If you are trying to take a difficult decision and you're weighing up the pros and cons, you have frank conversations. Everybody knows this in their walk of life.
What family you were born into matters so much more than it did before in a perverse way.
It's not about earning a paycheck, it's about doing something good that you believe in.
Nothing is so embarrassing as watching someone do something that you said couldn't be done.
There are too many leaders anointed because they have a public voice - television, radio, or record, or whatever. That even includes myself. In the past, I'd say, 'Don't anoint me when you can anoint yourself.'
Sometimes going to jail is just the price you have to pay for social reform or social change.
They put their feelers out for all the names and then they'll cast you up to the point a name steps up, and then it doesn't matter how much they love you, there's a certain marketing value on that name, and there you go.
I think sometimes that people think brave means not being afraid, which of course it doesn't mean that at all. It means that you're afraid, but you move past that and do it anyway, do what you think is right.
We women of America tell you that America is not a democracy. Twenty million women are denied the right to vote.
The conservative idea is not that government has no role. You might have argued that in the thirties when conservatives opposed the New Deal.
It is impossible to see the angel unless you first have a notion of it.
Be great in act, as you have been in thought.
Being a public person doesn't necessarily mean you're a piece of meat for everybody.
The people who believe themselves to be on the left, and who defend the agents of Islam in the name of tolerance and culture, are being rightwing. Not just rightwing. Extreme rightwing. I don't understand how you can be so upset about the Christian right and just ignore the Islamic right. I'm talking about equality.
You always see people coming back to the sport, and I've always thought, 'Gosh, when you're done playing, wouldn't you just want to stay at home?'
No, what I should really like to do right now, in the full blaze of lights, before this illustrious assembly, is to shower every one of you with gifts, with flowers, with offerings of poetry - to be young once more, to ride on the crest of the wave.
You don't learn to walk by following rules. You learn by doing, and by falling over.
Help others and give something back. I guarantee you will discover that while public service improves the lives and the world around you, its greatest reward is the enrichment and new meaning it will bring your own life.
In boxing, you get hit, it's painful, then you sit on the stool when the adrenaline is gone and you feel that pain. And then you fight the next round.
If you're lucky, I think you know what you want to do with your life. I think that's a greater gift that any of the gifts you might have when you do know, if you know what I mean. It must be awful to not know what to do.
The great thing about being an actor is things happen to you very quickly. I like to put myself in the way of surprise.
I'm pro responsible choice. You know, there is choice to abstain, choice to do contraception. There are all kinds of good choices.
I've had to learn when not to tweet. Like, you learn how to keep your mouth shut? Learn to keep your tweet shut.
Matching shoes and bags immediately age you by 10 years.
Celebrity's a pain in the backside - you're always on display.
The Minimalists are idealist. They want to minimize themselves in favor of the ideal... But I just can't. You see, my paintings are not cool.
A mother's life, you see, is one long succession of dramas, now soft and tender, now terrible. Not an hour but has its joys and fears.
If you're in part of rebel-controlled Syria, and suddenly your house blows up or a building next to you blows up, it would be convenient for rebels to say, 'It was the Americans.'
I had to seal off my feelings about Stevie while seeing her every day and having to help her, too. But you get on with it. What was happening to the band was much bigger than any of that.
I think there are things that digital can't do as well as print thus far. Even an iPad is only 80% the size of a standard comics page, so the images are going to be smaller. You don't get your big, whopping two-page spreads.
I think being called a cat lady is a compliment. It means you have adopted a tiny little maniac into your life.
At the end of the day, you can't control the results; you can only control your effort level and your focus.
With mindfulness, you can establish yourself in the present in order to touch the wonders of life that are available in that moment.
'Powers of Persuasion: The Story of British Advertising' by Winston Fletcher - the impression you get from reading this book, which covers post-war advertising until the present, is of a chaotic, self-serving, occasionally brilliant but ultimately shallow business.
My mother was a strong-willed and opinionated woman - a Sicilian! - and if she didn't like something, she'd let you know about it. So her undying support of her kids went a long way in proving to us that we were on the right path.
Everything looks nicer when you win. The girls are prettier. The cigars taste better. The trees are greener.
