Innocence always calls mutely for protection when we would be so much wiser to guard ourselves against it: innocence is like a dumb leper who has lost his bell, wandering the world, meaning no harm.
It strikes me there's a bunch of people in power who have really strong intentions of running the world and adjusting the world to exactly how they see it.
I'm not an elected official who puts a finger in the wind to see what the majority thinks; I represent women, whether they're popular or not.
The world is full of people who would like nothing better than to spend six hours on a golf course. I would rather be chopping shallots.
I had a Spanish teacher in high school. I rarely got in trouble in her room because I felt I was disappointing her if I got a bad grade. That had more power over me than teachers who told me I talked too much. That level of respect I had for her made me not want to fail for her.
People genuinely happy in their choices seem less often tempted to force them on other people than those who feel martyred and broken by their lives.
There is no one on earth more disgusting and repulsive than he who gives alms. Even as there is no one so miserable as he who accepts them.
Mummy always wanted the five children, and she knew she couldn't look after them all because she was this absolutely glorious woman who loved going to parties and going to the races, and she just didn't have time.
People who call themselves actors and can't ever get work; they do need to get another profession.
People didn't always see a person with a disability who had to use a ramp or elevator as people who have been given unnecessary privileges. But I run into that often now. People are saying, 'Why do we have to go to great expense for these people?'
The whole world feels that it knows Francis, not so much because he follows Francis of Assisi but because he is always himself. We have seen him pay his own hotel bill and heard that Francis called Buenos Aires for a pair of ordinary black shoes, like John XXIII, who preferred stout peasant shoes to the traditional papal footwear.
I am fond of them, of the inferior beings of the abyss, of those who are full of longing.
Work-home-work-home, that's being an actor. Being a rock star? I get to travel the world, meet all the fans in person, party with my fans every night, and people who appreciate the art.
Your life is like a play with several acts. Some of the characters who enter have short roles to play, others, much larger. Some are villains and others are good guys. But all of them are necessary; otherwise, they wouldn't be in the play. Embrace them all, and move on to the next act.
The media only wants to get the view of the flaming radicals because they make better copy than those of us who are more sensible. I'm a feminist and I think I've done a lot of good.
I do think there is something to be said for those who have significant experience at state level and have run campaigns or have been deeply involved in grass roots political campaigns and who have actual hands-on experience.
Those who have suffered understand suffering and therefore extend their hand.
Out of five hundred who speak glibly of love, not one can spell the first letter of his name.
I am a person who always tries not to be easily influenced by position or achievement. I thank God for the fact that I can share more kindness and a good quality of life through the popularity. Not for the popularity itself.
I have enormous respect for anyone who would offer to sacrifice their life to defend my right to live. Is there any greater gift one can give another?
I'd been a stepparent for about two years with a woman who had a child, and I came to realize I adored children and was good with them. So I was very happy when Anna got pregnant.
I look at raising funds for The Perlman Music Program as a challenge and as a way to provide opportunities for people who care about the future of classical music.
When I was studying at the Iowa Writers School, I read a sports writer, Ron Maly, from the Des Moines Register. He was a good sports writer. I became real interested in the contrast between Lute Olson, who was the coach of Iowa at the time, and Ron Maly.
We all hate on ourselves way too much, and there are so many people who think they have to look like those women on TV. That's so unreasonable. Everybody is supposed to be a different size. And if I can just be confident in myself, then I'll look better. It's quantum physics!
Most people are motivated by the economy. And if you've lost your job, lost your mortgage, lost your 401(k), you're angry. And if your brother-in-law has lost one of those you're angry still. And when you're angry you take it out on people who are in office. Which is natural.
It turns out that I'm far too schizophrenic musically for people to categorize me. I think people judge me a lot before they ever really know who I am.
There are a lot of people out there who think that I am their worst enemy, and I don't even care if these people exist.
You don't need anybody to tell you who you are or what you are. You are what you are!
There aren't enough people who are scaring the kind of people who work at these record companies.
Isn't it strange that I who have written only unpopular books should be such a popular fellow?
There are very few people who do what I do.
Provincial governments in Canada have terminated the positions of marriage commissioners who have, for personal religious convictions, not performed same sex marriages. It has happened in Saskatchewan.
There are not many A-list directors who get to make the movies they want to make. I know two: Woody Allen and Tim Burton. Two different textures, but both get to do what they want, and that's rare.
I'm still very much a West Virginia boy. I haven't forgotten my roots, because that's really who I am.
As you might imagine, I'm approached by lots of organizations and lots of people who want me to support their various charitable efforts in some way. And I look at those requests, and I basically try to do what I can.
It would not be fair to the critics of Rotary, who include some of the most brilliant of the British and American writers, to charge them with prejudice.
