I'm not intelligent. I'm not arrogant. I'm just like the people who read my books. I used to have a jazz club, and I made the cocktails and I made the sandwiches. I didn't want to become a writer - it just happened.
I think, in life, we want to surround ourselves with people who make us think and question ourselves, and those are the types of films I want to do and the types of characters that I hope I get to continue to play.
If you want to know who your friends are, get yourself a jail sentence.
There's something about beautiful moments in sports that alters our experience of time. And I'd say the same thing about poetry and gardening. Gardening slows me down. I want to stop and observe everything.
The only thing I really, really want is for the U.S. to win again. Just to win another team gold. And, of course I would really want to win an all-around gold.
You know the problem, we don't want to believe what we know.
You know how a lot of people say, 'I lose myself in music,' or 'I like to escape,' but I want my music to be more of an awakening. I want it to make people to be aware of life; I don't want my music to be a distraction. I want to light a path.
I want people to think of me as a nice person. I really am so blessed. All of this has been a great experience and I thank the American public so much for putting me in this position. I appreciate every second of it.
I realize now that I've hoped to be great - as an actress, as a mother - because I want to embody the greatness of women who didn't get to be all they could have been. Their dignity, their courage, and their brilliance make me strive to be better. They're a part of me.
I just want to be healthy and happy. I don't want to hurt anybody or make them mad. If that's a philosophy then that's my philosophy.
Once you have an established song, you can really come out of your shell and experiment with the sound you want to make.
I don't want to be the guy who goes, 'Oh yeah, blah blah blah... everyone freaking well knows me.' Because that's not the case. Once in a while, someone will remember some silly thing I did and then they feel good. And they go, 'Oh, hey, Michael Bolton, I celebrate your whole catalog.' And I'm like, 'Great, great, I totally get it.'
Time passes faster and faster, but with every project I always want to find the next challenge and the next challenge is just as exciting as the previous one.
I always say that I don't want to be sentimental, that the photographs shouldn't be sentimental, and yet, I am conscious of my sentimentality.
At the center of your being you have the answer; you know who you are and you know what you want.
No More Avengers! There's nothing new to get out of it - I want to go forward, not backward.
I've recently discovered Cardiobar. It's in L.A. and it has Cardio Aerobics. It's all women with no shoes on, dancing to upbeat music. I'm just dripping sweat at the end of the class. It's very fun for me, and it makes me want to work out.
I've been lucky enough to be able to choose exactly where I want to live.
If I write when I'm low, it will be a dark song, but I don't care. I want to be honest with myself at all times.
My next record I really just want it to be a collection of great songs, classic songs in a way.
I don't judge my self-worth as a football player. Football is something I love. It's a fun career deal, but it's not what I want to do with my life, because I see football as a game.
I started a youth center in Houston. The kids would come in and want to learn to box; they wanted to tear up the world, beat up the world. And I'd try to show them they didn't need anger. They didn't need all that killing instinct they'd read about. You can be a human being and pursue boxing as a sport.
I want to keep playing good golf.
I want this book to be facts, to be important, to be history.
I want to thank my parents for somehow raising me to have confidence that is disproportionate with my looks and abilities.
For a time I didn't want to answer any questions about Queen. I'd like to be viewed as something alive and relevant, not some fossil.
What I want to do is tell stories about normal people in the American suburbs. I don't write the book where it's a conspiracy reaching the prime minister; I don't write the book with the big serial killer who lops off heads. My setting is a very placid pool of suburbia, family life. And within that I can make pretty big splashes.
We don't want to fight NASCAR.
My next project will be a Christian album, another one. I wrote the songs for the ones you're referring to, but I want to do some of my old gospel favorites. That's what my next album's going to be.
I want you to be concerned about your next door neighbor. Do you know your next door neighbor?
Once you're done being president, you tend to want to defend your record more than plumb your inner feelings. I find it hard to imagine Obama going home at night and writing sensitive, introspective journal entries about his meeting with John Boehner.
I like to use the analogy of going to the gym. If you go to the gym and your goal is, 'I want to look just like David Beckham,' then that drives you to do certain things. You may never look like Beckham, but it is a goal. Cities need the same thing. They need a vision and a plan for their ideal physique.
Sometimes I want to convey something complex philosophically, and sometimes I just want to portray myself in a situation that I think other people have been in many times, but it hasn't been written about much.
I never want to lose. I hate to lose... But Babe Ruth struck out 1,300 times. You can't hit the home run every time you come up to bat.
I'd love to thwart the Census form, but I want a constitutional basis for doing it - and here's the tricky thing. I think even constitutional purists would tell you that just because something isn't in the Constitution does not mean the government cannot do it.
All my friends started getting boyfriends, but I didn't want a boyfriend, I wanted a thirteen-colour biro.
