I respect the office of the presidency, but I never worship at the shrines of our public servants… The Washington press corps has the privilege of asking the president of the United States what he is doing and why.
I stopped beating up on myself. I stopped asking myself why I didn’t sell this number of records, why I don’t have corporate sponsorship. I just don’t buy into any of that anymore.
I am suggesting that as we go through life, we ‘accentuate the positive.’ I am asking that we look a little deeper for the good, that we still our voices of insult and sarcasm, that we more generously compliment and endorse virtue and effort.
I went to, you know, a church in Chicago, and my mom, of course, was in the choir because my mom was a singer; she used to sing. I wanted to be in the choir as well, and I was like, ‘Mom, please, you know, I want to sing in the choir with you guys.’ I kept on asking her, and finally I was, you know, in the choir.
If we keep asking the wrong questions, we are just going to get better wrong answers. The solution to lack of community isn’t to give up on the community.
When somebody has an enormous success in this culture, people start asking two questions, which are ‘What are you doing now?’ and ‘How are you going to beat that?’ And I have to say, I love the assumption that your intention is to beat yourself constantly – that you’re in battle against yourself.
I had this all-American cheerleader girl, in Georgia or somewhere, coming up to me and asking for guest list at a show. I never thought our music would reach out to such a broad variety of people like that.
It’s bloody annoying being shy. I’ll spend a whole evening at a party asking everyone else about themselves. I’m not being self-deprecating; it’s because I’m too shy to talk about myself. So people come away from the evening actually having learnt nothing about me.
I don’t have much experience, but the few times when I would go on a date with a girl – like when I was 12 – there was a lot of sharing, and a lot of talking, and a lot of asking how I am. They thought we were dating, and I was sort of hoping to meet their brothers.
By looking at the questions the kids are asking, we learn the scope of what needs to be done.
It isn’t just that Obama’s policies have failed; it’s that he has essentially given up and is asking us to accept a lesser America going forward, as if resigned to the fatalistic belief that America has begun an inevitable and unavoidable decline.
I always like the players to be within 10 to 15 metres of each other. When the attacking players try what I am asking them to do, and it breaks down, there are players close enough to then go and win the ball back and counter press the game.
Napster hijacked our music without asking. They never sought our permission. Our catalog of music simply became available as free downloads on the Napster system.
There aren’t many downsides to being rich, other than paying taxes and having relatives asking for money. But being famous, that’s a 24 hour job right there.
People keep asking if I believe in ghosts. If you’re talking about poltergeists and weird, supernatural phenomena, not really.
In ‘The Next Three Days,’ even though it was a prison breakout movie, I was asking myself, ‘What would I do? How far would I go for the woman I loved? How far would I go, and what would I do when the person then told me that they were guilty? Could I still believe in them?’ So it was very personal.
We are not frou-frou creative types. We have done both sides of the business and are constantly asking ourselves, ‘How are we going to pay for this?’ But the criteria is that it must fit with our world.
This is the problem with modern-day feminism. It used to be about equality. Now, it’s about bashing men, asking for free stuff, and tearing down other women for refusing to play victim to the trumped-up, B.S. ‘War on Women.’
The marvelous thing about a good question is that it shapes our identity as much by the asking as it does by the answering.
Some people say I do it too much, but I’m always asking the artist questions. Sometimes – especially with new artists – you can see they’re compromising in their mind. You see that look when they’re listening to a vocal take and there’s hesitation. And I’ll be like, ‘Are you sure you don’t want to do this again?’
We put together a one-sentence petition asking Congress to censure President Clinton and move on to other pressing issues. We sent it to under 100 friends and family, and within a week we had 100,000 people sign the petition.
Learning how to deal with people and their reactions to my life is one of the most challenging things… people staring at me, people asking rude questions, dealing with media, stuff like that.
People always want to pin yesterday’s news on you, as opposed to asking you what you’re going to do for the future, what you’re doing today.
Interviewing someone is very similar to preparing a character, isn’t it? You’re just asking questions: ‘Who is this person? Why did they make that choice? Why are they doing that?’ You’re being Sherlock Holmes.
He wants to be his own man and be recognized for what he’s done. He’s not asking for anything because of his name. That was a tough situation to go into at Alabama, but he probably wouldn’t have been given the job if the situation would have been different.
The reason I do workshops is so I can learn, and I am fortunate that I’ve probably gained more from the whole experience of teaching than any one participant has. It is all about asking.
Bain also asked Kansas City for a $3 million tax break. The Bain executives were taking home $36 million in borrowed funds and were asking Kansas City to forfeit $3 million in public money for police officers, roads and schools? More free stuff!
The important thing to note is that it is not important whether Malala was shot or not – Malala is not asking for personal favors or support. She is asking for support with girls’ education and women’s rights. So don’t support Malala, support her campaign for girls’ education and women’s rights.
I’ve learned that it’s important to listen to employees at all levels, to engage them, to empower them. Whether you’re a first-line supervisor or the head of an entire agency, you should be asking career staffers, ‘What do you think?’
But these realities will make themselves felt soon enough and while I am certainly not asking you to close your eyes to the experiences of earlier generations, I want to advise you not to conform too soon and to resist the pressure of practical necessity.
In matters of commerce the fault of the Dutch Is offering too little and asking too much. The French are with equal advantage content, So we clap on Dutch bottoms just twenty per cent.
I especially don’t want men coming up to me and asking if sexism still exists. It’s like, I’m seriously gonna barf a McDonald’s salad on the next person to do that.
Asking for a royally appointed prime minister is undemocratic. It is, pardon me, a mess. It is irrational.
All my friends and peers keep asking me when I’m going to rest – I just tell them it’s another dirty four-letter word!
I found that if I offered to cook for a girl, my odds improved radically over simply asking a girl out. Through my efforts to attract the opposite sex, I found that not only did cooking work, but that it was actually fun.
The way you challenge Superman is by having things happen very, very quickly in different places and then asking, ‘Who does he save first? What powers must he use to save each person or stop each disaster?’ That’s one of the ways you make him interesting beyond the thematic and moral issues that make Superman.
I wouldn’t say I’m a religious person, but I am definitely inclined toward asking the big questions.
How do you say no when a little kid is asking you for ice cream? I know I can’t say no to it myself.
Everybody’s asking me what type of shampoo I use, and I’m like… 4 years of buildup right here.
As citizens, I’m asking you not to leave any child behind. I’m asking you not to be color blind, but to be color brave, so that every child knows that their future matters and their dreams are possible.
God is not asking you to be anything other than what he’s made you, as long as you submit to how he has made you, to how you relate to other people who he has made different than you.
It was a wrong number that started it, the telephone ringing three times in the dead of night, and the voice on the other end asking for someone he was not.
People are always asking, ‘Where does Michael Pennington end and Johnny Vegas begin,’ and you’re going, ‘It’s not like that: it’s blurred right across.’
We’re asking those who have done well to do a little more for the people who need it.
When a friend is in trouble, don’t annoy him by asking if there is anything you can do. Think up something appropriate and do it.
I like Beryl Bainbridge a great deal, and she is a writer who absolutely demands to be read a second, third, and fourth time. I admire her great courage in leaving so much unsaid and asking the reader to really engage her brain.
I don’t need to be liked, but I need to be vital – on set or on stage – and I think that probably would be my advice: Stay vital. It’s about saying ‘no’ and asking the tough questions and believing in yourself when no one else will, but you have to know the rules to break them.
