My dad was working abroad, in Iraq, and he was a doctor. We used to go and visit him, in Baghdad, off and on. For the first ten years of my life, we used to go backwards and forwards to Baghdad, so that was quite amazing. I spent a lot of time traveling around the Middle East.

...[F]ireworks had for her a direct and magical appeal. Their attraction was more complex than that of any other form of art. They had pattern and sequence, colour and sound, brilliance and mobility; they had suspense, surprise, and a faint hint of danger; above all, they had the supreme quality of transience, which puts the keenest edge on beauty and makes it touch some spring in the heart which more enduring excellences cannot reach.

Jan Struther

If there is no wind, row.

Latin Proverb

Artists know that diligence counts as much, if not more, as inspiration in art, as in politics, patience counts as much as revolution.

Tony Kushner

I'm not quite sure what the greatest achievement in a lifetime may be, but I am sure up there at the top of the list somewhere is to give pleasure to others.

Source Unknown

Government is all show when it isn't murder in the dark ... or soldiers in the open.

Orson Scott Card

Better to master one mountain than a thousand foothills.

William Arthur Ward

I'm no good, Teddy. Let's run away! You're a very good boy. Your Mummy loves you. Slowly, he shook his head. If she loved me, then why can't I talk to her? You're being silly, David. Mummy's lonely. That's why she had you. She's got Daddy. I've got nobody 'cept you, and I'm lonely.

Brian Aldiss

True happiness is the full use of your powers along lines of excellence in a life affording scope.

John Fitzgerald Kennedy

To be fair, lying is part and parcel of public life. Every politician has lied about something because they are owned by the special interest groups that finance their elections.

Peter Schuyler

What generally happens in this county is that our politicians don't serve us well because they don't tell the truth, and they don't keep their promises.

Peter Garrett

I wanted to make sure that this be the first scientific and technology revolution in history in which the public thoroughly discussed all the potential benefits and all the potential harms, in advance of the technology coming online and running its course.

Jeremy Rifkin

Most songs have meager beginnings. You wake up in the morning, you throw on your suspenders, and you subvocalize and just think. They seem to form like calcium. I can't think of a story right off the bat that was that interesting. I write things on the back of my hand, usually, and sing into a tape recorder.

Tom Waits