First of all, let it be remembered that I speak as an ex-Communist and one who has not testified before Congressional Committees, nor written works on the Communist conspiracy.
For 'American Born Chinese,' my first graphic novel with First Second Books, I did mostly 'memory' research. It's fiction, but I pulled heavily from my own childhood.
I write first for myself as a therapeutic process, to get stuff out and to deal with it.
I first saw the ocean as a kid. We would drive from Arizona in the summer and arrive as the sun was starting to come down over the hill near Laguna in southern California. We would always sing a song, and it was a big joyous family moment when we came over the hill.
First of all, Shakespeare is about pleasure and interest. He was from the first moment he actually wrote something for the stage, and he remains so.
I am a red man. If the Great Spirit had desired me to be a white man he would have made me so in the first place.
I live on the margin of just about everything. I'm a marginal person, and I think that is where I've become comfortable. I'm marginally there in my native life. I can do as much as I can, but I'm always German, too, you know, and I'm always a mother. That's my first identity, but I'm always a writer, too.
Very first thing in the morning, I spew some rough genius directly on to the laptop. Then I have coffee and rewrite for three hours.
I first met Walt Disney 25 or 30 years ago.
The first four months of writing the book, my mental image is scratching with my hands through granite. My other image is pushing a train up the mountain, and it's icy, and I'm in bare feet.
We went out for six weeks a year. We first started in Mexico and we did that for so many years that we finally said we've got to explore and start going globally. And then we started going all over the world.
My dad never told me that when you audition, you might not get the role. He wanted to wait until my first disappointment to tell me.
Between Scott on the earlier side and Dickens and Thackeray on the other, there was an immense production of novels, illustrated by not a few names which should rank high in the second class, while some would promote more than one of them to the first.
One of the first lessons he or she learns is that in baseball anything, absolutely anything, can happen. Just two days ago as I write this, something happened that had never happened in baseball before.
The first thing I ever auditioned for was a movie called 'Extremely Loud & Incredibly Close.' And, this is kind of a secret, but it came down between me and the one other kid for it, but I didn't get it, so.
First, make yourself a reputation for being a creative genius. Second, surround yourself with partners who are better than you are. Third, leave them to go get on with it.
To destroy is always the first step in any creation.
The first thing that strikes a visitor to Paris is a taxi.
I think I'm a much better father as an older man than I was with my first kids. Occasionally, I have to yell at the little guys, but they don't take me seriously. 'Listen to the old guy,' they say. 'Isn't he great? He's mad.'
There's only one law you gotta follow to keep outta trouble. Do it first, do it yourself, and keep on doin' it.
Anybody can have this body if you do enough sit-ups and you just make a decision that 'Every day, I'm going to work out.' There are some days that I just don't feel like doing it, and I don't. But more often than not I get up and I get on the treadmill that I want to shoot and just do it. The first 20 minutes are the hardest.
I think the most important thing that comes out of the meeting between Churchill and Roosevelt in early 1942 is a commitment on Roosevelt's part to fight Europe first. To struggle first against Germany and put Japan and the Pacific as a secondary theatre in the conflict. And this is what Churchill was after.
Intelligence is our first line of defense against terrorism, and we must improve the collection capabilities and analysis of intelligence to protect the security of the United States and its allies.
The First Amendment to the Constitution reflects that concept recognized in the Ten Commandments, that the duties we owe to God and the manner of discharging those duties are outside the purview of government.
Being first lady is the hardest unpaid job in the world.
The blessing of having your first project be something as fantastic as 'Girls' is that it gave me room to be selective because I didn't feel pressure to do other things. The curse is that my standards were really high.
I'm Scottish first, and it's odd to hear that I'm a Scottish-American.
History repeats itself, first as tragedy, second as farce.
It was during a cosmetic procedure that I first had painkillers.
You know why there's a Second Amendment? In case the government fails to follow the first one.
I almost always use first person voice in my novels. It has its limitations, but it gives a sense of immediacy that's hard to create with an anonymous, all-seeing narrator.
Well, I think probably when I first got in the business, I wasn't thinking of being strictly a character actor. But I knew I wanted to be a working actor, and as the years have gone on, I just naturally evolved into that. Because, y'know, I'm not a leading guy. Never was.
The Interest Rate Reduction Act takes a first step toward providing critical stability by eliminating the threat of an immediate interest rate increase, while making clear the need to move toward a long-term solution that serves the best interests of taxpayers and borrowers.
Your mind, which is yourself, can be likened to a house. The first necessary move then, is to rid that house of all but furnishings essential to success.
When I first started I was always known as The Girl on the Sitcom with the Funny Voice.
I took an acting class. After the first day, the teacher quit, so they said take another. When I saw 'How to be a Stand-up Comedian,' it resonated. I realized I'd rather make 200 people laugh than make one person cry.
