Our many different cultures notwithstanding, there's something about the holidays that makes the planet communal. Even nations that do not celebrate Christmas can't help but be caught up in the collective spirit of their neighbors, as twinkling lights dot the landscape and carols fill the air. It's an inspiring time of the year.
We campaigned on the fact that we were going to have to take difficult decisions because of the state of the public finances. When we got into government we discovered that actually the public finances were in an even worse state than we thought.
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.
Novelists get to say plenty in their massive tomes; rock singers only get four-minute songs with two verses and a chorus' worth of lyrics, and so there's a real pleasure in accessing the intelligence behind the music, even if it doesn't qualify as 'great literature.'
Politics are very much like war. We may even have to use poison gas at times.
Even on a personal note, my dressing table downstairs is crowded with things, like a mini landscape. It's a city with buildings and towers and roads. There's a pool and a little park. When I move something around it becomes a different tableau.
People who make money often make mistakes, and even have major setbacks, but they believe they will eventually prosper, and they see every setback as a lesson to be applied in their move towards success.
I love writing and can't imagine not being able to do it. I want an easy life and if it had been difficult I wouldn't be doing it. I do admire writers who do it even though it costs them.
As far as I remember, even younger than eight, I have always been guided by reason. Not cold reason, but that which leads to the truth, to the real, and to sane Justice.
Anyone who has to fight, even with the most modern weapons, against an enemy in complete command of the air, fights like a savage against modern European troops, under the same handicaps and with the same chances of success.
When you ask people about what they enjoy doing, time spent with the boss is even worse than time spent cleaning the house. So this suggests that there are a lot of leaders out there who are not doing an adequate job.
When you work as an actor, you've got to feel safe even in what appears to be the simplest things.
It's interesting: John Calley at Warner Bros. helped me put 'Alice' together. It was very unusual back then for a studio to support an actress the way he backed and supported me. He even asked me if I wanted to direct the film, which I didn't feel prepared to at that point.
I like doing films and I wish that I could do more but I still have to audition. I don't get offered starring roles in movies even though I've written and starred in a movie.
Even crushed against his brother in the Tube the average Englishman pretends desperately that he is alone.
I don't think that I'm a lone voice. I'm not even interested in being a lone voice.
Even when I was young, I said age is largely a state of mind if you're healthy.
The police cannot protect the citizen at this stage of our development, and they cannot even protect themselves in many cases. It is up to the private citizen to protect himself and his family, and this is not only acceptable, but mandatory.
There's no reason for me to go into a big dissertation about why I'm not getting the calls. The refs have to do their jobs as well. I even mentioned it in training camp to the refs when we had our little meeting.
I really do love social media. I've always been crazy about - even like, remember AOL chat rooms? I always loved message boards, and I was always interacting on the computer.
Writers are outsiders. Even when we seem like insiders, we're outsiders. We have to be. Our noses pressed to the glass, we notice everything. We mull and interpret. We store away clues, details that may be useful to us later.
People review my comic books. People review every article I write - 'The Atlantic' even publishes them. A great deal of the critique of 'Between the World and Me' was from a feminist perspective. bell hooks pushed back, among others. Some of that has value. Some of it does not. I try my best to separate the wheat from the chaff.
This 'Making Mirrors' album is far more personal, even if there's a character element to the sounds I'm working with. Every song on this album I stand behind; I feel like I have a close relationship with them. There are older songs where I can feel myself writing a story, so this is the first album where I'm proud of every lyric.'
You don't even have to win a championship every year to draw the fans. You just have to show you're really trying.
All the information you could want is constantly streaming at you like a runaway truck - books, newspaper stories, Web sites, apps, how-to videos, this article you're reading, even entire magazines devoted to single subjects like charcuterie or wedding cakes or pickles.
After 'Kelis Was Here,' I was done. I was like, 'I will never put out another record again; I hate this business; I hate all these people.' I was in this race that I didn't even realise that I was in.
Love is tested in so many ways. How do I articulate this? Two people are together. There are stakes, strife, struggles, all these things that make us fall for someone, love someone even more, leave someone.
Even if the economy crashes, we will still burn oil.
There's a ton of stories that can come out of L.A. I actually think that even though I enjoy being in New York more, I think that L.A. is a really fascinating place.
I think Chris Matthews is a very bright guy. I'd listen to him even if he didn't shout at people.
Great brands and great businesses have to be great storytellers, too. We have to tell stories - emotive, compelling stories - and even more so because we're nonfiction.
I went to the Gobi Desert, even though I had no scenes there. This is the greatness of China, the landscape, even for us.
Modern video games like 'Mass Effect' and 'Uncharted' cost tens of millions of dollars and require the labor of hundreds of people, who can each work 80- or even 100-hour weeks.
Postmodernism surely requires an even greater grasp of symbolism, as it's increasingly an art of gesture alone.
I told my staff that I'm so boring that I didn't even know I was boring.
Even soldiers from the Vietnam War had said that when they were fighting in that war, the landmine was just one of any number of weapons to use in the fighting. It wasn't until they began to think about the aftermath and the legacy of landmines that they recognized the long-term, indiscriminate impact of the weapon.
