What do you do with what you're given, and how do you transform it into something worthwhile?

People are usually afraid to say what's on their mind.

I had trouble distinguishing art from life. I don't now, and I feel much better!

I like it when songs develop in some way. Four minutes usually isn't enough time for something to develop musically.

I have a critical nature, in the sense that when I look at something I often look for the flaws.

We're not getting any younger.

What do you do with what you're given, and how do you transform it into something worthwhile?

When you get a groove going, time flies.

Anthemic rock music is inherently fascist - anything intended to move huge masses of people is politically offensive to me.

I took some lessons as a kid but trained myself by ear. I did it the way jazz musicians used to learn years ago, which is to play records and slow them down to figure out the notes. At first I tried to imitate Red Garland, who was my favorite jazz pianist.

I've never been comfortable as a lead performer, and I never wanted to be a singer, particularly.

My style is a little quirky. I can't play as fast as most professional jazz players.

My writing is really intuitive. As a kid, I went to school in New Jersey and hung out in New York, so the way kids used to talk got into our earlier songs.

Popularity has everything to do with business and nothing to do with music.

Randy Newman seemed like an even worse singer than me. I liked Ray Charles, Levi Stubbs, Jack Jones, Joe Tex, Wilson Pickett.

If war comes upon us, it will come as a thief in the night.

When I was coming up, it was the golden age. It was Julia Roberts and Meg Ryan, and Reese Witherspoon was starting. You really had, 'Who is America's Next Sweetheart?' every couple of years. And then this sort of bromance slacker thing took over.

You learn timing on the road. You learn structure and how to read an audience. You learn so much about the business of laughter that you can't learn on a set, because it's all on you. Sometimes you bomb, and you know not to tell that joke again... You just hope people find the humor in the awkwardness.

In school one learns to ask stupid questions of life.

I interned with Marc Jacobs in college, then worked at J. Crew. I learned a lot about how to fit clothes and what kinds of things sell and why.

You see, in the image of Aquarius, it's a man who pours water into the fish. Now the fish is the unconscious. It is not enough just to have it. We have to actively turn towards it and support it so that it then helps us.

I don't get in a position to be frightened. I don't do anything dangerous, and I always pay my bills.

It is a proof of our natural bias to evil, that gain is slower and harder than loss in all things good; but in all things bad getting is quicker and easier than getting rid of.

You have to work with people you really love.

O king! I was but a man like others, asleep upon my couch, when lo, the breezes of the All-Glorious were wafted over me, and taught me the knowledge of all that hath been. This thing is not from me, but from One Who is Almighty and All-Knowing.

Luck consists largely of hanging on by your fingernails until things start to go your way.

I mean, everybody should have access to medical care. And, you know, it shouldn't be such a big deal.

I didn't have a special secret about Sarah Palin. I just had a feeling and some concerns. Her blank stares and her lashing out in some interviews, I think, gave voters pause about her, too.

All that some actresses want is for people to take them seriously instead of caring about how they look.

We will respect family life. We will develop it and encourage it in any way we can for strong families are the foundation of strong communities.

I am so leading the life that I want and wanted and dreamed of as a kid. I'm trying very hard not to abuse it or take advantage of it.

You have to set goals that are almost out of reach. If you set a goal that is attainable without much work or thought, you are stuck with something below your true talent and potential.

Unless we move beyond whats behind us we cannot reach out to what lies in front of us.

There are some important differences between me and Tony Stark, like I have five kids, so I spend more time going to Disneyland than parties.

Do we seek delicate phraseology in politics or other forms of public life? We do not.

I'll do shoes for the lady who lunches, but it would be, like, a really nasty lunch, talking about men. But where I draw the line, what I absolutely won't do, is the lady who plays bridge in the afternoon!

I think they should create a holiday for friends-with-benefits relationships. Because I feel like Valentine's Day is, maybe it's a day to stay home and cry.

We know our responsibilities to our investors, and one of our challenges has always been preventing foreign investors from thinking that Indonesia is not a good place to invest.

Originally, 'The Windup Girl' started as a short story - a very gnarly, complicated short story set in Bangkok that didn't work very well.