impunity to men whose crimes they were minded to punish in order that a complete reverse of fortune might make them suffer more bitterly.
There are two things in life that I really wanted to do: be an actress, and to be in skin care, and I've gotten to do both of them.
I love New York. I'm taking English lessons there for the first time. I used to live in Tokyo, but I needed something new. I'm really close to my family. I miss them all the time, but we Skype a lot.
I have a tendency toward the pleasures of the flesh. It's a battle for me, as far as weight and things like that. But I'm curbing them because I want to continue to do comedy, and the two don't mix. So I try to fight those demons.
When I came out, and for many years afterwards, it had become a habit for me to sit and read and read and read, like an obsession. I would take 20 books, and not come out until I'd finished them. It took me a while to change that habit.
I do not read newspapers. I do not watch television. I am not interested in current events, although I will occasionally discuss them if other people want to discuss them.
Well, that's the old story I heard about the Jackie Chan films. That, like, Jackie Chan will just keep going and when crew members drop he just replaces them. I don't know if that's true but after having worked in Japan I believe it might be true.
Only those who want everything done for them are bored.
We can't solve problems by using the same kind of thinking we used when we created them.
Traditions are always puzzling to those who don't share them. I'm Jewish, so the idea of a 'perfect family Christmas' is foreign to me.
I've always been just as interested in making people think as I am in making them feel, and one of the things this scientific process allows me to do is make the audience look differently at dance.
I like the way remixes sound. Some of them are really creative.
Read the best books first, or you may not have a chance to read them at all.
I work hard. The staff and crew see how much energy I put into this project, and it makes them step up.
The most amazing thing is when you find yourself watching someone in the cafe or something doing something weird. It's amazing what people do, isn't it, when you just look at them, when you take the time to look.
When I'm in the gym, different training partners tell me that I've got great conditioning, and I tell them, 'Really? Because, I'm dying here.' I think that I'm just as tired as anyone; I just push myself mentally.
I didn't really start writing music or lyrics or turning them into songs until I went to San Francisco.
