In 2007, I received a National Geographic Expeditions Council grant to go around the top of the world and talk to Arctic people about how they've been impacted by climate change.
The myth that John Locke was the philosopher behind the American Republic, is easily refuted by examining how Locke's philosophy steered Thomas Jefferson, for example.
You see a child play, and it is so close to seeing an artist paint, for in play a child says things without uttering a word. You can see how he solves his problems. You can also see what's wrong. Young children, especially, have enormous creativity, and whatever's in them rises to the surface in free play.
When your friends begin to flatter you on how young you look, it's a sure sign you're getting old.
It's amazing, if you know what you want to say, how fast it is to write.
I remember how my mother would bring us to chapel on Sundays... and my father used to wait outside. One of the things that I picked up from my father and my mother was the sense that religion often gets in the way of God. For me, at least, it got in the way.
If anyone can figure out how to balance my celebrity and my dual careers in music and film, it's me. I don't feel frightened; I feel challenged.
My idea was you can't dress for the stage, you have to dress all the time like you're onstage. And so I would just always wear suits or some form of it. I wanted people to know I played music. That was kind of how you would find other people: you would just walk around looking a certain way and end up meeting someone who liked the way you look.
No art is any good unless you can feel how it's put together. By and large it's the eye, the hand and if it's any good, you feel the body. Most of the best stuff seems to be a complete gesture, the totality of the artist's body; you can really lean on it.
Sometimes, I feel discriminated against, but it does not make me angry. It merely astonishes me. How can any deny themselves the pleasure of my company? It's beyond me.
The U.S. automotive industry has been selling cars the same way for over 100 years, and there are many laws in place to govern exactly how that is to be accomplished.
It always amazes me when people ask you to do something and then tell you how to do it.
How often have I met and disliked writers whose books I love; and conversely, hated the books and then wound up liking the writer? Too often.
Use your time well. Everyone gets time equally. It doesn't matter how much money you make.
How old am I? I'm as old as my mother told me. How's that?
They don't tell you how to be on TV - they put the camera on you, and they turn it on, and you sink or swim.
So when I told my parents I wanted to go into acting because I was flunking out of my first year of junior college, they were relieved that I had picked something other than joining the army. But I can't imagine how they had high hopes for me.
I thought we were making a nice little movie. That's how it was regarded by everyone else, too.
When you're young, you keep reading new writers and you keep changing your mind about how you ought to sound.
You know, this whole thing about Ricky Martin, and how successful that young man is. He's 27, I was 29.
In the history of literature there are many great enduring works which were not published in the lifetimes of the authors. If the authors had not achieved self-affirmation while writing, how could they have continued to write?
Every major car company is trying to figure out, 'How do I deploy the Internet into the car? How do I get cars to talk to each other? How do I get more safety? How do I get the ownership experience to change dramatically as a result?'
Movies don't look hard, but figuring it out, getting the shape of it, getting everybody's character right and having it be funny, make sense and be romantic, it's creating a puzzle. Yes, having been a writer for so long, I have an awareness of when things are going awry, but it doesn't mean I know how to fix them.
I know some people say I can be funny. But there is always a deeper meaning to what I say. I am a socialist at heart and have the interests of the poor in mind. When people see how I manage to work my way out of tough situations, it gives them hope in their own life.
Let me go to Clinton's new proposal: to have uniforms in public schools. And people are doing that. How come they're doing that? Dress codes! I find that abhorrent.
We study the injustices of history for the same reason that we study genocide, and for the same reason that psychologists study the minds of murderers and rapists... to understand how those evil things came about.
I've been a vegetarian for so long, I forgot how much I missed meat. You know you don't realize how important meat is to you until you don't have it for long time.
How many gangsters you know, from Al Capone up to John Gotti, been gay?
It's not what you spend but how you wear it that counts. The key is often to dress up inexpensive basics with accessories. Something like a beautiful designer bag or belt can make everything else look richer and more luxurious.
Kids are our future, and we hope baseball has given them some idea of what it is to live together and how we can get along, whether you be black or white.
I'm walking this walk, and my life has nothing to do with my perception of the world. It's all God! How do I function within His plan?
Understanding how to compete better has really made a difference.
Most people can't understand how others can blow their noses differently than they do.
Life is not long, and too much of it must not pass in idle deliberation how it shall be spent.
World events can shape culture. Music is either a soundtrack for or a narration of changing times. And who knows how that's going to go?
A short story is something that you can hold in your mind. You can really analyze how the entire thing works, like a machine.
