I think the fact that I was raised in show business, in New York City, in the '50s, that's affected my personality to the point that I'm a little different.

I used to get my money at the end of the week, buy my mum something, or buy a record, and that was it.

Elton John

I have spent a lifetime watching kids make mistakes because they were not trained or well led or properly motivated to do well. I never faulted the kids rather, I saw opportunity to train, to motivate, to improve leadership - not to punish the individual.

Eric Shinseki

Gluttony is an emotional escape, a sign something is eating us.

Peter De Vries

When Ronald Reagan's career in show business came to an end, he was hired to impersonate, first, a California governor and then an American president who would reduce taxes for his employers, the Southern and Western New Rich, much of whose money came from the defence industries. There is nothing unusual about this arrangement. All recent presidents have had their price-tags.

Gore Vidal, Armageddon? (essay),

That time of year thou mayst in me beholdWhen yellow leaves, or none, or few, do hangUpon those boughs which shake against the cold,Bare ruin'd choirs, where late the sweet birds sang.In me thou seest the twilight of such dayAs after sunset fadeth in the west,Which by and by black night doth take away,Death's second self, that seals up all in rest.In me thou see'st the glowing of such fireThat on the ashes of his youth doth lie,As the death-bed whereon it must expireConsumed with that which it was nourish'd by.This thou perceivest, which makes thy love more strong,To love that well which thou must leave ere long.

William Shakespeare

God creates out of nothing. Wonderful you say. Yes, to be sure, but he does what is still more wonderful: he makes saints out of sinners.

Soren Kierkegaard

Imagination and fiction make up more than three quarters of our life.

Simone Weil

You'll may not have all the things you'll want in the world, but the true love that you'll have for each other should be enough for you two to be thankful in life still.

Jonathan Anthony Burkett

The humiliation that Jane had felt turned to something else--grief perhaps, or regret. Regret that she had not known how to act with a boy, regret that she had not been wiser.

Beverly Cleary

This is the true joy in life: Being used for a purpose recognized by yourself as a mighty one, being a force of nature instead of a feverish, selfish little clod of ailments and grievances, complaining that the world will not devote itself to making you happy. I am of the opinion that my life belongs to the whole community and as long as I live, it is my privilege to do for it what I can. It is a sort of splendid torch which I have got hold of for the moment and I want to make it burn as brightly as possible before handing it on to future generations.

George Bernard Shaw, attributed

In great matters men show themselves as they wish to be seen; in small matters, as they are.

Gamaliel Bradford

I was an only child. I've known only children. From this experience, I do believe that the children should outnumber the parents.

Jane Smiley