In this life, to earn your place you have to fight for it.
Happily, there's a reversal of the brain drain occurring in Ghana now. We're seeing a lot of - actually in Africa - we're seeing a lot of African professionals, you know, returning to the continent to contribute their quota.
I guess when somebody offers you a movie, you don't say no. That's what I've learned.
That's kind of like how jazz is sometimes. You're out there predicting the future, and no one believes you.
As an individual, and I have to say as a person of color, the thing about being an 'other' in America is I really feel like you're bilingual. I'm from a small town in Wisconsin, but even when I'm in New York and I'm working for MSNBC or CNN, you're used to being the only black person in the room.
I guess that's one of the reasons that you do it - work all the time - because it's sort of a high to find something that really works.
When you talk about evangelicals, don't forget that a significant proportion of the evangelical community is African American. And most African Americans - well over 90 percent, thoroughly evangelical, thoroughly biblical - will probably vote Democratic.
You can't raise the standard of women's morals by raising their pay envelope. It lies deeper than that.
Apart from earning an awful lot of money, why would you go to Hollywood?
What you do is, you have your drawing board and a pencil in hand at the telescope. You look in and you make some markings on the paper and you look in again.
Abroad, they have covered pretty much all subjects, explored every possibility, every twist. So similarities between ideas you have and those filmed abroad are quite possible.
We all know what flopping is when we see it. The stuff that you see is where guys aren't really getting hit at all and are just flailing around like a fish out of water.
Ferrari gives you a special feeling.
It makes you realise that people are the same wherever you go.
The press is like the peculiar uncle you keep in the attic - just one of those unfortunate things.
I think you always want to be open to things... it's just the matter of finding something I believe in, finding a character I believe in, and I think that's the way it should always be. I'm looking for things that excite me.
I'm a pretty big P.J. Harvey record fan and you can really hear New York in his record.
Corporations hope that the right concept will turn things around overnight. This is what you might call the crash-diet approach: starve yourself for a few days and you'll be thin for life.
I've literally, in my entire life I've had two guys come up to me and ask me out. Other than that I have had to go and try to like spend time with them, or sort of start the conversation, basically like spell it out in a Sharpie, like, you know?
Love to me, God, this is so difficult... To me, love is when you meet that person and you think, 'This is it, this is who I'm supposed to be with.'
What is interesting to me about film, and documentary film in particular, is that I can write about these people, and you trust my judgment, more or less, but when you're confronted yourself with humans who are right there on the screen telling you their story, you make a judgment yourself that is conclusive.
A part of being in the army is you never really leave a man behind.
Our focus is not on exit. In fact if you talk to any of my entrepreneurs, I'm generally saying, 'Don't sell the company,' when other investors want to sell. I'd much rather focus on building long-term value in building companies rather than worrying about exits.
In L.A., unless you've just won an Oscar or you're Mr. Studio Head, no one talks to you. Even at parties.
In the startup world, you're either a genius or an idiot. You're never just an ordinary guy trying to get through the day.
Making music, if you're a real musician, you carry on regardless in this world.
It's always interesting when people don't know who you are.
You know me, I've got to find some way to get a fresh fire.
I was always taught that you needed to be intense and never lose your focus.
The joy about the recording is that you are your own boss. You don't have a director telling you how to do it.
You have to really be courageous about your instincts and your ideas. Otherwise you'll just knuckle under, and things that might have been memorable will be lost.
You set out to tell a good story. You don't do it because there is a deep message involved because the movie is almost always bad when you do that.
There are so many times that, as a woman in the music industry, you're asked questions no male musician would ever be asked.
With failure, you just try again.
Acting is something different to everybody. I just know that if you watch an actor or actress getting better and better, I think that's them just understanding themselves better and better.
We look at science as something very elite, which only a few people can learn. That's just not true. You just have to start early and give kids a foundation. Kids live up, or down, to expectations.
