It is, finally, a word is untimely in three different senses, and bearing it as one’s treasure will not win one anyone’s favours; one rather risks finding oneself outside everyone’s camp… Beauty is the word...

At the school I attended, the clergyman who ran the cathedral school in Shanghai would give lines to the boys as a punishment. They expected you to copy out, say, 20 or 30 pages from...

I come from a tradition where the writer writes a play for the actors, rather than for himself, and the dialogue is made to work onstage, so it needs actors to help shape it. So...

The epic poet has behind him a tradition of matter and a tradition of style; and that is what every other poet has behind him too; only, for the epic poet, tradition is rather narrower,...

I’m not the new Cameron Diaz. I’m not the new Keira Knightley, either. I don’t know where these ideas come from. I’d rather be thought of as the one and only Laura Haddock. I’ll happily...

So tonight I propose one more step that I would rather not propose. I ask the most fortunate among us, those citizens earning over $100,000 per year, for one year, to pay an additional one...

A true critic ought to dwell upon excellencies rather than imperfections, to discover the concealed beauties of a writer, and communicate to the world such things as are worth their observation.

If I start planning then that’s dangerous because then I have a target that I’m blinkered towards and I won’t listen to the warning signs quite so much. I’d rather be in shape and then...

I was raised to be in service to something larger than myself. A lot of actors concentrate on what they will get out of the profession, rather than what they can offer it. The way...

I’d rather be just a Korean musician as opposed to, you know, a K-Pop musician.

I have always regarded Mr. Bean as a timeless, ageless character, and I would rather he be remembered as a character mostly in his 30s and 40s.

I have to work hard to be punctual, to not lose my temper, take direction and be told what to do – and most of all listen rather than talk.

I would rather die than do a play – 10 years in solitary instead.

Living with my grandmother in Bath, I sort of thought I was living in the 19th century. My grandmother was someone who, in a way, was rather defiantly trying to live a pre-World War I...

The biggest thing I’ve found since I left the game – and I’m glad I chose to leave rather than being sacked – is that so many people are in football for the wrong reasons....

I was 16 and did a play at school. I was a rather good student… And then I did a play when I was 16 and completely lost all my concentration for academics.

Bernard always had a few prayers in the hall and some whiskey afterwards as he was rather pious.

I’m a creature of habit, so I like going to boutiques, rather than larger stores, where I know I’ll find something that suits me every time.

The most difficult book I wrote was the fourth in a series of linked children’s books. It was like pulling teeth because the publisher wanted exactly the same but completely different. I’d much rather just...

Inspiration doesn’t really work like that – you’re not looking out for it. Inspiration is something that tends to capture you rather than you capture it.

Yes, I would loved to have just sustained myself through my art, but less than one in a billion musicians gets that life. So rather than being like, ‘I’m an exception!’, like a moron, I...

We see today that there is a growing understanding in the international community that the extremist regime in Tehran is not just Israel’s problem, but rather an issue that the entire international community must grapple...

Every role I’ve played, that could’ve happened. It’s nice, it happens, but it is rather disconcerting when a young child comes up to at the airport and starts doing your lines, it happens.

I’d rather win two or three, lose one, win two or three more. I’m a great believer in things evening out. If you win a whole bunch in a row, somewhere along the line you’re...

I don’t see it in terms of changing things, but rather using language and music as weapons for fighting a mainstream media which is predominately right wing, and loyal to the political framework and its...

‘Diversity’ is a wonderfully seductive word. It stresses differences rather than commonalities. Diverse people worldwide are mostly engaged in hating each other – that is, when they are not killing each other. A ‘diverse,’ peaceful...

You would think that when someone accepts a position with a company, they would assume that their life will be better off because they have that job rather than a different one.

I don’t really like to go out to clubs or anything. It’s just not my style. I’d much rather go to a dive bar or a local place.

The only way I know how to deliver is to focus; some people can turn it on or off – I’d rather stay in character.

I would rather feel things in extreme than not at all.

I was always more interested in the ultimate live performance rather than the recording for its own sake. And, for the audience too, that thrill of – just being there.

One of my personality defects, perhaps, is that I’m rather ADD, and I work on a bunch of things at once.

I tend to stay in character between scenes… to be rather serious on set, but here’s why, and I think people will find it surprising. I’m one of the worst ‘corpses’ on a movie set,...

I love the Midwest. I think about it every day. I wonder if I would rather have a little farm in the Midwest, in Illinois or Wisconsin, or would I rather have like a little...

It’s not our job to play judge and jury, to determine who is worthy of our kindness and who is not. We just need to be kind, unconditionally and without ulterior motive, even – or...

I would rather buy Indian equities than the S&P 500.

If you work with big stars, then they become the lead actors. It’s not that I don’t want to do films with big stars, but I would rather do the films where I get the...

I’d rather be on my own than be with a violent man.

The starting point for understanding the deterioration in the relationship between the U.S. and Russia lies in Washington rather than Moscow. After 1989, Russia was a defeated power. Despite the fine words and some limited...

I have never thought of winning an Oscar. Rather, I never thought I would get the Padma Shri. I think God has been kind to me. I think getting Oscar award is not too far...

Wouldn’t it be better to have a watertight law designed to catch the guilty, rather than a press release law designed to catch the headlines?

We know that this man has a proven record of being a ‘strict constructionist.’ Our President has given us his word that he will interpret the Constitution rather than make new laws from the bench.

There are people who would rather choke than go see my movies. They write me letters all the time.

When you get pure joy out of ‘being’ rather than ‘doing’ or ‘seeing’, that’s when you realize how big and unexplainable some things are and being a dad is one of those very few things.

I have never sung a whole song on my own before and I am not the best dancer in the world, but I would rather try and fall than not not try at all.

Obama’s foreign policy is strangely self-centered, focused on himself and the United States rather than on the conduct and needs of the nations the United States allies with, engages with, or must confront.

People create stories create people; or rather stories create people create stories.

I’ve worked every day since I was 10. I don’t know how to do anything else. There is nothing else I’d rather be doing.

I love marriage. I failed at marriage, but I’d rather go into anything with gusto and fail than go into it half-assed.

It is love rather than sexual lust or unbridled sexuality if, in addition to the need or want involved, there is also some impulse to give pleasure to the persons thus loved and not merely...