The best work of literature to represent the American Dream is 'The Great Gatsby' by F. Scott Fitzgerald. It shows us how dreaming can be tainted by reality, and that if you don't compromise, you may suffer.
If you suppress grief too much, it can well redouble.
You go to LA, or you go to New York, and it's really fun to go there. But they're not grounded. Everybody is just competing all the time for the limelight. It's too much entertainment industry. There are too many choices. And it's distracting to me.
Music is there to enrich your life and make you aware of things in a slightly different way.
I was working on the farm to get in shape, about a mile away from my parents. You know, I did everything as a kid to stay in shape - jogging, work on the farm, driving the tractor. I'll never forget.
I realize that as the quarterback, you have to assume some sort of leadership role because you have to talk in the huddle on every play, and you're essentially giving out orders to the team. But in my mind, I have to prove myself on the field before I can start asserting a leadership role.
The best thing ever is when some guy in his 50s taps me on the shoulder and says, 'I just want to let you know I hate my job, I hate my wife, and I come home and I watch reruns of your show and it's the only half hour of the day when I laugh and I forget how miserable life is.'
Couture has a power that ready-to-wear can never have; the attention of les petites mains as they sew; all that love and belief goes into the cloth. That's what you feel when you wear it.
I touched an Oscar once. Friend of mine has one, for writing. As soon as I touched it, he said, Now you'll never win one.
What people ask for has nothing to do with the value of a property. You might see a listing for $300,000 and think you should make a $250,000 bid. But hyper-focus on what the house is worth. You should know what the house is worth by looking at comparable properties. Base your bid on that.
Prior to 'Pirates of the Caribbean' - the first one in 2003 - I had been essentially known within the confines of Hollywood as box office poison, you know what I'm saying? You know, I basically had built a career on 20 years of failures.
All you needed back then was a blow dryer and a dream.
I am deeply immersed in my medical work, and it can get very intense, but I believe that the connection and devotion is key. You can not work on diseases as devastating and deadly as Lassa and Ebola without complete trust and respect for the individuals with whom you work. My lab and colleagues are just extraordinary, and we are a family.
As a singer, you have to bring the soul to the song.
I think each time you start a story or novel or whatever, you are absolutely at the bottom of the ladder all over again. It doesn't matter what you've done before.
But that we didn't have the level of experience in terms of working in the industry so you weren't sure and you needed to see it and this is an industry that the more you work the better you get and that the more opportunities you have the better you get.
If you strike out or look bad on the field, we'd get on each other. If you can't take the heat, you gotta get out of the kitchen.
The study of Nature is intercourse with the Highest Mind. You should never trifle with Nature.
Before you contradict an old man, my fair friend, you should endeavor to understand him.
You can do really slow movements with it, like zooming in for a minute and a half. The audience isn't aware that the camera has moved, but there's subconscious tension there.
Writing novels preserves you in a state of innocence - a lot passes you by - simply because your attention is otherwise diverted.
You need cliches. Cliches are what people respond to.
When I was a girl, there wasn't anything in Spanish in the movies until you saw it on DVD.
One can know a man from his laugh, and if you like a man's laugh before you know anything of him, you may confidently say that he is a good man.
You have to stay in school. You have to. You have to go to college. You have to get your degree. Because that's the one thing people can't take away from you is your education. And it is worth the investment.
You can go online now and find really thoughtful, in-depth, considered, well-informed communities around virtually any issue. If it's your issue, there are now new ways of mobilising knowledge that weren't there before. There are real bodies of significant knowledge on the web that are valuable that we haven't done nearly enough with.
You have to study the people and the ones that measure up are not always the ones you expect.
Technically, I've learned that having good legs and wind is good for being on stage. You have to be in shape and have endurance.
I wanted to be a pharmacist. I liked the way our local pharmacist was always dressed in a nice white coat; he looked very calm, you'd give him money, and he'd give you something that you wanted to buy.
Disney is our contemporary landscape. The best art will reflect that and challenge you. Disney comforts you, whereas the best art shakes up your comfort level and perception.
Sometimes you need a good laugh, and then there are times when you need a good cry.
When I became finance minister, they called me Okonjo-Wahala - or 'Trouble Woman.' It means 'I give you hell.' But I don't care what names they call me. I'm a fighter; I'm very focused on what I'm doing, and relentless in what I want to achieve, almost to a fault. If you get in my way, you get kicked.
I started feeling this little lump in my throat, like you would feel if you have swollen glands or something like that, like you'd feel if you have a cold, so I didn't really think it was anything.
Being divorced is like being hit by a Mack truck. If you live through it, you start looking very carefully to the right and to the left.
You want to go to a summer concert and not watch a band staring at its shoes for six hours and complaining.
No matter where you stand politically - even if you're unsure of what your political ideology is - it is important to take part in the process of shaping our government.
