As soon as I signed for the French rugby union, it was just a huge relief, you know, because I was out of Sydney and out of sight doing what was best for myself.
Writing, more than any other art, is indexed to the worthiness of the self because it is identified in people's minds with emotion.
I mean, before this, I would have said playing Bill Gates, because I'm playing someone obviously who is alive and is the richest man in the world. That was a heavy responsibility.
Homer's whole language, the language in which he lived, the language that he breathed, because he never saw it, or certainly those who formed his tradition never saw it, in characters on the pages. It was all on the tongue and in the ear.
I'm getting a bunch more face tattoos, because it doesn't look like I'm ever going to have to apply to a Walmart or Best Buy.
For a long time I felt like I was fighting my age, like I was constantly trying to prove to people that I was a savvy peer, and I felt them viewing me as a kid. I was a cocky kid, and I felt like I was an adult at, like, 9, you know? I think that's because my parents always treated me as an adult.
When it comes to exercise, it's really hard for me to have a weekly routine because my schedule changes daily. But I try to go jogging as much as possible - when I'm in L.A., I do it every day.
I really am not going to get involved in a discussion about the legal position of the Iraq war. I am not the person to do that because I am not sufficiently impartial as a lawyer about this, because it's a matter that is of interest to the person that I am closest to in the world.
I know a lot of really good actors - tons, just tons - who I still don't know why they don't work all the time because they're that good. It's just a weird business, and I know a lot of actors who shouldn't be working, but they work all the time.
If your corn has a herbicide-tolerant gene, it means you can spray your herbicides and kill the weeds; you won't kill your corn because it's producing a gene that makes it tolerant of the herbicide.
That was my way, and I also use the music after five years, I started hearing opera, opera, it was very good instrument to keep the spirit very strong because you feel like you are yourself singing opera, and I used to hear a lot of opera, they send me tapes.
The technology is really where all of the changes have taken place, but the fundamentals of a good story being the basis of every good picture, and really the only basis still remains the rule, more so today, I think, because we've unfortunately weaned an audience from birth to kind of mindless movies.
I can't record in the morning because I sound like Barry White.
When I was younger, I always wanted to impress, to be good for my country, to make them feel good, and sometimes that meant I didn't focus on myself enough. I learned I had to put myself first. And it's fine because I want for me the same thing that they want for me, which is to win.
Leadership is the art of getting someone else to do something you want done because he wants to do it.
1992 became known as the 'Year of the Woman' because so many of us were elected to public office that November, including a record six to the United States Senate.
I feel sorry for the '90s, because it was never able to be anything much more than the hangover to the party that was the '80s.
I think people have a misinterpretation of Method acting, because Method acting is a wonderful thing. The thing is, if you take it too seriously, it's like religion. You start to think it's the truth. But it's not the truth. It's just a way to get somewhere.
Writers have to be very careful and discerning because so much of the machine is out of their control.
In real life, there are names that surprise us because they don't seem to suit the person at all.
Don't get me wrong: there are some fantastic people who work at British Cycling who kept me together, who were there when I was struggling with it all. They were walking the same tightrope in many ways, because if you do speak up, your days are numbered.
We said we'd fly the flag without him and carry on. I didn't give him a kiss because I still hadn't accepted what was happening. I was hoping that some miracle was going to happen. Of course, it didn't. I wish I had kissed him now.
This is where you see the truth of entertainment, because it is not edited. You see it on stage as it is happening. Even if we fall down or forget our words, it's a part of live entertainment.
There is a cliche that probably has some anecdotal evidence on the side that comedians are very depressed people, but that's because no one is ever going to seem as funny in a normal conversation as compared to when they're up there onstage in the spotlight making a huge audience keel over with laughter.
I sit with people who are dying. I'm one of those unusual types that enjoys being with someone when they're dying because I know I am going to be in the presence of Truth.
Back in the day, if someone said that hip hop and rap was a fad, that was a joke to me because they just didn't know what they were talking about. In reality, there were so many people who didn't know what they were talking about it.
For years, I've pushed the idea of a column compilation book mainly because it would be easy - I could just staple 'em all together. But publishers have been resistent, feeling the material dates.
The battle going on over gay marriage in America reveals an awful lot. The Bible belt - people hate gay people. Because the Bible tells them? No, the Bible tells them an awful lot of things that they ignore.
I do not personally agree with some of the positions that Mr. Gonzales has advocated, but that should come as no surprise, because I do not agree with many of the proposals made by the man who nominated him, President Bush.
All the children in the school should learn the steps of everything, before they learn the thing, then they know which step they're doing better, because your voice is in certain steps and has to do most of the things that have been composed in those steps.
Can you hang in there with your investigators when things get going tough? Don't give up on investigators because they have a little weakness. Work with them until the Holy Ghost tells you not to.
I was a little different. I still say I'm a little different, because success to me is not having the most money, or having the biggest car or the biggest house.
You know, I think the film business is its own worst enemy because it sells movies on DVD footage and 'behind the scenes,' and now it's a real struggle trying to keep storylines and plotlines a secret.
It's very dangerous to wave to people you don't know because what if they don't have hands? They'll think you're cocky.
Why do I write? It's not that I want people to think I am smart, or even that I am a good writer. I write because I want to end my loneliness.
It's very, very hard to affect culture. And you can get surprised thinking you're farther down the path of change than you really are because, frankly, most of us like the way things are.
