George V. Higgins’s ‘The Friends of Eddie Coyle’ (1970) added an extra literary layer to the con novel; James Crumley’s ‘The Last Good Kiss’ (1978) influenced countless writers and will be remembered forever for its opening line, quoted often in obituaries of the author.
I admire Toni Morrison, Wole Soyinka, Margaret Atwood, James Baldwin, Elizabeth Strout, D. O. Fagunwa, Sefi Atta, Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie, Colm Toibin and Junot Diaz. It’s a long list that keeps growing.
I cannot even remember a time before being conscious of James Bond.
One of the very first ghost stories I read – and that was in a forest rest house, where it is a bit scarier – was by M.R. James. He is one of the pioneers of ghost stories. And the book was called ‘Ghost Stories Of An Antiquary.’
James Morrison just had a new album come out and I think he’s incredible. I’d love to work with him, his voice is insane.
‘Mariah’ was the first series-regular role for me, and that really came about because of ‘Secret Honor.’ That really was a direct result of that. Because now I had an agent and was submitted for that part, for James Malone. And… I was the casting director’s first choice for James Malone.
I would love to work with Jack Nicholson, Saoirse Ronan, Michael Shannon and James Franco in the future. I think those actors are amazing, and they are my favourite actors by far.
You knew LeBron James was going to be LeBron James when he was a sophomore.
When James Frey’s ‘A Million Little Pieces’ turned out to be largely bunk, critics everywhere secretly rejoiced. They knew it, they said.
We had guys come out of high school, Moses Malone, Kevin Garnett, LeBron James, but all these guys could play.
No ideology better understands the need for enemies than neoconservatism, and when the cold war dramatically and unexpectedly ended, the way was prepared for the ‘Arab threat’ to emerge. ‘True Lies,’ the 1994 James Cameron comedy thriller starring Arnold Schwarzenegger, duly served up the Arab villain Salim Abu Aziz.
My life’s ambition is to play a James Bond villain. I have the cat and the eye-patch, so I’m just waiting for the call. For some reason, though, the phone hasn’t rung.
James Bond was an early favourite, although I didn’t understand much of it. I read the Bible a lot, too. You might say that this was my favourite, since I seemed to read it so often.
I have always weirdly seen myself as more of a character actor. I have never been suave. I could never see myself playing James Bond. I suppose I could fake it, but I am certainly not James Bond in real life.
I’m a big fan of skilled singers. Some of my favorites are Cee-Lo Green, Donny Hathaway, James Fauntleroy, and Kim Burrell.
While a lot of hip-hop was inspired by jazz or James Brown samples and was made to be played live in the clubs, I made hip-hop that was made for MCs to eat the mic up. It was an aggressive form of hip-hop. It was made just for hip-hop. It’s not made to sing or dance to, though you can if you want.
I came into music kind of late in life – until I was 17 I wanted to be a spy, wanted to be James Bond, so I had to learn rather quickly and practice longer than most people did to play catch up.
I defy any British actor to deny they’ve not stood in front of the mirror and said: ‘Bond, James Bond.’
Having rain on your tuxedo is a pretty good reminder that you’re not James Bond.
I used to break dance. I can do some good James Brown footwork. But now I think I’ve danced too much. My girlfriend made fun of me: ‘Enough with the dancing.’
Sometimes James Bond movies drive me crazy. They’re fun to watch, but they don’t have anything to do at all with what intelligence officers really do.
The only leading man I ever had a crush on was James Garner.
Everybody tell me everywhere I go that I’m the closest thing to James Brown they ever seen.
I feel like I’ve been very blessed to have some great mentors through the years, starting with Don James, who was my college coach, who really inspired me to want to be a coach, which is not something that I really had in mind.
I was fortunate enough to be able to keep my real name and build a whole bio around Mickie James.
‘Chitty Chitty Bang Bang’ was a movie that I repeatedly turned down. The movie’s producer, Albert ‘Cubby’ Broccoli, known for his tight-fisted control of the James Bond movie franchise, desperately wanted to re-team Julie Andrews and me after the success we’d enjoyed with ‘Mary Poppins.’
Everybody knew James Brown. Every musician dreamed of being in his band.
Why I got into music was James Taylor, so to see him be a real down-to-earth guy that’s unbelievably talented… then to hear him sing those lyrics of ‘What I’m Thankful For,’ which is a song Ms. Yearwood and I got to write together, that was definitely a highlight of my recording life.
While MIT and the University of Chicago duke it out for the title of nerdiest school, James Franco and Renee Zellweger show up at Harvard to party. Somehow, miracle of miracles, Harvard is ‘cool.’
‘James and the Giant Peach’ magnificently starts out Dahl’s career as a blithe and droll Bad Uncle corrupter and affirmer of youth. Its influence can be subsequently traced down the decades in everything from Maurice Sendak to Lemony Snicket to J. K. Rowling.
Who actually enjoys skiing? Come on, even Olympic ski masters, even James Bond, think that dressing up in all that fluorescent, insulated kit and having to manoeuvre down a mountain in the freezing cold is no way to spend leisure time.
The real Stephen Colbert is a practicing Catholic. He teaches Sunday school. He can recite chapter and verse of chapter and verse – from both the King James Bible and ‘The Lord of the Rings.’
I think, definitely, I was hugely influenced by – obviously like Adele and Florence the Machine. They were my complete idols growing up. But also, there were a lot of influences from my dad, like singer-songwriters of the ’70s like Carole King and James Taylor.
People like to compartmentalise music, especially African-American music, but it’s really one thing. One very wide thing. I mean, it’s like all those great records by Marvin Gaye and James Brown back in the day – there are tonnes of jazz musicians playing on them.
There will be, and should be, reams and reams of analysis, even praise, for our friend but also even larger measures of non-analysis and, certainly, condemnation for James Baldwin, the Negro writer.
No action hero is more closely associated with cars than James Bond.
The great privilege it has been to work with some of the most talented people on the face of the earth. My first scene in a movie was with James Cagney, for goodness sakes. There I was, just out of the U.S. Navy without an acting lesson to my name.
Lincoln was not an intellectual, but no one in 200 years understood the language of the King James Bible or learned Blackstone’s Laws of England, or Cicero, or the language of the Founding Fathers, better than he did.
Oh, I am very old fashioned about my literature taste. I like Henry James. I like George Elliot. I like Dostoyevsky. I like the old people. I really do. I like people who write big, fat, juicy novels you can get completely lost in!
I went to a Catholic all-girls school, and we would play cassettes of music we liked, and when it was my turn, they would laugh at my choices. I would play Billie Holliday, Elmore James and Howlin’ Wolf, but it was fine; if I had to listen to their choices, they had to listen to mine.
The name James Baldwin had been around the house for as long as I could remember and meant almost as much as that of Martin Luther King.
The vampire is the new James Dean.
I just watched a James Brown video of him singing ‘I Feel Good,’ and then I kind of just copied off his moves. But I couldn’t do them properly, so they turned into my own moves.
Long story short: E. L. James is a hero.
Brent Celek is a heck of a blocker, James Casey is a heck of a blocker.
It’s such a pleasant surprise when you come on set and you find someone in charge like Ken Branagh or James Ivory. You know that you’re going to do a day’s work and at the end of it, it’s going to be good.
For me, it’s about making art that’s not good but phenomenal. James Baldwin didn’t want to just stay above the fray. Prince didn’t think, ‘I wonder what the industry is gonna think about ‘Purple Rain.” It’s just, is this honest? Is this real? Does this move me? The rest is icing.
The appeal of the paranormal bad boy – or James Bond super-spy, as one example of male escapism – can sometimes make everyday problems seem less dire. Thus, a few hours spent immersed in the world of the wicked yet alluring hero is the equivalent of a mini-vacation.
I saw James Rodriguez play for the Colombian national team. I saw him play for Real Madrid and for Bayern, too. For me he’s a fantastic player, a sensational player, intelligent, a player, who, if you let him play the way he likes, for sure, he’ll do a lot for the Premier League.
James, that’s a bad situation. I’m not saying it’s not repairable, but it’s pretty far. When you go from being in one of the best bands in the world to some cover band… as far as I’m concerned, he was playing down at the pub.
I’d love to do Shakespeare. I’ve been asked to do Malvolio but for one reason or another haven’t been able. On a school trip to the Royal Shakespeare Company at Stratford I saw the great Emrys James as Feste and it’s always been a role I’ve coveted.
