The U.S.S. Maine was sent into Havana's harbor to protect American citizens and property and to intimidate the Cubans into behaving. Then it exploded on February 15. It killed more than 250 sailors.

Cuba rebelled against Spain in 1868 and fought for ten years.

On February 25, Theodore Roosevelt cabled naval commanders in the Pacific to prepare for military action against Spain. President McKinley ordered most of the cables undone, but he did leave Admiral George Dewey. Dewey was told to attack the Spanish fleet in the Philippines if the U.S. went to war with Spain.

Late in March, McKinley sent a list of demands to Spain, including; compensation for the Maine, an end to the reconcentration camps, a truce in Cuba, and Cuban independence. Spain accepted all but the last.

McKinley decided he could not stop the cries for war, even after Spain accepted all but the last of his demands. On April 11, 1898 he sent a war message to Congress. Not soon after that, Congress recognized Cuban independence and authorized force against Spain.

I like being independent. I don't think that marriage means you're not independent, but right now I'm very comfortable, and I'm probably the happiest I've ever been. I feel solid. I feel safe.

Basically, I would be happy with any profession where I got to be creative and make things.

The question is - did Richard Attenborough have a right to make 'Gandhi?' And did Danny Boyle have a right to make 'Slumdog Millionaire?' Quite honestly, if they didn't have the right to make these films, I had no right to make 'Elizabeth.'

New York had a big influence on me growing up, and I was really part of the club scene - the Mudd Club and Studio 54. When you're living in New York, you are just bombarded with style, trying to figure out how to be cool and how to feel relaxed at the same time.

Since Brooks Brothers is a 189-year-old company, there are plenty of references and inspirations I can draw from their archives and catalogs. The wearer of Black Fleece may not be all that different from mine, in that I imagine that it would be someone who is a true individual, and independent thinker. This is for both men and women.

Those who have heard or read anything from me on the subject, know that one of the principal points insisted on is, the forming of societies or any other artificial combinations IS the first, greatest, and most fatal mistake ever committed by legislators and by reformers.

One good anecdote is worth a volume of biography.

I think one thing as far as my learning curve and what I'm learning - there is a time to take a sack, and then there is also a time to try to find a way to maybe throw the ball at a receiver's feet.

The way to a man's heart is through his stomach

Predation is part of the everyday life of capitalism, in sectors as mainstream as pharmaceuticals, software and oil - where people's money, their data, their time and their attention are routinely taken in fundamentally asymmetrical exchanges.

As the father of six children, I know very well the challenges technology poses to our families.

I deal with more complex rhythmical patterns than a regular tap dancer. I even think in rhythms.

Dopamine is a chemical released in your brain and your body when you sleep that paralyzes your body so you don't act out your dreams.

One wants to be together with one's family. That's what families are about.

I come from an alcoholic Irish background - I know where I was going! But I met my wife and started to practise Buddhism, which is a levelling experience for me, and there hasn't been a day I've missed in 40 years. I apply it to everything - to my work and relationships. I try to be a compassionate person.

The family is changing, not disappearing. We have to broaden our understanding of it, look for the new metaphors.

The present time, together with the past, shall be judged by a great jovialist.

There is no other way of writing a novel than to begin at the beginning at to continue to the end.

Channel your energy. Focus.

Humour has to have a huge nugget of truth to be funny. You cannot laugh at something unbelievable. Whenever I say something on a lighter note, I am basically unwrapping the truth from a different perspective, and that makes it funny.

When you go home, fill the house with joy so that the light of it will stream out the windows and doors and illuminate even the darkness. It is just as easy that way as any in the world.

Christmas is a holiday that we celebrate not as individuals nor as a nation but as a human family.

Saxon, if you are unfamiliar, is a British heavy-metal band that has been around since the mid-'70s and was in no small part the inspiration for Spinal Tap.

Under any circumstance, simply do your best, and you will avoid self-judgment, self-abuse and regret.