So I write melodies - thirty, forty, fifty - then I cast them off until I have just two or three. If only one is needed, I go see the director and ask him to decide.

I would listen to something on the radio and try to tap out the melody, then the harmonies.

I have a very strange melodic gift: melodies come to me effortlessly.

My father had left behind an old piano. My sister was already going to school, my mother was out working, and I stayed at home alone with my adorable grandmother who understood nothing I said. It was so boring that I stayed at the piano all day long, and that saved my life.

Here is how I work: when I think that a film needs to have a principal theme, I search for a melody.

So I write melodies - thirty, forty, fifty - then I cast them off until I have just two or three. If only one is needed, I go see the director and ask him to decide.

To play piano is a significant part of my life, my existence. It fulfills a very physical & spiritual need for me.

African-Americans who might have disagreed with candidate Obama's left-of-center politics voted for him in 2008 because electing a candidate with brown skin was too historic an opportunity to miss.

As a producer, I'm trying to challenge myself to just make something that is of a professional quality - not necessarily pop music, but maybe in the sense that Nine Inch Nails is professional quality.

God keeps me grounded as well as my husband, Keith Douglas, who is such an inspiration to me. He's an author, speaker, and businessman. He's just a great husband and blessing.

If men had to have babies, they would only ever have one each.

Surprise is not humor. I think that there can be a fine line there.

I do not like a quiche with wet, undercooked pastry underneath, and that is that.

In Divine unity and the affirmation of it, Divine beauty and dominical perfection become apparent. If there was no unity, that pre-eternal treasury would remain hidden.

I want to show people that I am that good friend and the person that a lot of people actually come to confide in or even, just, to be around that good energy, because that's what I'm all about.

You'll remember Dr. Rice said that several times: It was not a warning about the place and the method and the time - it was a general warning. And that points out the imperfection, if you would, of our intelligence.

Desire will in due time externalize itself as concrete fact.

I used to do a little acting in school. It was my first love, and I really thought I would be doing it as a career. I really wanted to complete that part of my ambition.

The air is dirty because of the electricity monopolists. They have powerful money lobbyists.

It doesn't really matter to me what the rest of country is doing. I'm not caught up in trying to make a record that sounds like everybody else. That, to me, is a record label's absolute biggest downfall.

Whether slavery shall go into Nebraska, or other new territories, is not a matter of exclusive concern to the people who may go there. The whole nation is interested that the best use shall be made of these territories. We want them for the homes of free white people.

If you have passion, there is no need for excuses because your enthusiasm will trump any negative reasoning you might come up with. Enthusiasm makes excuses a nonissue.

The purpose of armed struggle is not simply to kill... its purpose is to reach a political goal.

Acting is a business and a political act and a craft, but I also feel like it's a service - specifically, for a military audience.

In a certain sense, this guy - who is one of the most evil people in the book - he's not really that bad at running the show, because he knows what he's doing, he's smart and he's got the big picture in mind. He's like the Godfather.

We are No. 1 worldwide by quite a margin on the client side and expanding, according to IDC and others, every single quarter. Our expectation is that the industry will consolidate and that more of our competitors will exit.

Somebody asked me about the current choice we're being given in the presidential election. I said, Well, it's like two of the scariest movies I can imagine.

Asian cultures... place great value on avoiding open expression of disagreement and conflict because they emphasize harmony.

I don't think the job of the antiracist is to convert the far-out heathen racist, or give them their 'come to Jesus' moment, as it's called. They'll either have those or they won't, and usually, when they have them, it's not because of something someone said per se; it's because of some life crisis that makes them rethink.

But today we become aware of other readings of the human experience very quickly because of the media and the speed with which people travel the planet.

The U.S. Military is us. There is no truer representation of a country than the people that it sends into the field to fight for it. The people who wear our uniform and carry our rifles into combat are our kids, and our job is to support them, because they're protecting us.