The harmonica is a great instrument.

The harmonica is a great instrument.

My father bought me a little cardboard accordion, and when I was three I got this little machine.

And if I have a strong point, it's that I like to believe it's not cheap or schmaltzy sentimentality.

Well, being a jazz musician is not a rose garden!

Today jazz is still very much alive. Everywhere I go there's a new generation of musicians.

You can be in Tokyo or Alberta at four in the morning in your hotel and you can still practice if you feel like it. A trombone cannot do that at four in the morning.

My parents had a pub and each Sunday there was an accordionist. They have told me that when I was in my cradle, I already was imitating the gestures of the musician.

Intelligence augmentation decreases the need for specialization and increases participatory complexity.

My faith informs everything I think and do. It's part of my value system. And to suggest that I can somehow separate and divorce that from the rest of me is not possible.

Many scientists have been drawn to Buddhism out of a sense that the Western tradition has delivered an impoverished conception of basic, human sanity. In the West, if you speak to yourself out loud all day long, you are considered crazy. But speaking to yourself silently - thinking incessantly - is considered perfectly normal.

People in Scotland appreciate homegrown talent, but it's getting harder and harder to get films made in Britain.

In every life, there have to be some shadows. Look at me. My life has been filled with sunshine. A beautiful and caring wife. Five healthy children. I got to do what I loved. How many people are that lucky?

You can't call it an adventure unless it's tinged with danger. The greatest danger in life, though, is not taking the adventure at all. To have the objective of a life of ease is death. I think we've all got to go after our own Everest.

We adore titles and heredities in our hearts and ridicule them with our mouths. This is our democratic privilege.

Well, if you look at the whole story, I mean there's only Jews and Romans in the story. I mean I just wanted to flesh that character out and make that a drama about the people around Christ when he was going through this passion.

I love coming in and changing magazines.

I took what I've been given, and I got where I did on the basis of something that is often undervalued - merit.

Barack Obama is probably the most exciting candidate that either the Democratic or Republican party has produced at least since I've been around. He's fresh, he's new, he's insightful.

I was always so scared to sing in front of people. That was kind of my weird thing.

I'm pretty sure I would never do a full frontal in a movie - for personal reasons, I wouldn't really want to show that.

Well, all I can say is, it's a day-by-day program, and so I'm very worried about relapsing, but I don't know. I don't want to use. I don't want to go back to that place because nothing good came of it. It was super dark; it's not nice.

I think the thing about that was I was always willing to work; I was not the fastest or biggest player but I was determined to be the best football player I could be on the football field and I think I was able to accomplish that through hard work.

There is nothing quite like a freshly brewed pot of tea to get you going in the morning.

I am just as comfortable in sweats and sneakers as I am in a dress and heels. Attitude is everything!

Africas salvation doesnt lie in begging and begging for more aid and as an African I find it very very humiliating.

Yellow is a small wheel of cheddar cheese. Permeating a musty odor out of the bakers shop. Yellow is a thousand paper cranes,floating down a slow, mellow river.Yellow is the round circle of moon,the light that stays through the coldest night.

I never wanted children; maybe I'm afraid of responsibility.

My parents taught me that having a passion is a rare thing, so following it through and working hard, even when it's tough, is important.

I don't care what the critics say or think because I care for and love my fans.

I've never been a fast reader. I'm fickle; I don't finish books I start; I put a book aside for five, ten years and then take it up again.

Laziness isn't merely a physical phenomenon,about being a couch potato,stuffing your face with fries and watching cricket all day. It's a mental thing, too, and that's the part I have never aspired for.