I wish I could freeze time or go back in time and watch my kids grow up all over again because it is just going by too fast.
Obama prefers to look forward, not back, as he has stated. So at least during his tenure, there will be no reliable record compiled as a cautionary tale for lawmakers and presidents in future times of crisis. This is the historical Obama.
To keep my back from getting stiff, I have a strict regime every morning of stretching and do yoga once a week and Pilates. 'Strictly Come Dancing' in 2008 was great for my fitness.
If all mankind were to disappear, the world would regenerate back to the rich state of equilibrium that existed ten thousand years ago. If insects were to vanish, the environment would collapse into chaos.
I naively thought I had to go door to door, find somebody who could record me singing some songs. I didn't know Music Row, I didn't know anything! So after six or seven months, I went back home and went to college.
I think once you're in the friend zone, I'm not sure how you get out. Well, actually, I do know how you get out. You act like the friend back. That's how you get out.
A lot of people cannot dance because they are inhibited. 'Oh, I can't dance' or 'I have two left feet' or maybe someone has commented on their dancing a while back. When you enjoy something, you might be doing the simplest of moves, but they still look so beautiful.
We have a lot of entitlement programs in this country, and we've seen how much they cost us on the back end when people don't have the education they need. I say let's make this investment on the front end. I think it'll be better for the individual and better for our state in the long term.
We write the song, then it gets played for the artist, and they somehow fall in love with it and go back in and make it their own.
The only reason I look back is to check if I've been doing something wrong. I look at things from even three years ago and think, 'I wouldn't do that now.' Your life changes.
A lot of people say I tried to emulate Tupac, but when I look back at my career, we're very different artists. I took pages out of Pac's book, of course, and lots of other rappers - Biggie, Nas - of course you take pages out of those books, but you eventually make it your own thing. And I think I did a good job of that.
It's very important to give back to the community and do anything you can.
Lending has come back in retail; it has come back in working capital. It has also come back in other forms, like government contract being given out to companies.
It's not that you can do this calculated move to try to further your career. You just follow what's in your heart, and later you look back and go, 'I was either really dumb or really smart, I can't believe I did that.'
I looked back at the years since I'd left college and thought of the list of things I'd have liked to do. I'd always wanted to write a book - not a small undertaking. I never felt I had the time or creative energy to spare in order to write one as well as I wanted.
There are a lot of reporters who I feel are a lot more courageous and fool-hardy than I am. Maybe at the top I'd put Dexter Filkins. He's an extraordinary man in terms of his nerve and ability to get into dangerous situations and tell the story cogently. He's bringing back real human stories. I admire that.
Here's what I'm going to say about that: my personal thought about the brilliance of 'Peeno Noir' as proven by the fans' appreciation is that, when watched back, what makes it so exciting is the random locations and the random costume changes and the multiple shots that we've done all over the city.
For some reason, we stopped getting gold stars at some age. It's time to bring them back.
We all take losses and it's about getting up and coming back.
I have always had school sickness, as others have seasickness. I cried when it was time to go back to school long after I was old enough to be ashamed of such behavior.
When I go back to theater, I feel good about myself. When I do films or TV, it's to make a little bread to pay my mortgage or whatever, and when I've made the money, I do theater again. And when I get a part I like, a part I can work on, that satisfies me. I feed good about myself.
I'd be lying if I didn't say there were days when I went back and said, 'I wish I'd done this. I should have done that. I handled this the wrong way.' But it's always in the motivation of getting better. I've never once looked in the mirror and said, 'Oh boy, can't do this one.'
When it's all said and done, I want to look back on my career and say I did numerous things.
Since 1988, I have been writing steadily. I did decide a couple of years or so ago to scale back to writing one book a year - a sort of semi-retirement. But I never did have much success with that plan!
New York has an amazing history of farming and fishing that goes right back to the Pilgrim Fathers. At its core are the four seasons, which are distinct, well-established and similar to those in Lyon, where my family lives: when it's snowing in New York, a week later it will be snowing there.
What I've learned in my life, it's a very interesting social study for me, to go back and forth between being the guy at home and being the guy on the road and being the guy in studio and being the guy in the interview. The environment around you has so much to do with your character, and when I'm home, my character really changes quite a bit.
I'm really looking forward to a time when generations after us look back and say how ridiculous it was that humans were driving cars.
I don't look back on any film I've done with fondness or pride.
I've very proud to be mayor of our great city. It's a city with a heart and a soul. Chicago has a unique spirit. Our business community wants to give back.
I don't want at the end of my life to look back at just a bunch of fictional movies I was involved in that kept taking me away from the real world.
Being a former engineer, you learn to always go back, study yourself, see what you could've done differently, see what you could've said.
Back in the day, I would wear up to 45 pounds of gold. It would take me four hours to get dressed!
My standards are based on shows I like, like 'Girls' or 'Arrested Development.' And they're all shows that are groundbreaking. I guess in the back of my head, I think, If you're not being groundbreaking, then what are you doing? If you're not being ballsy and honest and vulgar, then what are you doing?
My first job as premier will be to go back to basics.
If I spend 10 days at home, I'll be dying to get back to the set. I love the thrill of a good dialogue, the buzz of shooting.
I have an image of Shanghai, which is quite different from other directors, I think. The story of Shanghai should happen in back alleys.
